Tardun History 01

PALLOTTINE HISTORY

HOW THE PALLOTTINES CAME TO AUSTRALIA

Late in 1900, Bishop William Kelly from Geraldton was in Rome to report to the Pope on the state of his diocese. While there, he heard a rumor that the French Trappist monks who had been working in his diocese at the Beagle Bay and Broome missions were leaving. In his concern that the people in North West Australia would be left without pastors, he asked Fr William Whitmee, the English General of the Pallottines, to send him missionaries. The Church authorities supported this request and officially committed the Kimberley Mission to the Pallottines 12 January 1901. (The Rector General made all appointments at that time. It was only in 1909 that the Pallottine Congregation was divided into Provinces).

16 January, the Pallottine pioneers, with Bishop Kelly, steamed out of Naples in Italy, heading for Australia. After a four-week voyage, on 11 February, they arrived in Fremantle where Bishop Gibney of Perth and Daisy Bates welcomed them. 11 March, exactly eight weeks after the departure from Naples, they arrived at Beagle Bay, the place of their future activities.

The leader of the expedition was Fr George Walter, a German priest who had helped to establish the Cameroon Mission in Africa, 10 years earlier. His companions were Fr Patrick White, a young Irish priest, just two years ordained, and two German Brothers, namely the Silesian, Matthias Kasparek, a skilled tailor, and the Bavarian, Augustine Sixt, a keen gardener and cook.

At the Beagle Bay mission a great deal of work awaited the new team. Food and clothing were needed for the children. Some of them lived in dormitories. The garden had to be maintained so that it produced the necessary vegetables. Makeshift bark huts had to be replaced by more solid structures. The water supply had to be kept up to the needs of the group. Windmills were built for the big herd of cattle.

The school opened on the second day after the group’s arrival. It had about thirty children anxious to be taught by Fr White who held their attention with his happy manner and gave the lessons in English. After school the children played and practiced bush-crafts.

The Pallottines continued to send German priests and Brothers to staff Beagle Bay and Broome till the war put a stop to it. These men became links in a chain of service. Some could not tolerate the extreme climatic conditions for more than a few years and had to return to Europe, others stayed on for a lifetime.

In 1902 Father General Whitmee appointed Fr Rensmann to Beagle Bay. The new priest was a Rhinelander, a gifted young man, full of humour, who was able to preach and give lessons in Nyul Nyul after only a few months. He had a special love for singing in Nyul Nyul with children and adults. But tragedy struck. 31 January 1904, he drowned whilst swimming in a creek. He was only 27 years old. Fr Bachmaier was sent in 1906 to fill the vacancy. Also in 1902, Brothers Bernhard Hoffmann, Johann Graf and Rudolf Zach arrived.

In 1903, Brothers Albert Labonte (known for his medicinal skills with herbs), Raimund Wesely and Matthias Wollseifer came.

In 1904 Brothers Franz Stutting, Alfons Herrmann, Anton Helmprecht and Heinrich Krallmann arrived. Brother Helmprecht took charge of the donkey teams for carting cargo. Brother Krallmann, who spent 20 years as stockman at Beagle Bay, laid the foundation of the cattle industry, the main source of mission income.

In 1905 Fr Joseph Bischofs arrived and became a very popular teacher. He started important anthropological work.

In 1909, Fr Wilhelm Droste, Fr Theodore Traub and Brother Matthias Bringmann arrived together with the Acting German Provincial Vinzenz W Kopf on his Canonical Visitation. Fr Droste led the community through the difficult war years.

With regard to the work of evangelization, the Trappists had laid a solid foundation. Adults had been baptised, and children had been instructed in the faith in their Nyul Nyul language into which hymns and prayers had been translated. From Beagle Bay the faith had spread to Broome and Lombadina.

Two Trappists stayed behind when their community returned to France and worked along with the Pallottines. Fr Jean Marie Janny stayed until 1906, and Fr Nicholas died in Lombadina in 1915.

In the anti-German climate of the war years, the building of the Beagle Bay Church was a striking symbol of the daring faith of the early missionaries. A community united in faith built their House of God.

Brother Graf, a carpenter by trade, led the project. His Aboriginal apprentices helped with the construction of the Church. Brother Wollseifer also played a leading role. He had originally trained to be a carpenter but later became an electrician, an ironworker and a bricklayer. The Church building was made with locally made bricks.

It was only in 1928 that the Pallottines officially established places outside the West Kimberley (although Fr White by his own choice and Fr Bishops by force of the Government had spent years in other parts of Australia).

	In 1928 a group of Beagle Bay Missionaries, together with Beagle Bay Aborigines, established the Tardun farm.
	In 1937 Bishop Raible founded a missionary college in Kew.
	n 1939 Fr Alphonse Bleischwitz led a team of missionaries from a temporary station at Rockhole, into the desert to found Balgo Mission.

I’m grateful to Sr Brigida Nailon CSB and Brother Wim van Veen for correcting and supplementing this article.

