Ernest FlintPrint Page

The headstone over the grave commemorates Ernest E. S. Flint who worked on the Overland Telegraph Line. He was in charge at Alice Springs for eight years until he died in 1887 from rheumatic fever.  

On Sunday morning last a wire from Alice Springs was received in Palmerston, notifying the death of Mr. Ernest Flint, who was manager of the Telegraph Station at Alice Springs, where he had resided for the last eight or nine years. Among the telegraph officers between here and the Alice the death notice was received with such an unfeigned show of sorrow as seldom meets the decease of any but a near relative ; and others outside the Department, who had the pleasure of knowing Mr. Flint personally, or by reputation, were almost as much grieved at the announcement of his death. The name that he has made all along the line for genuine good heartedness and kindness in every way is not likely to be easily shifted to the shoulders of as deserving a successor. The officers who at one time or another came under him speak of him as the grandest man they ever had anything to do with- as generous to the lowly as those in the higher walks of life- every inch a thorough man. Many an operator has reason to think of the kind actions performed by the deceased simply from the purest motives ; but none can say a word discreditable to him.

Full of fun and sport, he was always foremost in keeping up the humour of honest racing, for which Alice Springs is notable ; and those who remember him either as an owner of racehorses, or behind a team of spanking carriage horses, will never have it said that Mr. Flint was other than a straghtforward, upright man. Some time ago he obtained leave of absence and made a voyage to England where he was soon afterwards (some six months ago) united in marriage to an accomplished and handsome girl, 17 years of age, with whom he returned to Australia, and finally to his old berth at the Springs, where he arrived about nine weeks back. The honeymoon of the happy pair had scarcely begun when this death thunderbolt interfered, and this circumstance, added to the fact of the young lady making the trip direct from England - away from home, parents, and everything - into the very centre of  Australia, a thousand miles from the nearest city, makes the demise of Mr. Flint seem more untimely and melancholy. He was not more than 32 or 33 years of age, and the cause of death was rheumatic fever. He had been a sufferer for some time, but nothing serious was anticipated, and the news of his having died on Sunday last from the complaint was hardly to be realised at first hearing. At the time of the attack on the Powell's Creek telegraph station by the blacks some years ago, Flint was one of those saved, but he was speared in the arm. 
North Australian (Darwin, NT),  23 July 1887.

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