George (Poddy) Aiston (1879-1943), policeman and ethnographer, was born on 11 October 1879 at Burnside, South Australia, only son of native-born parents James Albert Aiston, blacksmith, and his wife Rebecca, née Perry. George's mother died in his infancy and his stepmother Amelia treated him coldly. He left school at 11, but read keenly and widely. In 1897 he joined the South Australian Military Forces, becoming an orderly in the Chief Secretary's Office and at Government House. Enlisting in the South Australian First (Mounted Rifles) Contingent in 1899, he served in the South African War. As a constable (from April 1901) in the South Australian Mounted Police, in 1901-03 he worked at Yorketown, Kooringa and Port Germein where he first encountered Aborigines. On 12 April 1905 at Holy Trinity Church, Adelaide, he married Mabel Agnes Maud Mary White; they were to remain childless.
In 1904 Aiston had been posted to the west coast and was to spend five years at Tarcoola and Tumby Bay. He had an imposing physical presence. While patrolling the Nullarbor Plain and Gawler Ranges, he developed an interest in the culture of the Aborigines, earned their respect and friendship by enforcing the law without a gun, and sent documented stone tools to the South Australian Museum. From 1912 to 1923 he was based at the Birdsville Track outpost of Mungeranie and was also a sub-protector of Aborigines. He distributed rations, levied bore fees, inspected stock, collected dingo scalps, registered births, deaths and marriages, processed mail and issued licences. In addition, he studied the customs, beliefs and technology of the local people, and was assigned the Red Ochre mura (Dreaming). An authority on Central Australian Aborigines, particularly the Wangkangurru of eastern Lake Eyre, he photographed secular and ceremonial activities, as well as Birdsville Track life and landscapes.
In 1920 he wrote to the Melbourne art dealer W. H. Gill, through whom he contacted amateur anthroplogists and archaeologists, among them Dr George Horne, Alfred Kenyon, Stanley Mitchell and Thomas Campbell. Aiston's extensive newspaper articles and correspondence encouraged the view that Aboriginal stone-tool technology was an entirely indigenous development. He supplied individuals and museums with his stone-tool series, fossils, tektites and natural history specimens, and guided expeditions through the Lake Eyre region. In 1922 he collaborated with Horne and Dr Brooke-Nicholls on an early ethnographic film, and with Horne on Savage Life in Central Australia (London, 1924): Aiston contributed most of the text and all the photographs. He published papers and contributed to the work of other researchers.
Resigning from the police force in 1923, 'Poddy' Aiston bought the Mulka store and leased the government bore to sell water at a penny a drink. He had ridden with Aboriginal trackers throughout the State's north-east and buried over thirty 'perishers'. Despite his legendary hospitality, Aiston valued his solitude. He enjoyed meetings of the Anthropological Society of South Australia, and belonged to the Bread and Cheese, and Savage clubs in Melbourne, but preferred the company of bush travellers, drovers and Aborigines, supplemented by correspondence which was delivered by camel-train until the late 1920s. His mail also brought Indian swords, Japanese armour and a Persian helmet. In 1931 in Canberra Aiston catalogued the Commonwealth's Horne-Bowie collection of Aboriginal implements, a laborious task which was alleviated by his phenomenal memory.
George and Mabel saw the remoteness of the Birdsville Track diminished by the aeroplane, the motorcar and the pedal wireless. He bought a Dodge buckboard in 1933 and they also began operating a base for the National Aerial Medical Service of Australia. Drought in the late 1920s and the Depression of the 1930s affected business, but he continued to sell everything from petrol to his hand-made spurs. Aiston had visited Melbourne in 1929 for an exhibition of 'Primitive Art' and in 1934 for the Outback Australia Centenary Exhibition: on each occasion he escorted tribesmen from Mulka who demonstrated tool-making and performed ceremonies.
