Qualla: Canning Stock Route

Canning Stock Route: Introduction

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit CC BY-SA 3.0. Alfred Canning packed neck chains and handcuffs alongside his surveying equipment. Supplied by the Wiluna police, the restraints were not for criminals -- they were for the Aboriginal men Canning planned to capture and force to lead his party to water sources across some of the most unforgiving desert on Earth. The stock route he surveyed between 1906 and 1910, stretching 1,850 kilometres from Halls Creek in the Kimberley to Wiluna in the mid-west, would become the longest historic stock route in the world. Its construction required 51 wells sunk through desert that crosses the lands of nine different Aboriginal language groups. The water those wells tapped had sustained Indigenous life for 30,000 years.

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Image: CC BY-SA 3.0

Canning Stock Route: The Beef Monopoly

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Peter WH (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0. At the turn of the twentieth century, east Kimberley cattlemen faced a problem that had nothing to do with the land. Their herds carried Boophilus ticks infected with babesiosis, a malaria-like parasitic disease, and were prohibited from being shipped south by sea for fear the ti...

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Image: Peter WH (talk) | CC BY-SA 3.0

Canning Stock Route: The Chains and the Wells

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Kellony, Public domain. The Calvert Expedition of 1896, led by Lawrence Wells, had lost two members to thirst. David Carnegie's expedition later that year saw camels die from poisonous grass and a member accidentally shoot himself dead. Carnegie concluded the route was too barren to be practical. Both m...

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Image: Kellony | Public domain

Canning Stock Route: Droving Through the Desert

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Kellony, Public domain. The route fell into disuse almost immediately. By the time a 1928 Royal Commission into beef prices in Western Australia led to the wells being repaired and the route reopened, many had collapsed or been damaged. Around 20 cattle droves made the crossing between 1931 and 1959, wh...

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Image: Kellony | Public domain

Canning Stock Route: Out of the Desert

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Kellony, Public domain. The stock route changed Aboriginal life along its length in ways that went far beyond the disruption of water sources. It became a path out of the desert. At different times and for different reasons, people moved to the outskirts of towns, to pastoral stations, and to church mis...

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Image: Kellony | Public domain

Canning Stock Route: The Track Today

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Calistemon (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0. The Canning Stock Route is now considered one of the world's great four-wheel-drive adventures, though the word 'adventure' understates the commitment required. The track is not maintained beyond basic grading. Some wells have been restored; others are ruins. The 1,850-kilometre ...

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Image: Calistemon (talk) | CC BY-SA 3.0