Hermannsburg

History

Hermannsburg was established on 4 June 1877 at a sacred site known as Ntaria, which was associated with the Aranda ratapa dreaming. It was conceived as an Aboriginal mission by two Lutheran missionaries, Hermann Kempe (from Dauban, near Dresden) and Wilhelm F. Schwarz (from Württemberg They arrived with 37 horses, 20 cattle and nearly 2000 sheep, A third missionary, Louis Schulze (from Saxony The first Aboriginal baptisms took place and in 1887 as many as 20 young people were baptised. Kempe endured trouble from the native police, who would bribe some Aboriginal men to kill their fellow tribesmen, sometimes offering them sex with the women as a reward. Kempe assisted Francis Gillen in bringing the notorious Constable Willshire to trial in Port Augusta. The settlement was continued by lay workers until Carl Strehlow arrived in October 1894 (or 1895?) with his wife, Frieda Strehlow (née Kaysser). Frieda was born in 1875, and had met Strehlow when he was training to be a missionary in 1892. After marrying in Adelaide, the couple travelled by horse and buggy to Hermannsburg. Many of the locals could by this time speak German, He was particularly keen to make sure that "half-caste" children had no contact with camp life. Hermannsburg was to be taken away from the Lutherans and "serve as a reserve for the remnants of the southern central tribes where they can, under proper and competent control, be trained to habits of industry". However, when the Administrator of the Northern Territory, John A. Gilruth, came down from Darwin in 1913 to see whether these negative reports were true, he gave Strehlow his support. The Strehlows finally left on 22 October 1922 when Strehlow contracted dropsy. He died the next day at Horseshoe Bend. Albrecht also developed various other…

Geography

Hermannsburg lies on the Finke River within the rolling hills of the MacDonnell Ranges in the southern Central Australia region of the Northern Territory. It is within the jurisdiction of the MacDonnell Regional Council.

Most-observed species

• Willie-wagtail

  Rhipidura leucophrys (Latham, 1802) · Aves
  79
• Budgerigar

  Melopsittacus undulatus (Shaw, 1805) · Aves
  67
• Zebra Finch

  Taeniopygia guttata (Vieillot, 1817) · Aves
  64
• White-plumed Honeyeater

  Ptilotula penicillata (Gould, 1837) · Aves
  55
• Singing Honeyeater

  Gavicalis virescens (Vieillot, 1817) · Aves
  54
• Australian Ringneck

  Barnardius zonarius (Shaw, 1805) · Aves
  53
• Crested Pigeon

  Ocyphaps lophotes (Temminck, 1822) · Aves
  53
• Rufous Whistler

  Pachycephala rufiventris (Latham, 1802) · Aves
  48