The Canning Stock Route is a track that runs from Halls Creek in the Kimberley region of Western Australia to Wiluna in the mid-west region. With a total distance of around 1,850 km (1,150 mi) it is claimed to be the longest historic stock route in the world.
A 1928 Royal Commission into the price of beef in Western Australia led to the repair of the wells and the re-opening of the stock route. Around 20 droves took place between 1931 and 1959 when the final droving run was completed.
The Canning Stock Route is now a popular but challenging four-wheel drive trek typically taking 10 to 20 days to complete. A few adventurers have traversed the track on foot, by bicycle, motorcycle and in two-wheel drive vehicles.
There are two small settlements on the track where fuel and other supplies may be obtained; Kunawarritji, approximately north of Wiluna, and Billiluna, south of Halls Creek.
In March 2020, the route was closed to tourists due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was reopened on 14 June 2022.
History
In Western Australia at the beginning of the 20th century, east Kimberley cattlemen were looking for a way to traverse the western deserts of Australia with their cattle as a way to break a west Kimberley monopoly that controlled the supply of beef to Perth and the goldfields in the south of the state. East Kimberley cattle were infested with Boophilus ticks infected with a malaria-like parasitic disease called Babesiosis and were prohibited from being transported to southern markets by sea due to a fear that the ticks would survive the journey and spread. This gave west Kimberley cattlemen a monopoly on the beef trade and resulted in high prices.Of mining and meat: The story of the Canning Stock Route , National Museum of Australia. Retrieved 4 June 2011.
With east Kimberley cattlemen keen to find a way to get their cattle to market, and the Government of Western Australia keen for competition to bring prices down, a 1905 proposal of a stock route through the desert was taken seriously. James Isdell, an east Kimberley pastoralist and member of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly, proposed the stock route arguing that ticks would not survive in the dry desert climate on the trip south.Gard, Ronele, & Gard, Eric. Canning Stock Route: a traveller's guide, Western Desert Guides, Wembley Downs, W.A, 2004: pp. 41–44.Stanton, Jenny (editor). The Australian Geographic Book of the Canning Stock Route, Australian Geographic Pty Ltd, Terry Hills, NSW, 1998 (revised edition): .
Surveying the route
Calvert and Carnegie expeditions The route, which crossed the territories of nine different Aboriginal language groups, had been explored previously in 1896 by the Calvert Expedition led by Lawrence Wells and again later that year by the Carnegie Expedition led by David Carnegie. Two members of the Calvert Expedition perished of thirst and the Carnegie Expedition suffered considerable hardships with camels dying after eating poisonous grass and a member of the party accidentally shooting himself dead. Carnegie investigated the possibility of a stock route and concluded that the route was "too barren and destitute of vegetation" and was impractical.
Wells and Carnegie both mistreated Aboriginals they encountered on their expeditions, including by tying them up and forcing them to find water. Carnegie is also believed to have fed them salt, and he was later publicly criticised for this. Evidence supports that Alfred Canning had read both the Calvert and Carnegie expedition accounts to find out about the country (both described the terrain as "extremely difficult") and the use of Aboriginal people to find water, an example Canning followed during his own expedition.The Legacy of Alfred Canning, Education at the National Museum of Australia, Canberra, available at Yiwarra Kuju: The Canning Stock Route – Education Kit Both Wells and Carnegie used ropes to tie Aboriginals up so that they could not escape. In Carnegie's case to help them find water and in Wells's case, for help in finding two lost members of their party. Carnegie also deprived his captives of water or fed them salt beef so that they would lead him to water more quickly and he was publicly criticised for this at the time.Canning Stock Route Royal Commission: Royal Commission to Inquire into the Treatment of Natives by the Canning Exploration Party 15 January – 5 February 1908, edited by Phil Bianchi et al, Hesperian Press, Carlisle, WA, 2010: pp. 138–140 (Q3418). .
Canning survey After it was determined that ticks could not survive a desert crossing, the government endorsed James Isdell's scheme and funded a survey to find a stock route that would cross the Great Sandy Desert, the Little Sandy Desert and the Gibson Desert.The History of the Canning Stock Route, Education at the National Museum of Australia, Canberra, available at Yiwarra Kuju: The Canning Stock Route – Education Kit Alfred Canning, a surveyor with the Western Australian Department of Lands and Surveys, was appointed to survey the stock route.
Canning's task was to find a route through 1850 kilometres of desert, from Wiluna in the mid west to the Kimberley in the north. He needed to find significant water sources – enough for up to 800 head of cattle, a day's walk apart – where wells could be dug, and enough good grazing land to sustain this number of cattle during the journey south.
In 1906, with a team of 23 camels, two horses, and eight men, Canning surveyed the route completing the difficult journey from Wiluna to Halls Creek in less than six months. On 1 November 1906, shortly after arriving in Halls Creek, Canning sent a telegram to Perth stating that the finished route would "be about the best watered stock route in [the] Colony". Canning was forced to delay his return journey because of an early wet season in the Kimberley that year. The survey party left Halls Creek in late January 1907 and arrived back in Wiluna in early July 1907. During the 14-month expedition, they had trekked about , relying on Aboriginal guides to help them find water.Ron Moon, "The Canning Stock Route", Australian Geographic , AG Online, accessed online 1 August 2010Ronele & Eric Gard, Canning Stock Route: A Traveller's Guide (3rd edition), Western Desert Guides (2009)
Canning had always planned to rely on Aboriginal guides to help him find water and had taken neck chains and handcuffs supplied to him by the Wiluna police to make sure local "guides" stayed as long as he needed them.Canning Stock Route Royal Commission: Royal Commission to Inquire into the Treatment of Natives by the Canning Exploration Party 15 January – 5 February 1908, edited by Phil Bianchi et al, Hesperian Press, Carlisle, WA, 2010: p. 126 (Q3126). In order to gain assistance in locating water along the route, Canning captured several Martu men, chained them by the neck and forced them to lead his party to native water sources (soaks).Knowledge of the locations of soaks was essential to survival in the desert and subsequently Aboriginals, who knew soaks had been misused by Europeans in the past, were reluctant to reveal their locations. Canning's 23 camels are known to have destroyed several soaks due to drinking them dry. A mob of cattle on the Canning route required more than of water a day. As many soaks were sacred, the Martu may have misdirected the explorers away from these, resulting in the eventual stock route winding more than would otherwise have been necessary.
Royal Commission into treatment of Aboriginal people After the Canning survey party returned to Perth, Canning's use of Aboriginal guides came under scrutiny. The expedition's cook, Edward Blake, accused Canning of mistreating many of the Aboriginal people they met during the survey expedition. Blake objected to the use of chains and criticised the "party's 'immoral' pursuit of Aboriginal women, the theft and 'unfair' trade of Aboriginal property and the destruction of native waters". Blake was concerned that the planned wells would prevent Aboriginal people accessing water.Questionable methods – Of mining and meat: The story of the Canning Stock Route , National Museum of Australia. Retrieved 4 June 2011 Report of Royal Commission to Inquire into the Treatment of Natives by the Canning Exploration Party, included in Canning Stock Route Royal Commission: Royal Commission to Inquire into the Treatment of Natives by the Canning Exploration Party 15 January – 5 February 1908, edited by Phil Bianchi et al, Hesperian Press, Carlisle, WA, 2010: pp. 309–10.
Blake's complaints led to a Royal Commission into the treatment of natives by the Canning exploration party.
Blake was unable to prove many of his claims, but Canning did admit to the use of chains. Kimberley explorer and the first Premier of Western Australia, John Forrest, dismissed Canning's actions by claiming that all explorers behaved in this manner. Despite condemning the use of chains, the Royal Commission accepted the survey party's actions as "reasonable" and Canning and his men were exonerated of all charges, including "immorality with native women" and stealing property. The Royal Commission approved the immediate commencement of the stock route's construction. Canning was appointed to lead the construction party.Report of Royal Commission to Inquire into the Treatment of Natives by the Canning Exploration Party, included in Canning Stock Route Royal Commission: Royal Commission to Inquire into the Treatment of Natives by the Canning Exploration Party 15 January – 5 February 1908, edited by Phil Bianchi et al, Hesperian Press, Carlisle, WA, 2010: pp. 309–336.
Construction Canning left Perth in March 1908, along with 30 men, 70 camels, four wagons, 100 tonnes of food and equipment and 267 goats (for milk and meat), and travelled the route again to commence the construction of well heads and water troughs at the 54 water sources identified by his earlier expedition. He arrived back in Wiluna in April 1910 having completed the last of 48 wells and bringing the total cost of the route to £22000 (2010: A$2.6 million).
Thirty-seven of the wells were built on or near existing Aboriginal waters and were constructed in the European tradition, which made many of them inaccessible to Aboriginal people. Pulling the heavy buckets up from the bottom of the wells required the strength of three men or use of a camel. Consequently, many Aboriginal people were injured or died while trying to access the water, either falling in and drowning or breaking bones on the windlass handle. In reprisal, buckets were cut off or timber set on fire, and by 1917 Aboriginal people had vandalised or dismantled approximately half of the wells in a bid to reclaim access to the water or to prevent drovers from using the wells.WA State Records Office File 1917/1424: The Condition of Wells and Natives along the Canning Stock Route. Canning's party had constructed the wells with the forced help of one of the Aboriginal peoples whose land the route traversed, the Martu.
Canning produced a detailed map of the stock route, Plan of Wiluna–Kimberley stock route exploration (showing positions of wells constructed 1908–9 and 10) on which he also recorded his observations of the land and water sources along the route. The map has become a symbol of Australia's pioneering history.
Using the stock route
First droving runs Commercial droving along the stock route began in 1910. The first few droves were of small groups of horses – the first started out with 42 horses of which only nine survived the journey.