17/11/2023
Which black stump is the real deal? We've always subscribed to the Coolah version - what's your thoughts?
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Beyond the Black Stump – but which one?
Given that “Beyond the Black Stump” is a uniquely Australian expression meaning “country beyond the reach of civilized comforts and facilities”, and therefore it can never be defined, it is amazing how serious the locals can get about the certainty that their town is, indeed, the true genesis of the expression.
There are four contenders – Coolah (I have actually had people from the town ring me and insist that I record their town as the true originator of the term) and Goolgowi In New South Wales; Blackall in Queensland; and Cowell in South Australia.
Personally I like the ones that don’t take themselves too seriously and therefore my sentimental favourites are Cowell and Goolgowi.
Cowell is just a joke – but it is a very typical piece of Australian drollery. The story goes that back in 1972 the town’s two pubs had signs outside reading “Best pub this side of the black stump” (see – it is never literal, it is only metaphorical) and on New Year’s Eve 1972 some local wits dumped a stump between the two pubs. Hence, depending on where you were standing, the metaphor became an amusing reality.
Then someone stole the stump and the local council decided – because Cowell is very small and very inconsequential – that the “Black Stump” was a tourist attraction and so a larger stump was erected to replace the original joke. It weighs a staggering 2,060 kg and, to justify the folly, the locals insist it commemorates the hardships involved in land clearing. Yeah! Sure!
At Goolgowi the story is rather macabre but still funny. In 1886 a bullock driver named Blain stopped at what has subsequently been gazetted as the Black Stump Tank. This was an overnight camp and watering place for wagon trains carting materials south to the paddle steamers on the Murrumbidgee River. Blain went looking for feed for his animals leaving his wife to make camp for the evening. When he returned he found her burned to death, presumably as a result of lighting the fire for the evening meal. It is said that, in the unsentimental and laconic mode associated with the Australian bush, he explained that she 'looked just like a black stump'. Thus Goolgowi claims to be the true “black stump” location.
More seriously – if it can ever be thought of as serious – are the claims of Blackall and Coolah.
The sign at Blackall explains: “This historic site permanently marks the original Astro station established in 1887 by the Surveyor-General for the purpose of survey, based on the principal meridional circuit traversed around the town of Blackall.
The circuit around Blackall was 27 miles square and contained an area of 729 square miles. The surveyors placed their theodolites on the stump for latitude and longitude observations. The stump was used rather than a set of legs because the theodolite used on such observations was of a large size. This Astro station was used as part of the principal survey to fix the position of principal towns extending from Brisbane to Boulia via. Roma, Charleville and Blackall. It was designed to establish the points of important centres with which the survey work of the whole colony could be connected, and enable the mapping of Queensland on a more accurate basis. It was considered at the time that the country to the west of Blackall was 'beyond the black stump'.
And so to Coolah which, in fairness, has the best and the earliest of all the claims (if not the funniest or the most inventive). In 1829 NSW Governor Darling became so concerned at the spread of settlement that he issued a Government Order defining the ‘limits of location’ or the ‘boundaries beyond which land was neither to be sold nor settlers allowed’. The northern boundary was the Black Stump Run just north of Coolah. Governor Darling’s proclamation of Limits of Settlement meant that no-one was to go beyond the Black Stump Run’. Thus “Beyond the black stump” came to mean “beyond Coolah”.
So take your pick. I like Cowell because it is so quintessentially Australian. No matter where you drink in town you will be drinking “beyond the black stump”.
Here’s a pic of the Black Stump at Cowell in South Australia.