He belonged to a generation of scientists and self-taught natural historians who gathered material objects for data. His ethnographic collection and knowledge increased as the local Aboriginal population dwindled; he retained the Aborigines' trust and fought for their interests. While coveting their sacred objects, he bought only what they offered.
Aiston died of cancer on 25 September 1943 at Broken Hill and was buried with Anglican rites in the local cemetery. In 1953 his widow donated his ethnographica and his collection of arms and armour to the South Australian Museum which later acquired many of his photographs. His papers and correspondence are in the National Museum of Australia, Canberra, the Mitchell Library, Sydney, and the South Australian Museum.
- Australian Dictionary of Biography
------
Mounted Constable George Aiston joined the Force in the early l890's and spent most of his service in the outback stations. He spent several years at Fowlers Bay and when he married was transferred to the Tarcoola Gold Field. Tarcoola in those days was really in the back-blocks as there was no east-west Railway and it was necessary for him to travel to Coward Springs on the Ghan Train and then collect his camels to travel the 400 miles to his Station. In fact the old Tarcoola Township was located approximately 5 miles from the present town, which came into existence when the railway reached there during the 1st World War. After spending a few years at Tarcoola, Trooper Aiston was transferred to Mungerannie Police Station, which was located on the Birdsville Track. He remained there for 12 years, and resigned when he was informed he was to be transferred.
In fact the old Tarcoola Township was located approximately 5 miles from the present town, which came into existence when the railway reached there during the 1st World War. After spending a few years at Tarcoola, Trooper Aiston was transferred to Mungerannie Police Station, which was located on the Birdsville Track. He remained there for 12 years, and resigned when he was informed he was to be transferred.
When he resigned, he shifted to the Mulka Bore, which was also located on the Birdsville Track and supplied water to the drovers at a penny a head [for the cattle]. He remained there until his death in about 1920. During his service in the outback he had made a study of anthropology and was regarded somewhat an authority on the aborigine. In fact he accepted an invitation to lecture at the Melbourne University on several occasions when on annual leave.
Mr. Aiston travelled extensively in the outback, and in particular in the Cooper Creek area. After his death his widow remained at Mulka & was employed as a bookkeeper on the Station and stayed there until the mid 1950's. Trooper Aiston had Australia's best collection of aboriginal artefacts and his widow subsequently donated them to the Adelaide Museum.
- South Australia Police Historical Society, February 2005
View cenotaph in Adelaide.
In 1904 Aiston had been posted to the west coast and was to spend five years at Tarcoola and Tumby Bay. He had an imposing physical presence. While patrolling the Nullarbor Plain and Gawler Ranges, he developed an interest in the culture of the Aborigines, earned their respect and friendship by enforcing the law without a gun, and sent documented stone tools to the South Australian Museum. From 1912 to 1923 he was based at the Birdsville Track outpost of Mungeranie and was also a sub-protector of Aborigines. He distributed rations, levied bore fees, inspected stock, collected dingo scalps, registered births, deaths and marriages, processed mail and issued licences. In addition, he studied the customs, beliefs and technology of the local people, and was assigned the Red Ochre mura (Dreaming). An authority on Central Australian Aborigines, particularly the Wangkangurru of eastern Lake Eyre, he photographed secular and ceremonial activities, as well as Birdsville Track life and landscapes.
In 1920 he wrote to the Melbourne art dealer W. H. Gill, through whom he contacted amateur anthroplogists and archaeologists, among them Dr George Horne, Alfred Kenyon, Stanley Mitchell and Thomas Campbell. Aiston's extensive newspaper articles and correspondence encouraged the view that Aboriginal stone-tool technology was an entirely indigenous development. He supplied individuals and museums with his stone-tool series, fossils, tektites and natural history specimens, and guided expeditions through the Lake Eyre region. In 1922 he collaborated with Horne and Dr Brooke-Nicholls on an early ethnographic film, and with Horne on Savage Life in Central Australia (London, 1924): Aiston contributed most of the text and all the photographs. He published papers and contributed to the work of other researchers.
