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Transporting Beef: Trails, Rails and Ships

The Canning Stock Route: 1,850 Kilometres of Desert Built to Break a Beef Monopoly

Surveyed by Alfred Canning to bring Kimberley cattle to southern markets, the route is a long record of ambition, hardship and dispossession.

Why was the Canning Stock Route built?

At the start of the twentieth century, cattlemen in the east Kimberley of Western Australia wanted a way across the western deserts. A west Kimberley group controlled the supply of beef to Perth and the goldfields, and east Kimberley cattle could not go south by sea. Their herds carried Boophilus ticks infected with a malaria-like disease called babesiosis, and the fear was that ticks would survive a ship voyage and spread. That kept prices high.

The government of Western Australia wanted competition to bring prices down. In 1905 pastoralist and politician James Isdell proposed a stock route through the desert, arguing that ticks would not survive the dry crossing. Once that idea was accepted, the government funded a survey. The Wikipedia article on the route sets out the sequence in detail.

Surveying the route in 1906 and 1907

The man chosen was Alfred Canning, a surveyor with the Department of Lands and Surveys. His task was to find a way through about 1,850 km of the Great Sandy, Little Sandy and Gibson deserts, with water a day's walk apart for up to 800 head of cattle, and enough grazing to carry them south. The route had been explored in 1896 by the Calvert Expedition under Lawrence Wells and by the Carnegie Expedition under David Carnegie. Carnegie judged it too barren to be practical.

In 1906 Canning set out with 23 camels, two horses and eight men and finished the trip from Wiluna to Halls Creek in less than six months. After an early wet season delayed him, the party left Halls Creek in late January 1907 and reached Wiluna in early July. Over 14 months they covered about 4,000 km and relied on Aboriginal guides to find water.

Building the wells, 1908 to 1910

Canning left Perth in March 1908 with 30 men, 70 camels, four wagons, 100 tonnes of food and equipment and 267 goats. The party built wells and troughs at the water sources identified on the survey and reached Wiluna in April 1910 after finishing the last of 48 wells. The reported total cost was 22,000 pounds, about A$2.6 million in 2010 money.

Thirty-seven of the wells were built on or near existing Aboriginal waters, in the European style. Pulling the heavy buckets up took the strength of three men or a camel, so many Aboriginal people were hurt or died trying to use them. By 1917 Aboriginal people had vandalized or dismantled around half the wells, in an effort to reclaim access or to stop drovers using them. Canning also produced a detailed map of the route that has become a symbol of Australia's pioneering history.

The treatment of Aboriginal people

This part of the record cannot be left out. During the survey, Canning captured several Martu men, chained them by the neck and forced them to lead his party to water, using neck chains and handcuffs supplied by Wiluna police. Because many soaks were sacred, the Martu may have misdirected the party, which may be part of why the route winds more than it needed to. The route crossed the lands of nine Aboriginal language groups by one count, and a later heritage account refers to more than 15 groups with ties to it.

When the survey party returned, the cook Edward Blake accused Canning of mistreating Aboriginal people. A Royal Commission heard the complaints. Canning admitted using chains, and the commission accepted the party's actions as reasonable, clearing Canning and his men and approving construction. The route's first cattle drive in 1911 also ended in violence: three drovers were killed at Well 37, and a police party led by Sergeant R.H. Pilmer later acknowledged killing at least 10 Aboriginal people.

How much was it actually used?

Commercial droving began in 1910, first with small groups of horses. The first mob of cattle to travel the whole route reached Wiluna in September 1911 and reportedly gained condition on the way. But droving was thin. Between 1911 and 1931 only eight mobs of cattle were driven along the route, and by 1925 the government said it had fallen into disrepair after attacks on stockmen.

A 1928 Royal Commission into the price of beef in Western Australia led to repairs. William Snell began the job in 1929, fitting some wells with ladders so that Aboriginal people could draw water more easily, but stopped after Well 35. Canning, then aged 70, was commissioned to finish it and did so in 1931. After that, the route was used about 20 times between 1931 and 1959, when the last drove ended. The larger station owners did not use it, partly because the route could support only 600 head at a time, 200 fewer than first estimated.

Why It Mattered

The route saw far less use than its backers hoped, but it still matters as a record of how pastoral Australia tried to solve distance. The documented lessons are practical ones.

It also marks the limits of the idea. Carnegie's 1896 view that the route was impractical for cattle proved accurate, and the human cost fell mainly on Aboriginal people whose water had been used to make it possible.

  • Water decides routes. Canning's survey was built around finding wells a day's walk apart for up to 800 head.
  • A government survey can create a road, but only markets keep it open. Only about 20 droves used it from 1931 to 1959.
  • Local knowledge was essential. Both the survey and the later droves depended on Aboriginal guides, stockmen and stockwomen.
  • Design affects access. Wells that needed three men to raise a bucket led to injuries and sabotage.
  • Disease rules shaped trade. Tick-borne babesiosis kept east Kimberley cattle off ships, and that is what the route was meant to solve.

The route today

The Canning Stock Route is now a challenging four-wheel drive trek that typically takes 10 to 20 days. Apart from keeping the track open, it is not maintained, some wells have been restored and others are in ruins, and travellers must plan fuel drops. Fuel is available at Kunawarritji and Parnngurr. In March 2020 the Kuju Wangka committee of the Yanunijarra Aboriginal Corporation closed the route to tourists because of COVID-19, and it reopened on 14 June 2022. The wider travelling stock route article places it among Australia's other famous droving roads, and the Murranji Track article covers its northern counterpart.

Aboriginal people are increasingly telling their own history of the route, through painting and oral tradition. Archaeologists believe the Western Desert has been occupied for around 30,000 years, so for Martu and other custodians the stock route is one chapter of a much older story. For more cattle history, see the ranching section on farm.FM or a farm.FM story on outback drovers.

Timeline

  1. 1896Calvert and Carnegie expeditions cross the desert country
  2. 1905James Isdell proposes a desert stock route
  3. 1906Alfred Canning begins the survey from Wiluna
  4. 1908Construction party leaves Perth in March
  5. 1910Last of 48 wells completed; first commercial droves begin
  6. 1911First cattle mob reaches Wiluna; drovers killed at Well 37
  7. 1928Royal Commission into beef prices leads to reopening
  8. 1931Canning completes well repairs
  9. 1959Last droving run completed
  10. 2022Route reopens to tourists on 14 June after COVID-19 closure

Frequently asked questions

How long is the Canning Stock Route?

It runs about 1,850 km (1,150 miles) from Halls Creek in the Kimberley to Wiluna in Western Australia and is claimed to be the longest historic stock route in the world.

Who built the Canning Stock Route?

Surveyor Alfred Canning surveyed it in 1906 and 1907 and led the construction party in 1908 to 1910, building 48 wells. Aboriginal guides, including Martu men who were forced to assist, were essential to finding water.

Was the Canning Stock Route successful?

Not commercially. Only eight mobs of cattle were driven between 1911 and 1931, and about 20 droves used it from 1931 to 1959, because it supported only around 600 head at a time.

Can you drive the Canning Stock Route today?

Yes, as a demanding four-wheel drive trip of about 10 to 20 days, with fuel drops planned in advance. It is best in cooler months and is not maintained beyond keeping the track open.

Sources and further reading

Profiles are compiled from public sources and reviewed against them. See our editorial policy to suggest a correction.

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