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| Caretaker's dwelling at Dolo Tank 1928 |
Let me live in a house
by the side of the road
where the race of men
go by -
The men who are good
and the men who are bad
As good and as bad as
I.
I would not sit in the
scorner's seat
Or hurl the cynic's
ban:
Let me live in a house
by the side of the road,
And be a friend to man.
(Poet: Sam Walter Foss)
(Poet: Sam Walter Foss)
What follows is a
selection of newspaper articles printed about Frank Olerhead who
was born in May of 1855 at the New Bendigo gold diggings, now the town of St.
Arnaud, Victoria Australia. Frank's father Robert and mother Caroline
went from dig to dig in Victoria's famous "Golden Triangle"
and with a continuing growing family they eventually settled in nearby Inglewood
(Vic). Robert, who grew up in Bromborough on the
Wirril peninsula near Liverpool and Chester was baptised with the
surname Hollerhead, which later became Ollerhead on his marriage
certificate, to finally become Olerhead either in the Unites States where he resided for several years, or on his arrival in the Australian colonies. All his descendants in Australia
have the surname Olerhead.
Oral history relates
that Frank, who was in conflict with his mother, left home never to
be heard of again by family members. We now know he first moved to
Melbourne and later, in 1881, to outback New South Wales where he
died at Broken Hill in 1942. The last decades of this life were
passed as caretaker of Dolo Tank, a government watering trough
situated on the Wincannia- Broken Hill road. There he became so well
known that newspapers across the nation wrote of his kindness.
Perhaps he was, as one of his friends stated after his death, "one of the grandest
men of the outback."
All newspaper articles have been retrieved from
the electronic archive of the National Library of Australia and here
republished for interest in family history and without any financial
gain.
 | ||
| Wool Team at Dolo Tank 1938. source:State Records NSW |
***
Keen
Interest In World
Affairs
At 90
Sidelights
in the life of
MR.
F. OLERHEAD
Was
Host At Dolo Tank
Source:Keen
Interest In World. (1941, January 8). Barrier Miner (Broken Hill,
NSW), p. 1 Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article48391524
KNOWN throughout the whole of the West Darling district, and particularly to travellers along the Wilcannia Road. Mr. Frank Olerhead ls still in excellent health and taking a keen Interest in world affairs in spite of his 90 odd years. He does not know his exact age
When a reporter from
"The Barrier Miner" Called on him at 512 Argent Street
yesterday. Mr. Olerhead told something of the early days, but was
more keen to discuss the war and world affairs.
Mr. Olerhead has his
own wireless set and does not miss one news broadcast or comment on
the overseas position. He thinks that the end of the war will see
some big changes in the methods of living.
"People nowadays
have not got the same Christian spirit they had when I was in the
bush. There seems to be more churches and less Christianity and
civilisation," Mr. Olerhead said.
Mr. Olerhead first came
to this district in 1881, when he arrived in Wilcannia with some
travelling sheep. He had joined them in Victoria when the adventure
of the outback called him.
He was the first white
child born at St. Arnaud (Victoria), where his parents had settled
when they were attracted to Australia from America. They originally
came from England.
On his arrival at
Wilcannia Mr. Olerhead gave up his job as shepherd and took up a
position minding horses for tank-sinkers. For this he received £2 a
week and his keep.
FOOLISH BUSHMEN
"From then until I
left the bush I always had something to do with horses," Mr.
Olerhead said. He re- called that in those days Wilcannia had five or
six hotels, but it was only a short time before there were about 16.
"Bushmen were foolish. They would spend long periods in the bush
then go into the township and spend it all on drink," the old
bushman said.
Rabbiting was one of
the money making businesses of the day, and hundreds of people
arrived in Wilcannia to seek a fortune from catching rabbits. Some
made it.
"But the bush is
different now. In those days there was up to a hundred
men working on stations
which carry, only about five or six men now, and wool was being sold
for only about 8d. I remember hearing Peter Waite, say once that it
cost only 2/6 a week to keep a man in food on the stations because of
the large supplies of bulk foodstuffs."
"There was always
accommodation for people travelling through and always a feed for
them, but there is not the same spirit now." Mr. Olerhead added.
He said that at Yancannia there was a shed kept only for travelling
bushmen. They could always have a rest, a meal and probably some
work. Other stations also provided such places.
HOST AT DOLO
Mr. Olerhead has tried
his hand at practically all classes of bushcraft. He was boundary
rider at Mount Murchison Station for some time. At the end of the
last war he decided to go into an "active retirement." He
gave up station work and took up the position of caretaker at the
Dolo Government tank, which is 86 miles from Wilcannia. He was there
for nearly 20 years and probably became even more widely known,
particularly to travellers on the Wilcannia coach.
Never a traveller
passed by the tank that "Old Frank," as he was
affectionately known, did not stop and give a cup of tea and some
cake.
"I have received a
thousand fold everything I gave away. We are on this earth to do acts
of kindness," Mr. Olerhead said.
His white cockatoo,
which is almost as well known in the district as Mr. Olerhead
himself, is now more than 70 years of age. It still talks and still
has all the appearances of a young bird.