Resigning from the police force in 1923, 'Poddy' Aiston bought the Mulka store and leased the government bore to sell water at a penny a drink. He had ridden with Aboriginal trackers throughout the State's north-east and buried over thirty 'perishers'. Despite his legendary hospitality, Aiston valued his solitude. He enjoyed meetings of the Anthropological Society of South Australia, and belonged to the Bread and Cheese, and Savage clubs in Melbourne, but preferred the company of bush travellers, drovers and Aborigines, supplemented by correspondence which was delivered by camel-train until the late 1920s. His mail also brought Indian swords, Japanese armour and a Persian helmet. In 1931 in Canberra Aiston catalogued the Commonwealth's Horne-Bowie collection of Aboriginal implements, a laborious task which was alleviated by his phenomenal memory.
George and Mabel saw the remoteness of the Birdsville Track diminished by the aeroplane, the motorcar and the pedal wireless. He bought a Dodge buckboard in 1933 and they also began operating a base for the National Aerial Medical Service of Australia. Drought in the late 1920s and the Depression of the 1930s affected business, but he continued to sell everything from petrol to his hand-made spurs. Aiston had visited Melbourne in 1929 for an exhibition of 'Primitive Art' and in 1934 for the Outback Australia Centenary Exhibition: on each occasion he escorted tribesmen from Mulka who demonstrated tool-making and performed ceremonies.
He belonged to a generation of scientists and self-taught natural historians who gathered material objects for data. His ethnographic collection and knowledge increased as the local Aboriginal population dwindled; he retained the Aborigines' trust and fought for their interests. While coveting their sacred objects, he bought only what they offered.
Aiston died of cancer on 25 September 1943 at Broken Hill and was buried with Anglican rites in the local cemetery. In 1953 his widow donated his ethnographica and his collection of arms and armour to the South Australian Museum which later acquired many of his photographs. His papers and correspondence are in the National Museum of Australia, Canberra, the Mitchell Library, Sydney, and the South Australian Museum.
- Australian Dictionary of Biography
------
Mounted Constable George Aiston joined the Force in the early l890's and spent most of his service in the outback stations. He spent several years at Fowlers Bay and when he married was transferred to the Tarcoola Gold Field. Tarcoola in those days was really in the back-blocks as there was no east-west Railway and it was necessary for him to travel to Coward Springs on the Ghan Train and then collect his camels to travel the 400 miles to his Station. In fact the old Tarcoola Township was located approximately 5 miles from the present town, which came into existence when the railway reached there during the 1st World War. After spending a few years at Tarcoola, Trooper Aiston was transferred to Mungerannie Police Station, which was located on the Birdsville Track. He remained there for 12 years, and resigned when he was informed he was to be transferred.
In fact the old Tarcoola Township was located approximately 5 miles from the present town, which came into existence when the railway reached there during the 1st World War. After spending a few years at Tarcoola, Trooper Aiston was transferred to Mungerannie Police Station, which was located on the Birdsville Track. He remained there for 12 years, and resigned when he was informed he was to be transferred.
When he resigned, he shifted to the Mulka Bore, which was also located on the Birdsville Track and supplied water to the drovers at a penny a head [for the cattle]. He remained there until his death in about 1920. During his service in the outback he had made a study of anthropology and was regarded somewhat an authority on the aborigine. In fact he accepted an invitation to lecture at the Melbourne University on several occasions when on annual leave.
Mr. Aiston travelled extensively in the outback, and in particular in the Cooper Creek area. After his death his widow remained at Mulka & was employed as a bookkeeper on the Station and stayed there until the mid 1950's. Trooper Aiston had Australia's best collection of aboriginal artefacts and his widow subsequently donated them to the Adelaide Museum.
- South Australia Police Historical Society, February 2005
View cenotaph in Adelaide.
