The Lizard Eaters

by Douglas Lockwood

In 1957, officers from the Welfare Branch of Northern Territory Administration began patrolling the Gibson and Great Sandy Deserts. Here they found the Pintubi people, who had never before been in touch with white civilisation. In 1963, the Melbourne Herald's correspondent, Douglas Lockwood, was invited to join a patrol into the Gibson Desert to a point about 960 km west of Alice Springs, and 320 km across the Western Australian border. 'The Lizard Eaters' tells the fascinating story of that journey and the discovery of yet more Pintubi people. Lockwood describes the thrill he felt on meeting Aborigines who had never before set eyes on a white face ... and the profound respect he developed for human beings who had lived in unbelievably harsh conditions for thousands of years.

Genres: History, Anthropology

216 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1964

Reviews

[Daren]

Douglas Lockwood was an Australian author and newspaper correspondent well known for his writing about Aboriginals. When he published this book, in 1964 he was the Darwin correspondent for he Melbourne Herald.

He was given the opportunity to accompany a patrol by the Welfare Branch of the Northern Territory Administration. The patrol was to travel along the Gun Barrell Road into the Gibson Desert to a point about 600 miles west of Alice Springs and about 200 miles over the Western Australia border. Ostensibly they were out seeking the nomadic Aboriginal people who were living in the most incredibly harsh conditions - they saw their role as a sort of rescue and introduction of the Aboriginals to white men.

Lockwood was fascinated by the possibility that there were Aboriginal families out there who had never seen or had contact with white men - there proved to be plenty. The name of the book comes from the fact there is little to hunt in the desert, and the Pintubi people survive primarily on a diet of lizards.

The patrol was led by Jeremy Long, accompanies by a cadet patrol officer, an American cine camera operator employed by the ABC, plus several other white men, and a number of Aboriginal trackers and interpreters, all established in three Landrovers, plus a fourth that was to accompany them briefly to get them established. In short time one of the Landrovers broke down and the temporary one left, meaning a redeployment of people as they were down a vehicle to begin with.

The whittled down patrol carried on, and Lockwood describes their journey, the hardships of the desert, the men, women and children they meet and introduce to damper, tea and tinned meat! IN this day and age it would not be the preferred method of engaging with tribes who have had no contact with 'civilisation', but it was 1960, and Lockwood is describing here what the Welfare Branch were tasked to do.

Lockwood does a good job of describing all around him, adding some history about previous desert explorers in this area, and about the creation of the Gun Barrell Road. The pastedown contains a basic map of the journey and within a generous number of black and white photographs.

A snapshot of time, of course dated by modern standards.

3 stars

[Jennifer]

Gave some overall insights into another cultural world of desert survival that was rapidly dissapearing. Author is very much a man of his era-1950's/60's conventional social attitudes; patriarchal bordering on misogynistic. However despite his sometimes patronising tone to all of the Aboriginal people he meets he does have a compassionate heart. Its his awkward empathy mixed with a reporters observations and judgements which make it a difficult mix. I felt sad at the end and the struggle continues. I feel grateful for my easy life and for every bit of food.

[Kim Hine]

This is an older book, so it's language is tricky to understand sometimes. I enjoyed the primitiveness and how they made do with what they had. I enjoyed reading Douglas's description of the Aborigines he encountered along the way and tried to help, or did he?
I probably wouldn't read this book again, but since we are heading to this area later this year I was interested in reading the (now outdated) views on the country.

[Dongqin]

Fortuitously purchased from an op shop and finished reading tonight. If the Aboriginals were not taken to settlement by those industrious NT welfare patrol crew in 1960s, many tribal men probably already died of long starvation, yaws, burns, tribal fights, infections, unnatural deaths etc. The desert is ethereal but cruel.
And I want to eat a small damper.

[Peter Buzzacott]

I picked this up whilst on an island in Bali, where books written in English were scarce and my options limited. The book tells the story of a pioneering trip into the desert between Western Australia and the Northern Territory, not long after Len Burdell graded the Gunbarrel Highway in the 1960s. The author describes a number of first encounters, where the indigenous inhabitants first met with Europeans. It is written in the style of the 1960's so it takes a bit of forgiving, though it is fascinating for its descriptions of desert people, the "Lizard Eaters". Polygamy, toddlers making fires, adults unfamiliar with doors, their remarkable skills in the desert such as recognising individual footprints after many days, their bushcraft, law, culture, tolerance for pain, and the list goes on. This is not the book for anyone sensitive to the political correctness of today, (for example the expression "stone age" is frequently used), but for readers interested in the history of our great country this book gives an honest account of the harshness of the desert and the remarkable people who once lived there, before they abandoned their traditional ways of life.

[Rose]

An intruiging story. The author is very much a man of 1963, misogynistic, condescending and arrogant. He had some good observations but the Pintubi clearly didn’t hold him in high enough regard to share a whole lot and he didn’t feel comfortable asking questions which left a hole in the story.

[Trish]

The book, which was published in Australia in 1964, presented a fascinating picture of life among an extraordinarily isolated group of Aborigines. These people had lived in the driest terrain in the country for hundreds of years. They had never seen Europeans until the 20th century. Nomads, they lived in family units, trudging across the desert in search of sandy water holes, lizards, and occasional small kangaroos.

[Kate]

I enjoyed reading this account of Lockwood's encounter with the Pintubi people. It was interesting to learn about these secluded people and how they managed to survive for many years in the harsh environment of the Gibson Desert. His style of writing is easy to read.

[Barbara Darvall]

Fantastic story, unbelievable but true. Fascinating descriptions of the country, the people, how they lived, what they saw (and what we don't see).

[Neil Stanley]

An interesting tale of the contact in the 1960s with one of the last groups of Aborigines still living their traditional life in the Gibson Desert.

[Jaimie Bruzenak]

I picked this up in the airport and read it on the flight from Melbourne to Los Angeles. It was a fascinating account of extremely primitive Aborigines living in the Gibson Desert. The author was invited on an expedition to locate people in 1963. Many were malnourished because of the extended drought. In one case, Lockwood was the first White man a group had ever seen. These are (were) probably the most primitive people on earth.

I did find Lockwood's point of view interesting. While recognizing that moving into or even encountering "civilization" would change them irrevocably, he also viewed the land as a he traveled over it in terms of how it could be economically profitable.