Esme Biddulph presenting from Edwin Sawtell's notes about Michael Sawtell, social activist, poet, drover and bushman in the Esme Biddulph MS 3742 collection - Biddulph, Esme (1971)
Digital master available
National Library of Australia Manuscript collection MS 3742.
Michael Sawtell was born in Adelaide on Oct. 20, 1883, the son of a successful scientific instrument maker. Educated at St. Peter's College his parents intended he would go to university and follow a professional career but at age 17, he went to work for the cattle king, Sir Sidney Kidman, as a drover where he continued his reading of the classical writers. During this time he came into close contact with the Aborigines and learnt much about their way of life, folklore and tribal rites. He left Kidman in 1904 and went to the Northern Territory where he tried buffalo shooting, tin mining and some droving for Darwin wholesale butcher Bill Laurie. He settled in the town of Borroloola whose police station contained a private library of 3,000 books, sometimes referred to as "the University of the Northern Territory" and freely lent to members of the town. In 1908 he leased 16,000 hectares of land in the unexplored Obagooma country in Western Australia and drove there 50 head of cattle from Darwin.
Keywords: Sawtell, Michael Olaf, -- 1883-1971.; Sawtell, Edwin; Sawtell, Leonard; Poets -- Australia -- Biography; Water conservation -- Australia, Central; Drovers -- Australia -- Biography; Thule culture -- Canada, Northern; Political activists -- Australia -- Biography; Aboriginal Australians -- Public welfare