George (Poddy) Aiston (1879-1943), policeman and ethnographer, was born on 11 October 1879 at Burnside, South Australia, only son of native-born parents James Albert Aiston, blacksmith, and his wife Rebecca, née Perry. George's mother died in his infancy and his stepmother Amelia treated him coldly. He left school at 11, but read keenly and widely. In 1897 he joined the South Australian Military Forces, becoming an orderly in the Chief Secretary's Office and at Government House. Enlisting in the South Australian First (Mounted Rifles) Contingent in 1899, he served in the South African War. As a constable (from April 1901) in the South Australian Mounted Police, in 1901-03 he worked at Yorketown, Kooringa and Port Germein where he first encountered Aborigines. On 12 April 1905 at Holy Trinity Church, Adelaide, he married Mabel Agnes Maud Mary White; they were to remain childless.
In 1904 Aiston had been posted to the west coast and was to spend five years at Tarcoola and Tumby Bay. He had an imposing physical presence. While patrolling the Nullarbor Plain and Gawler Ranges, he developed an interest in the culture of the Aborigines, earned their respect and friendship by enforcing the law without a gun, and sent documented stone tools to the South Australian Museum. From 1912 to 1923 he was based at the Birdsville Track outpost of Mungeranie and was also a sub-protector of Aborigines. He distributed rations, levied bore fees, inspected stock, collected dingo scalps, registered births, deaths and marriages, processed mail and issued licences. In addition, he studied the customs, beliefs and technology of the local people, and was assigned the Red Ochre mura (Dreaming). An authority on Central Australian Aborigines, particularly the Wangkangurru of eastern Lake Eyre, he photographed secular and ceremonial activities, as well as Birdsville Track life and landscapes.
In 1920 he wrote to the Melbourne art dealer W. H. Gill, through whom he contacted amateur anthroplogists and archaeologists, among them Dr George Horne, Alfred Kenyon, Stanley Mitchell and Thomas Campbell. Aiston's extensive newspaper articles and correspondence encouraged the view that Aboriginal stone-tool technology was an entirely indigenous development. He supplied individuals and museums with his stone-tool series, fossils, tektites and natural history specimens, and guided expeditions through the Lake Eyre region. In 1922 he collaborated with Horne and Dr Brooke-Nicholls on an early ethnographic film, and with Horne on Savage Life in Central Australia (London, 1924): Aiston contributed most of the text and all the photographs. He published papers and contributed to the work of other researchers.
Resigning from the police force in 1923, 'Poddy' Aiston bought the Mulka store and leased the government bore to sell water at a penny a drink. He had ridden with Aboriginal trackers throughout the State's north-east and buried over thirty 'perishers'. Despite his legendary hospitality, Aiston valued his solitude. He enjoyed meetings of the Anthropological Society of South Australia, and belonged to the Bread and Cheese, and Savage clubs in Melbourne, but preferred the company of bush travellers, drovers and Aborigines, supplemented by correspondence which was delivered by camel-train until the late 1920s. His mail also brought Indian swords, Japanese armour and a Persian helmet. In 1931 in Canberra Aiston catalogued the Commonwealth's Horne-Bowie collection of Aboriginal implements, a laborious task which was alleviated by his phenomenal memory.
George and Mabel saw the remoteness of the Birdsville Track diminished by the aeroplane, the motorcar and the pedal wireless. He bought a Dodge buckboard in 1933 and they also began operating a base for the National Aerial Medical Service of Australia. Drought in the late 1920s and the Depression of the 1930s affected business, but he continued to sell everything from petrol to his hand-made spurs. Aiston had visited Melbourne in 1929 for an exhibition of 'Primitive Art' and in 1934 for the Outback Australia Centenary Exhibition: on each occasion he escorted tribesmen from Mulka who demonstrated tool-making and performed ceremonies.
He belonged to a generation of scientists and self-taught natural historians who gathered material objects for data. His ethnographic collection and knowledge increased as the local Aboriginal population dwindled; he retained the Aborigines' trust and fought for their interests. While coveting their sacred objects, he bought only what they offered.
