Death On Walkabout

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30738, 30 April 1965, Page 11

Death On Walkabout

(N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) ALICE SPRINGS (Central Australia), April 27. The aborigine. “One Pound’’ Jimmy, has died on walkabout in lonely arid bush country west of Alice Springs near Australia’s "dead heart.” The classical aboriginal features of One Pound Jimmy were made famous around the world when they appeared on Australian 2s 6d and BJd stamps. Native Welfare authorities, who confirmed reports of Jimmy's death, said he died of old age. The few meagre details available say One Pound Jimmy died on March 28 while on walkabout with relatives. Jimmy acquired the name “One Pound" because he always asked that price for boomerangs or any other goods he had for sale. His ribal name was Gwoja Junfarai. Jimmy's exact age was not inown but he was believed to « more than 70. After his features appeared n Australian stamps mail toured in to him from philaelists all over the world. Many wanted his autograph n envelopes bearing his amp. but Jimmy, uneduited. could neither read nor rite. With the help of ative Welfare officers, he iswered his fan mail, signg with a thumbprint.

These “signatures” became collectors’ items throughout the world. Fame changed Jimmy little from the nomadic existence he lived all his life. A Wailbri tribesman, he wandered and hunted his food mainly in the harsh regions of Central Australia. With a few white man’s luxuries packed in the saddlebags of his three old camels, he hunted through the coun-

try which had bred him and provided for him into old age, without need of postage stamps. “Walkabout” is the white man’s name for the Australian aboriginal custom of "going bush” at intervals. Aborigines at certain times of the year gather families, leave behind clothes and other evidence of white culture and return to traditional meeting places, centres of their spiritual life.