Walter Smith

Walter Smith also known as Walter Purula (Perrurle) or Wati Yuritja (2 July 1898 – 14 June 1990) was a legendary Australian bushman from the Arltunga region in the Northern Territory of Australia. Wati Yuritja translates as man of the Water Dreaming).

He was also a miner, dogger and perhaps the most widely travelled cameleer in Australia who could speak more than 30 languages.

Early life

Smith was born at the Arltunga goldfield and was the eldest of eleven children to William Smith, a goldminer of Welsh descent and an Aboriginal woman Topsy White (Topsy Smith). Although he had no formal education, his father taught him English and his mother and grandmother taught him eastern Arrernte and Arabana languages. Smith spent his childhood in the small mining community, primarily in the company of other Aboriginal children; it was here he learnt to gather bush foods and honed his tracking and direction-finding skills.

In 1931 Smith joined the Eclipse Gold Expedition which left from Oodnadatta after being asked by Harry Hartley. Smith originally thought this was a legitimate gold seeking expedition and was surprised to learn that, although gold would be welcome, it was actually a search for Harold Bell Lasseter and his "lost reef". They would soon learn that this would be a, successful, search for his remains.

He then worked as a prospector, gem fossicker, dogger (dingo trapper) and miner at Tennant Creek during the 1930s.

He also collected meteorites and fossils from the Simpson Desert for museums who would pay for them; in this role he was known as ‘Sandhill Bob’; this was a name 'borrowed' from Alurrpa Pananga.

Later life

Smith married Mabel Williams in Alice Springs on 26 January 1961. He was the last of the Red Centre’s cameleers, working into the 1970s.

After living with his sister Ada Wade for many years, he then moved to the Old Timers’ Home in 1983.

He died on 14 June 1990 and is buried in the Alice Springs Cemetery.

Legacy Smith's life story is recorded in Dick Kimber's book "Man from Arltunga: Walter Smith, Australian bushman" (1986). This book is based on many hours of tape recording that Kimber and Smith made between 1981 and 1983. Of him Kimber writes: