Excavations at Arltunga

The White Range settlement on the Arltunga Goldfield must have been as remote a spot as any group of miners could have found in Australia in 1903, the high point of its history. Although supplies arrived only at two or three month intervals, and had to be carried from far-off Oodnadatta by camel and horse-teams, it was nevertheless at White Range that John Wilson set up his store and that Patrick O'Neil (and his wife) apparently set up his billiard table! In the following paper Kate Holmes, of Alice Springs, discusses the light that her recent excavations have thrown on life at this remote settlement. Given the climate of the area, it must have been a harsh existence living in the tiny roughly-built huts of this settlement. Yet even here, amongst the excavated artefactual evidence, are objects that were manufactured in Paris, New York, and Lincoln in England. It seems that however remote the spot, the baggage of European culture got there.