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On this Page 41
Romance along
'tragedy track'
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The Tanami Desert, where Jacqui and Bruce —-
pictured with their twins — run a motel.
In the Tanami Desert, about 600
kilometres west of Alice Springs,
there is a sign that reads: "Boissons
froids et Essence - Cold drinks and
petrol."
lt is a strange sight in the middle of
the desert, possibly the last place in the
world you'd expect to find such a notice
in French and English.
The Tanami Desert has been called
"the land that God forgot" and the
rough road that runs through it is known
as Tragedy Track. Many people died of
thirst along the long saltbush track as
they rushed to make their fortunes in the
West Australian goldfields at the turn of
the century.
You wouldn't imagine anyone want-
ing to live here. No one does, apart from
a few people living at Mongrel Downs
cattle station and the Aboriginal
reserves. And Bruce Farrands and his
Parisian wife Jacqueline.
Jacqui, as she prefers to be called,
"Please send mousetrap,
some wheat for chooks,
and a long-haired
maid," said the message
came to Australia 15 years ago. She had
travelled widely in Europe but was
looking for more adventure.
She moved to Melbourne and began
to read books about the Northern
Territory to help her English. "There was
so much romance in those books," she
said, "I wanted to see the truth."
She moved, again, to Alice Springs
where she got a job as a cook. She fell in
love with the Territory, "because here
people made more of an effort to
understand me."
Months passed and Jacqui began to
make a few friends. Then, when the wet
season set in, one of her friends from
Mongrel Downs approached her with an
offer of a job as station cook. He had a
mate called Bruce flooded in at the
station, he said, and had received a half
joking, half desperate telegram from him
saying: "Please send mousetrap, some
wheat for the chooks, and a long-haired
maid."
Jacqui, whose hair was long at the
time, went to Mongrel Downs with the
message "Here are the supplies as
requested."
So Jacqui found her romance in the
bush. She married Bruce Farrands and
lived at Mongrel Downs, cooking real
French meals for the stockmen.
But Jacqui and Bruce wanted some-
thing of their own. They couldn't afford
to buy a large property so decided to
lease a small block of land, in the middle
of the desert, and build a motel.
"lt took us eight months of arguing
with the government to get them to agree
to a lease," said Jacqui. "After the eight
CONTINUED OVERLEAF

'Tragedy

track'

FROM PAGE 41

months it was put up for auction, but as
there was no one else silly enough to bid
for it we got the land. Since then it has
just been hard yakka."

Rabbit Flat, as the Farrands call their
patch of saltbush desert, had very
modest beginnings. The "motel" was a
row of 15 tents, and Jacqui had to strain
tadpoles from a nearby lagoon to get
drinking water. But in those early days,
when the supplies came in, she would
treat her guests to four-star French
cuisine — a rather unexpected delight
for travellers on the Tanami Track.

Jacqui helped to build a big tin shed
with a bar and poolroom for the guests,
and a bedroom and storage room for
herself and Bruce. They now have an
ablution block for visitors, and hot water
whenever the generator is on.

"You either have the country in your
veins or you don't," said Jacqui. "Now I
don't go into town (Alice Springs) unless

I have to."

Three years ago Bruce and Jacqui
rated a small mention in metropolitan
newspapers. The headline read:
"Population of Rabbit Flat doubled
overnight." Jacqui had given birth,
prematurely, to twins.

The twins, Glen and Daniel, are shy,
healthy children, and when they reach
school age Jacqui intends to take full
charge of their education. She wants
them to learn French and to accept her
values. "I won't have some socialist
moulding their minds," she said.

When Bruce introduced cold drinks
and alcohol to his roadhouse, he also
introduced problems. Rabbit Flat sud-
denly became popular with people from
the Aboriginal reserves. Some de-
manded 24-hour service and camped
overnight, outside the bar, to make their
point.

Jacqui got scared, especially when
Bruce went away. She also became
bitter about another problem that was
developing. This was her bit of land that
she and Bruce had fought for and won;
now their lease was being threatened by
people who claimed an ancestral right.

Rabbit Flat had entered unwittingly
into the Aboriginal struggle for land
rights, and the Farrands said they
wouldn't leave without a fight.

Recently the Federal Government
announced that it would approve a tribal
claim in the Tanami Desert. But the
Farrands' lease is not included.

And so the sign along Tragedy

Track still reads: "Boissons froids et
Essence - Cold drinks and petrol."

— JANE CAMENS

$