Welcome to Charlotte Waters
Introduction | Special Dates | Centenary of Federation
Aboriginal Connections | Colourful Characters
Connecting the Kids | Photo Gallery

The beginning of Section A, led by R Knuckey, was gruelling. It was the height of summer and temperatures soared above 40 degrees celsius, day in, day out. On January 10, 1872 Knuckey was forced to move only in the cool of evening.

At sundown, noticing a flock of pigeons flying east, he followed them, hoping they would lead him to water. They led him to a beautiful expanse of water. He named it Charlotte Waters after Lady Charlotte Bacon, the Ianthe of Byron's poem.

The southern part of this section was stony and treeless, but further north it became well watered and grassed, with plenty of timber for poles. There was no doubt this section of the line would be finished on time. But not without casualties.

One of the Afghan cameleers was bitten by a snake, one man broke his collarbone. Another, a man called Fitch had an attack of rheumatic fever while travelling back from gathering salt at Dalhousie Springs. He was left in the shade while the other man went back to camp for help.

On their return Fitch was crawling with ants, unable to brush them off. The gun he had been left with was still in his hand. Fitch had managed to shoot at the crows circling him and said he would have shot himself had he been able to lift his arm. He was taken back to camp and recovered after two months.

South of Charlotte Waters, one of the carters struck his gun on the ground and sent the charge through his hand, which was over the muzzle. He took three weeks to travel back to Adelaide with gangrene a constant fear throughout the arduous journey.

A repeater station was built at Charlotte Waters. The main station building was stone with 8 rooms and a stone tank that held 40,000 litres of water. In addition there was a blacksmith's shop, a cart shed and harness room as well as a paddock and stockyard with a 110,000 litre tank.