Beyond the Furthest Fences

by Margaret Ford

The story of the Chalmers and Kerr families, who settled an uninhabited area of Central Australia, some 160 kilometres east of Alice Springs, in the mid-1920s and attempted to run sheep rather than the usual cattle.

190 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1966

Reviews

[Owen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a story that we should be glad was recorded, no doubt, even though it has been somewhat amateurishly patched together from a variety of sources. It is a fairly straightforward account, which tends to be long-winded at times. Nevertheless, it does concern an area of Australia, with its attendant Australian history, about which not a great deal has been written. It may seem odd to us, living only a bare 90 years after these events, that there were such extraordinarily primitive conditions existing, and that some members of the surrounding Aboriginal tribes could still be called "myalls," meaning in the common parlance of those days, "wild blacks," and yet it was so. Unfortunately, the Aborigines appearing in these pages are pictured somewhat flatly, and we learn very little in that regard. It is noted that they were of some help to people who, without them, probably would not have made it to the area in the first place, let alone succeeded in establishing themselves, as they eventually did. At times an interesting read, but at others, somewhat wearying.

[Andrew Fahey · Rating 2 out of 5]

There were some good photos

[Margaret Burgess Aburn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm biased. Alex Kerr was my great grandmothers brother. So, to read so much of his story and that of his wife Lottie was wonderful. I went to Delny in 1997 - it was a wonderful experience to have travelled all the way from the Highlands of Scotland and to sit there, with the sense of him around me.....

Some parts of this book are a bit long winded but I didn't mind .....

[Alastair Smart]

Similar to Margaret Aburn, I am biased as it is a family history book for me and one I am glad got documented irrespective of how well it was put together in the end. These families and their children were true pioneers and lived together with the local Aboriginal people in mutual respect learning their language and vice versa. C O Chalmers was my Great Grandfather and his descendants have continued to live on these lands through the incredible changes that technology has brought to these isolated places. We can learn a lot from revisiting this history.

[Anomilie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I borrowed this book from a friend who has family connections to the characters. I enjoy reading the Australian pioneer genre, however to me the historical significance or accuracy matters less than a well integrated story