2011 - Theses - Flinders University

speak directly to him, she had known he would do her bidding. She is on her way to Blinmanto return her grandchildren to her daughter, Eva, but there is something she wants to do here,first.Young Rosie and Harold are fussing with the donkeys and holding them, while the adultsopen the gate with a complaining scrape, mount the verandah, and knock on the policeman’sdoor. Nothing. It doesn’t surprise or perturb them. They settle themselves on the shady sideof the verandah. They know that everyone in Beltana will have taken note of their arrival, andthat wherever Mounted Constable Rosewall is, he will hear of it soon. They can wait.South Australian Archives, Netley, Adelaide, 2002It seems that every police station suffers from arson at some time or another, and the gaps inthe police records that have gone up in smoke are tantalisingly frustrating.I find a reference in MC Rosewall’s correspondence ledger to the receipt of a letter on10/11/35 signed by Rufus Wilton. The annotation notes that the letter says that Nellie Driversays Mr Page is ‘too intimate with the big girls’ at Nepabunna. In the next column, MCRosewall has written ‘troubles at Nepabunna Mission by N Driver referred to InspectorParsonage. Date of return 11/11/35.’ MC Rosewall will wait for advice from the head of theFar North headquarters at Port Augusta before determining what action he will take.Needless to say, the original letter signed by Rufus is nowhere to be found. ‘They had a fireand some of the records were lost’, the pleasant archivist tells me. ‘It might have been one ofthose.’Government House, Adelaide, December 1935117