Aiston died of cancer on 25 September 1943 at Broken Hill and was buried with Anglican rites in the local cemetery. In 1953 his widow donated his ethnographica and his collection of arms and armour to the South Australian Museum which later acquired many of his photographs. His papers and correspondence are in the National Museum of Australia, Canberra, the Mitchell Library, Sydney, and the South Australian Museum.
- Australian Dictionary of Biography
------
Mounted Constable George Aiston joined the Force in the early l890's and spent most of his service in the outback stations. He spent several years at Fowlers Bay and when he married was transferred to the Tarcoola Gold Field. Tarcoola in those days was really in the back-blocks as there was no east-west Railway and it was necessary for him to travel to Coward Springs on the Ghan Train and then collect his camels to travel the 400 miles to his Station. In fact the old Tarcoola Township was located approximately 5 miles from the present town, which came into existence when the railway reached there during the 1st World War. After spending a few years at Tarcoola, Trooper Aiston was transferred to Mungerannie Police Station, which was located on the Birdsville Track. He remained there for 12 years, and resigned when he was informed he was to be transferred.
In fact the old Tarcoola Township was located approximately 5 miles from the present town, which came into existence when the railway reached there during the 1st World War. After spending a few years at Tarcoola, Trooper Aiston was transferred to Mungerannie Police Station, which was located on the Birdsville Track. He remained there for 12 years, and resigned when he was informed he was to be transferred.
When he resigned, he shifted to the Mulka Bore, which was also located on the Birdsville Track and supplied water to the drovers at a penny a head [for the cattle]. He remained there until his death in about 1920. During his service in the outback he had made a study of anthropology and was regarded somewhat an authority on the aborigine. In fact he accepted an invitation to lecture at the Melbourne University on several occasions when on annual leave.
Mr. Aiston travelled extensively in the outback, and in particular in the Cooper Creek area. After his death his widow remained at Mulka & was employed as a bookkeeper on the Station and stayed there until the mid 1950's. Trooper Aiston had Australia's best collection of aboriginal artefacts and his widow subsequently donated them to the Adelaide Museum.
- South Australia Police Historical Society, February 2005
View cenotaph in Adelaide.
In 1904 Aiston had been posted to the west coast and was to spend five years at Tarcoola and Tumby Bay. He had an imposing physical presence. While patrolling the Nullarbor Plain and Gawler Ranges, he developed an interest in the culture of the Aborigines, earned their respect and friendship by enforcing the law without a gun, and sent documented stone tools to the South Australian Museum. From 1912 to 1923 he was based at the Birdsville Track outpost of Mungeranie and was also a sub-protector of Aborigines. He distributed rations, levied bore fees, inspected stock, collected dingo scalps, registered births, deaths and marriages, processed mail and issued licences. In addition, he studied the customs, beliefs and technology of the local people, and was assigned the Red Ochre mura (Dreaming). An authority on Central Australian Aborigines, particularly the Wangkangurru of eastern Lake Eyre, he photographed secular and ceremonial activities, as well as Birdsville Track life and landscapes.
In 1920 he wrote to the Melbourne art dealer W. H. Gill, through whom he contacted amateur anthroplogists and archaeologists, among them Dr George Horne, Alfred Kenyon, Stanley Mitchell and Thomas Campbell. Aiston's extensive newspaper articles and correspondence encouraged the view that Aboriginal stone-tool technology was an entirely indigenous development. He supplied individuals and museums with his stone-tool series, fossils, tektites and natural history specimens, and guided expeditions through the Lake Eyre region. In 1922 he collaborated with Horne and Dr Brooke-Nicholls on an early ethnographic film, and with Horne on Savage Life in Central Australia (London, 1924): Aiston contributed most of the text and all the photographs. He published papers and contributed to the work of other researchers.
