Killalpaninna Mission & Habitat: A Photographic Record of Bethesda Aboriginal Mission Station on Cooper Creek

Brisbane: Howard Pearce, 2022.
First Edition.

25.5cm x 28cm. ix, 205 pages, illustrations, some colour. Pictorial french fold wrappers.

“In the summer of 1866-67 the Hermannsburg Mission Society in Germany, in conjunction with the synods of the South Australian Lutheran Church, attempted to establish a mission for the Aborigines on Cooper Creek in return for their kindness to John King, a survivor of the Burke and Wills expedition. During the same period, the German Moravian Brethren Mission Society in Victoria also undertook to begin mission work in the district. Both orders were pursuing a policy of segregating newly-contacted groups of Aborigines on church-run missions where their conversion to Christianity could be achieved away from the influence of ‘bush blacks’ and white settlers. However, through ignorance, drought and religious dissent, the missions failed to flourish and were abandoned. The Moravian Brethren departed for good, but the Lutherans regrouped and returned to the district to continue their struggle. This book contains a unique collection of dry-plate glass negative images, taken by August Hermann Vogelsang while employed as the school teacher at Bethesda Lutheran mission on Cooper Creek between the years 1907 and 1917. The images have been carefully researched and described by the author with the advice and guidance of former mission residents. This is a record of the last years of Bethesda mission station at Lake Killalpaninna in the far-north salt lake country of South Australia.” (from jacket blurb) Privately published in a very limited number by the author based on his 1980 report submitted to the South Australian Aboriginal and Historic Relics Unit. Unrecorded in Trove and OCLC.

. Fine Condition.

AU$800