Fr Gerhard Christoph

The Pallottines come to Tardun

(Fr Gerhard with help from Sr Brigida Nailon CSB and Br Wim van Veen SAC)

The reason – Beagle Bay in trouble

In the beginning of 1926, the Pallottines were working only in the Kimberley. Fr William Droste was in charge of the Beagle Bay Mission with 2 other priests, 5 Brothers and 11 Sisters caring for 230 Aborigines of full and part descent. Government subsidies were provided for new arrivals but most income came from the mission herd of cattle, which a two-year draught and infestations with ticks and cattle fly had reduced in numbers. Fr Droste went to Adelaide to appeal for funds.

The purchase – Fr William Droste

Fr William Droste
negotiated the purchase of the property in 1927.

But Fr Droste was not well and twice that year he was in hospital with the Sisters of St John of God in Subiaco. Archbishop Clune came to visit him. He told him about land, which was being opened up for sale near Geraldton and offered to negotiate a deal for the Pallottines. On very reasonable terms the Beagle Bay Mission could take up the 10,000 acres, which had recently been surveyed and taken up by the Archbishop. Fr Droste could now see another option for supporting the Mission by having a mixed farm for wheat and wool.

First Fr Droste sent Brother Henry Krallmann to inspect the land. A glowing report was the result. Then he asked his Provincial Superior in Germany for permission to buy the land. On 15 November 1926 Fr Laqua promised to send a priest and two brothers to assist Beagle Bay in the new enterprise and on 6 August 1927 he said to go ahead and buy the land. Perhaps one day there would be a College built there for Indigenous priests.

The start of work – Brother Henry Krallmann

Br Henry Krallmann started the work on the property in 1928

On 15 July 1928, Brother Henry Krallmann arrived at Tardun to start the farm. On his own, he began to establish the boundaries of the property and to look for water. It was a difficult task. Brother Henry knew that Brother Frank Herholz was an experienced water diviner and he asked Fr Droste to sent him. After five weeks he arrived with Jim Wilson, an Aboriginal helper. They found water at what became known as the Old Camp. Brothers and Aboriginal workers first lived in tents. Then the Christian Brothers invited them to stay with them. Eventually they built a camp out of sheet iron where they had found water.

In October 1928 the first farm machinery arrived – a Hartparr tractor and a scrub roller – so that contractors could begin clearing the land.

Hartparr Tractor bought in 1928.
Here the Brothers Joseph Wendling and Paul Ratayski refuel it in 1930.

At the beginning of November they bought a truck and that year 2000 acres were cleared. In 1929 the brothers began to sow wheat and bought a mob of 200 sheep, but the prices for wheat and wool fell drastically and the expected income did not materialize. Because of poor rainfall the harvest was poor.

Consolidation of the project –
Fr (later Bishop) Otto Raible

At the end of February 1929, more Aboriginal workers arrived from Beagle Bay to help this outpost of the Mission – Gregory and Paula Howard, Dick Smith, Tommy Murphy and Willie Roe.

Shortly before Easter Fr Droste came for a visit and appointed Mrs MacDermott, Brother Henry’s assistant, as housekeeper. He continued to Germany for holidays and died there in December, aged 55.

Fr Otto Raible took over
the control in 1929.

In August 1929, Fr Otto Raible visited. He had been appointed Apostolic Administrator of the Kimberley Missions in 1928. He brought along a new arrival from Germany, Brother Paul Ratayski. Fr Raible began to take on an active role in the affairs of the farm. At this time he bought a new farm close to the railway siding, later known as Frank Fumic’s place. It had a large homestead and offered better accommodation for the Brothers, though too far away from their work. Occasionally, weekend Mass was held there for the local community. Consideration was also given to establishing a Catholic School on this property.

In November 1929, Brother Matthias Kasparek joined the community to keep the books. He had been at the foundation of Beagle Bay in 1901. Now he was ill and weak and returned to Beagle Bay where he died the following year.

Brother Matthias Kasparek
came to look after the
business side of the Farm

All through the first two years, no resident priest assisted the growing community. Fr Albert Scherzinger had been sent in 1929 but was still administering the parish in Carnarvon. Early in 1930 Fr Raible was asked by the Provincial to free him from his charge so that he could go to the Farm. The Archbishop agreed but imposed restrictions on Fr Albert’s work. He was not to do pastoral work in the district and was allowed to say Mass only in the house.

Fr Albert took office as Rector of St Joseph’s Farm on 8 March 1930. A little chapel was blessed and Brother Joseph Wendling, who had arrived a few weeks before, made the altar. In this way Fr Albert started seven years of dedicated work.

Brother Alfons Scherzinger
carved this image of
Mary Thrice Admirable
for his brother Albert when he went to Australia.

The arrival of this profoundly pastoral man completed the pioneer community. The new Bishop of Geraldton, James Patrick O’Collins, soon lifted the restrictions on his pastoral work and even gave him the Tardun Parish to look after, which included Gutha, Buntine, Morawa, and Perenjori. Fr Albert cared for the whole district.

On his travels Fr Albert became acutely aware of the plight of the Aboriginal people who lived in abject poverty without any pastoral care but his hands were tied. Fr Raible could not approve of any new outreach at this time, as the Kimberley Missions were the Pallottine mandate. The St Joseph’s Farm was to be a subsidiary of Beagle Bay Mission and not a new Mission in its own right. He considered the whole enterprise at Tardun to be only a temporary venture. When the time was ripe, it would be sold.

At that time Fr Raible could not foresee the development Tardun would later take.