We of the Never-Never

A Classic of the Northern Territory

Jeanne Gunn, the bride of Aeneas Gunn, came to the Northern Territory in 1902. Her husband (referred to in the memoir as “the Maluka”) was appointed manager of a cattle station, the Elsey, south of Katherine, around the headwaters of the Roper River. Station staff dread her arrival at the rough-hewn homestead, but of course, come to love her even as they further her “education” to outback ways. The book, We of the Never-Never, recounts a year in the life of the station, beginning in the wet, continuing through the dry, and ending with the return of the wet and a grand Christmas dinner.

The term “never-never” is a vernacular reference to the outback reaches of the territory. Its exact origins are obscure, but the term, as used by Mrs. Gunn, refers both to space (way out there) and time (a place operating on its own clock and calendar).

Mrs. Gunn refers to her book as a “novel.” It appears to be, substantially, a memoir. We have the usual issues of sorting out recollections and fictionalizations, but we can take the work as her authentic depiction of station life, with some allowance for distillation and elaboration.

In my estimation, there are three important and intriguing themes to take from the book, all in the context of a colonial frontier.

1. The response to the land, the environment of the Northern Territory. The book is filled with details of interaction with the environment—grasshoppers devouring the garden, waterfowl frequenting the lagoon, cattle work being organized around waterholes, and so on. This is a rich text for environmental history, an aspect of the work frequently overlooked.

2. Gender, the way in which this particular woman finds her place at the station in relation to male station workers, Chinese cooks, and aboriginal workers. This is interesting both in detail and in rhetoric, and is the most commonly discussed aspect of the book.

3. Race, the hierarchy of race and labor relations on the station. The aboriginal workers are glimpsed vaguely, certain individuals appearing in stereotype, the others resident at the station lumped into a mass, and the relationship with aboriginals in the bush left ambivalent. The book is utterly permeated by racial stereotypes—of aborigines, of Chinese, and of Scots. This is the aspect of the book that makes Australians, who have embraced the book as an iconic depiction of bush life, uncomfortable.

There is an online version of the work available via Project Gutenberg.

A laudable film adaptation of the work was released in 1982 starring Angela Punch McGregor. An interesting aspect of the adaptation is that its interpretation reflects the times not of the book but of the film. In the film Mrs. Gunn is transformed into an advocate for racial justice. There is no hint of such in the original book.

In 2000 the Elsey was returned to aboriginal ownership, title passing to the Maharri people.

Aeneas Gunn, the Maluka, is buried at Elsey, where he died of malaria. Jeanne Gunn, the Missus, is buried in Melbourne.

A brief biography of Mrs. Gunn is in Australian Women.

First Edition

Gunn, Mrs. Aeneas. We of the Never-Never. London: Hutchinson, 1907.

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