Illustration of Aboriginal holding a spear
Durlacher Manuscript
This manuscript was written about 1900 by John Slade Durlacher. An annotation by the author states, "This modest account of Nor West native customs has only been written for the benefit of a few friends and mostly from memory being a ten years experience of the Nor West natives from 1876-1885."
Durlacher provides information on the early pearling industry and details of the Aboriginal way of life and customs prior to 1885 with a vocabulary of North West Australian Aboriginal words.
The manuscript is in a disbound exercise book with 167 pages. There are also 16 pencil drawings illustrating the text.
John Slade Durlacher was born in Perth in 1859 and spent his early years in the Avon Valley and Geraldton districts where his father Alfred Durlacher was Resident Magistrate. In 1876, he left for the North West to manage a pearling company and sheep station for S H Viveash. In 1895 he returned to York, purchasing the property "Auburn". He was appointed a Justice of the Peace in 1900 and was a member of the York Roads Board. He was forced to retire because of ill-health and died in Perth in 1918.
The Treasure
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