Patterson Family – pioneers of the outback
Archibald Patterson and his cousin, John McTaggart, sailed from Argyllshire, Scotland to Portland Bay South Australia arriving December 1852. Catherine McCallum and her sister Mary arrived in November 1851. Together the sisters travelled from Adelaide to Portland SA to marry respective fiancées Archibald and John.
The Patterson family lived with the rest of the McCallum family at Mount Muirhead in the South East. In 1856 Archibald and Catherine travelled north with the McTaggart family to help them establish a sheep station at Wooltana. Drought affected them badly from 1863-1865 but with the financial assistance of Elder, Smith & Co., McTaggart saved his property and went on to own land in the area totalling over 1,000 square miles.
The Patterson family decided to try their luck further north.
The only son of Archibald and Catherine, John Archibald Donald (Jack) Patterson married Margaret Mulholland in 1897. He became a well-known publican who owned hotels in White Cliffs, Gemville and Farina.
From 1914 to the late 1920’s Jack leased Tinga Tingana Station, on the Strzelecki Track. Orphaned Aboriginal boys, Percy (Possum) and Stuart adopted the Patterson name and came with them from White Cliffs. Archibald died at Tinga Tingana Station in 1917 and his isolated grave stands on the banks of the Strzelecki Creek. His wife, Catherine, died in 1886 aged 56. Buried in Hawker, her headstone reads, “Freed from this ever dreary vale of life”.
The Pattersons were renowned for their generosity. Many a traveller, especially during the depression years, sought shelter and food always leaving with their tucker bags full. Margaret and her daughters, Catherine (Kate) and Alice (Allie) cared for the sick and often treated wounds. Their medical box contained rudimentary potions and surgical tools, including needles and cotton, often used to repair Aboriginal wounds sustained during tribal conflicts.
Drought and taxes forced the Patterson family to leave Tinga. They moved to Farina where Jack (senior) became licensee of the Exchange Hotel from 1934-1936. Jack’s eldest son, John Archibald Thomas (Jack Junior) became the outback mailman delivering mail from Farina to Patterson’s Mulligan block where it was unloaded from truck to a camel drawn Cobb & Co coach for the Innamincka run.
The title of the Patterson house was held from 1926 by Jack (junior) and Kate’s husband James Davey (Jim – nicknamed Ironbark). Jack’s brother, James Gordon (Gordie) took up the lease then known as McConville’s block – Farina. Gordie lived in the house from the early forties with his wife Gwen and their three children, Margaret, John and Philip. Gordie was a saddler, barber and butcher sending meat north on the train. The underground bakery was used as the meat house and meat was hung at night in a mesh cabinet to combat flies. From 1957 Gwen’s mother, Florence Isobel Davies, owned the Transcontinental, opposite, which served as an inn.
Following Gordie’s death in 1972 Gwen moved to Adelaide and the house was vacated, leaving much of the interior and furnishings intact. The old newspapers which lined the walls and the floor under the linoleum provided a glimpse of a long-forgotten past. The large shed behind the house was a gathering place for town activities.
Ben Murray, of Afghan/Aboriginal descent was the last person to live in the Patterson house. The old house was burned to the ground when squatters lit a fire in the kitchen stove with disastrous results. According to Gordie’s eldest son John, who was born in Farina in 1939, only the ghosts remain to haunt the house today.
John and Rosalie Patterson – children Richard and Bronte
Margaret married Richard Bruce Butters
Phillip and Vivien Patterson – children Craig, Alison and Lisa.
For more information about early life in Farina read “Farina from Gibbers to Ghost Town” by Rob Olston.