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The Murranji Track: Northern Territory's 'Death Track' for Droving Cattle

A short cut for cattle and a hazard for the people who drove them, the track linked Newcastle Waters and Top Springs for over six decades.

What is the Murranji Track?

The Murranji Track, also called the Murranji Stock Route, is a 644 km stock route in the Northern Territory that runs between Newcastle Waters and Top Springs. It was mostly used from 1904 until the late 1960s, and drovers gave it grim names: the ghost road of the drovers and the death track. It served as an entry point to the Barkly Tableland and lies near Wave Hill, Auvergne and Victoria River Downs stations.

The land belongs to the Mudburra and Djingili peoples, whose rights have been recognized under the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 and the Native Title Act 1993. The name Murranji comes from the Mudburra word for a species of burrowing frog. Most of the facts here come from the Wikipedia article on the track.

Nat Buchanan and the first crossing

European explorer John McDouall Stuart found the country impenetrable. The first recorded use of the track by pastoralist and drover Nat Buchanan was in 1886, when he took cattle toward the Kimberleys in Western Australia. He travelled with Gordon Buchanan, 'Greenhide' Sam Croker, Willie Glass, Archie Ferguson and Mick Berry. Sources differ on the date: the article on travelling stock routes gives 1881.

The crossing worked because a Mudburra guide led the party and showed them where to find water.

Why the Murranji was so hard

The track was notoriously difficult for stock. Dry stages ran up to 180 km, and one source describes a 110-mile dry stage when the Murranji waterhole failed. The scrub was dense, with thorny lancewood and bullwaddy, and the limestone soil made a drumming sound under the herd that often spooked cattle.

The main water sources were soakages: the Bucket (Wirntirrkuji), named for an iron bucket Buchanan left there, the Murranji and Yellow Waterhole (Binjacootra). The record of losses is sobering. At least 11 drovers are known to have died along the route. In one terrible trip in 1905, one man died, all but two stockmen deserted the drover, and 800 cattle and 11 horses died.

A short cut for Kidman's drovers

Use of the track stayed limited until 1904, when Blake Miller, a drover for Sidney Kidman, took it and it became a popular short cut.

Famous drovers who used it include Sam Croker, Owen Cummins, William Linklater, Beetaloo Jangari Bill and Edna Zigenbine. Edna Zigenbine's 1950 trip, as the first female boss drover, made headlines across Australia. Bill Tapp built a droving business in the 1950s that used the track regularly, and Ellen Kettle travelled it in 1962.

The graffiti on the tanks

The tanks along the track hold a collection of graffiti, dating from the late 1930s to the 1960s. The messages, insults, poems, laments and drawings are a rare record of drovers' own words. Many are faded and some have disappeared. Archaeologist and historian Darrell Lewis photographed the remaining drawings and traced them onto plastic sheets, and published them in his 2007 history, The Murranji Track: Ghost Road of the Drovers.

The same history gathers other facts about the track, and the Wikipedia article also cites Ernestine Hill's 1949 account for Walkabout magazine.

What Made It Work

The Murranji succeeded as a shortcut, never as a safe road. The record shows what drovers did to make it passable.

It was never comfortable. Hilda Abbott described the improved track after World War II as wide, scrub-bordered boulevards where cattle 'walked like gentlemen', a short phrase that shows how rough it had been before.

  • They used local guidance. Buchanan's first crossing relied on a Mudburra guide who knew the water.
  • They planned around soakages. The Bucket, the Murranji and Yellow Waterhole set the stages between dry runs.
  • They accepted the risk for the shorter route. A shortcut paid when it worked and killed when it did not.
  • Government works made it safer. During World War II bores were built and bulldozers smoothed the road.
  • Mechanized transport ended it. Road trains and the Buchanan Highway reduced the need to walk cattle.

From droving road to unsealed road

Major improvements came during World War II, with government bores and bulldozers. Use of the track declined from 1966, when the Buchanan Highway was completed. Today it is rarely used as a stock route and is an unsealed road.

For more on how droving roads like it fit into the wider network, see the ranching section on farm.FM and a farm.FM story about Northern Territory droving. The Canning Stock Route in Western Australia, covered in its own Wikipedia entry, is its famous western cousin.

Timeline

  1. 1886Nat Buchanan drives cattle over the track toward the Kimberleys (one source says 1881)
  2. 1904Blake Miller uses it for Sidney Kidman and it becomes a popular short cut
  3. 1905One disastrous crossing: one man and 800 cattle and 11 horses die
  4. 1930sGraffiti begins appearing on the tanks
  5. 1950Edna Zigenbine becomes the first female boss drover on the track
  6. 1962Ellen Kettle travels it
  7. 1966Buchanan Highway completed; use declines
  8. 2007Darrell Lewis publishes his history of the track

Frequently asked questions

Where is the Murranji Track?

It runs 644 km across the Northern Territory between Newcastle Waters and Top Springs, on the lands of the Mudburra and Djingili peoples, and is now an unsealed road.

Why was the Murranji called the death track?

Dry stages up to 180 km, dense scrub and few waterholes made it deadly. At least 11 drovers are known to have died on it, and a 1905 trip lost 800 cattle.

Who opened the Murranji Track?

Nat Buchanan first used it with cattle in 1886 with a Mudburra guide, though one source gives 1881. It became popular after Blake Miller used it for Sidney Kidman in 1904.

Is the Murranji Track still used?

It is rarely used as a stock route now. Use fell after the Buchanan Highway was completed in 1966, and the track is now an unsealed road.

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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