The bushman with a passion for local history

PICTURED: Fred Teague leans against his dry blower, his brother George is to his left, with the gold pan. Taken on the Koonamore goldfield, South Australia, 1934.

In the Depression years Fred Teague had been a gold miner and fox shooter north of the road to Broken Hill. He drove trucks for the legendary Harry Ding to Innaminka, and up the Birdsville Track, in gruelling conditions, where if you got stranded you’d better have plenty of water; and where a wrong turn could mean the end.

Then in the early 1950s he opened Hawker Motors, which became a mecca for motorists heading up into the Flinders Ranges and beyond.

What made Fred Teague so special though, was his encyclopaedic knowledge of the natural and human history of the Flinders.

Fred’s formal education had been limited, but over the years he gathered a comprehensive book collection. It was from the Bush though, that he learned most – through experience, intense observation, and through association with people like Aboriginal elders, and visiting geologists and paleontologists.

I interviewed Fred at his Hawker Garage in 1967. My interview at that time focussed on the Flinders, not the man. So I was grateful, in early 2024, to learn Fred’s fascinating personal story, from his son John Teague.

This episode features both father and son, interviewed 57 years apart.