Resigning from the police force in 1923, 'Poddy' Aiston bought the Mulka store and leased the government bore to sell water at a penny a drink. He had ridden with Aboriginal trackers throughout the State's north-east and buried over thirty 'perishers'. Despite his legendary hospitality, Aiston valued his solitude. He enjoyed meetings of the Anthropological Society of South Australia, and belonged to the Bread and Cheese, and Savage clubs in Melbourne, but preferred the company of bush travellers, drovers and Aborigines, supplemented by correspondence which was delivered by camel-train until the late 1920s. His mail also brought Indian swords, Japanese armour and a Persian helmet. In 1931 in Canberra Aiston catalogued the Commonwealth's Horne-Bowie collection of Aboriginal implements, a laborious task which was alleviated by his phenomenal memory.
George and Mabel saw the remoteness of the Birdsville Track diminished by the aeroplane, the motorcar and the pedal wireless. He bought a Dodge buckboard in 1933 and they also began operating a base for the National Aerial Medical Service of Australia. Drought in the late 1920s and the Depression of the 1930s affected business, but he continued to sell everything from petrol to his hand-made spurs. Aiston had visited Melbourne in 1929 for an exhibition of 'Primitive Art' and in 1934 for the Outback Australia Centenary Exhibition: on each occasion he escorted tribesmen from Mulka who demonstrated tool-making and performed ceremonies.
He belonged to a generation of scientists and self-taught natural historians who gathered material objects for data. His ethnographic collection and knowledge increased as the local Aboriginal population dwindled; he retained the Aborigines' trust and fought for their interests. While coveting their sacred objects, he bought only what they offered.
Aiston died of cancer on 25 September 1943 at Broken Hill and was buried with Anglican rites in the local cemetery. In 1953 his widow donated his ethnographica and his collection of arms and armour to the South Australian Museum which later acquired many of his photographs. His papers and correspondence are in the National Museum of Australia, Canberra, the Mitchell Library, Sydney, and the South Australian Museum.
- Australian Dictionary of Biography
------
Mounted Constable George Aiston joined the Force in the early l890's and spent most of his service in the outback stations. He spent several years at Fowlers Bay and when he married was transferred to the Tarcoola Gold Field. Tarcoola in those days was really in the back-blocks as there was no east-west Railway and it was necessary for him to travel to Coward Springs on the Ghan Train and then collect his camels to travel the 400 miles to his Station. In fact the old Tarcoola Township was located approximately 5 miles from the present town, which came into existence when the railway reached there during the 1st World War. After spending a few years at Tarcoola, Trooper Aiston was transferred to Mungerannie Police Station, which was located on the Birdsville Track. He remained there for 12 years, and resigned when he was informed he was to be transferred.
In fact the old Tarcoola Township was located approximately 5 miles from the present town, which came into existence when the railway reached there during the 1st World War. After spending a few years at Tarcoola, Trooper Aiston was transferred to Mungerannie Police Station, which was located on the Birdsville Track. He remained there for 12 years, and resigned when he was informed he was to be transferred.
When he resigned, he shifted to the Mulka Bore, which was also located on the Birdsville Track and supplied water to the drovers at a penny a head [for the cattle]. He remained there until his death in about 1920. During his service in the outback he had made a study of anthropology and was regarded somewhat an authority on the aborigine. In fact he accepted an invitation to lecture at the Melbourne University on several occasions when on annual leave.
Mr. Aiston travelled extensively in the outback, and in particular in the Cooper Creek area. After his death his widow remained at Mulka & was employed as a bookkeeper on the Station and stayed there until the mid 1950's. Trooper Aiston had Australia's best collection of aboriginal artefacts and his widow subsequently donated them to the Adelaide Museum.
- South Australia Police Historical Society, February 2005
View cenotaph in Adelaide.
Inscription
In Memory of
MY DEAR HUSBAND
GEORGE AISTON
BORN AT URAIDLA S.A. 11TH OCT. 1879
DIED AT BROKEN HILL 25TH SEPT. 1943
Family Members
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
Advertisement
