Photographers - Part 30

Roy Dunstan

Walkabout was an Australian magazine published from 1934 to 1974.  It was similar to National Geographic, but focusing on Australia.  In Australian Aboriginal culture, adolescent males "go walkabout" and live in the wilderness for a period of time to make the transition to manhood.  The phrase "go walkabout" has come to mean to go on a long journey by foot in the bush, far from towns and cities.

Above: a photo by Roy Dunstan on the cover of Walkabout that I'll talk about later.

In 1934, the magazine decided to employ a permanent staff photographer, and Roy Dunstan, who had been a Victorian Railways employee, was hired at a salary of £9 per week.  Above, Dunstan going walkabout in 1939.

On his walkabouts, Dunstan photographed indigenous Australians and their way of life.  Note: the term "Aborigine" is now considered racist and insensitive, but the term was in common use when these photos were published in the 1930s.  Today, the terms Aboriginal person or Aboriginal are preferred.

Aboriginals examining a motor car in rocky country east of Alice Springs in 1937. Walkabout's depiction of indigenous Australians has been criticized as patronizing, often racist and stereotyped, reflecting the prevailing attitudes of white Australians, but it did promote an understanding that Aboriginal people had a significant presence and had their own cultural heritage.

An Aboriginal man throwing a boomerang at Devil's Marbles, an area east of Alice Springs.

Two Aboriginal hunters with their weapons at Devil's Marbles.  The man at right is Gwoya Jungarai.

Dunstan's photo of Gwoya Jungarai, above, became an iconic representation of the Aboriginal.  Charles Holmes, a tourism executive who was with Dunstan at the time, described their encounter with Jungarai:

"During a visit to the Spotted Tiger mica mine out east of Alice Springs, I once met as fine a specimen of aboriginal manhood as you would wish to see. Tall and lithe, with a particularly well-developed torso, broad forehead, strong features and the superb carriage of the unspoiled primitive native, he rejoiced under the name of 'One Pound Jimmy'."

And Dunstan's photo of Jungarai's face, seen on the cover of Walkabout in the first image in this post, was also iconic – so much so that it was used for an Australian postage stamp.  Another image of Jungarai, though not by Dunstan, is used on the Australian $2 coin.

Ironically, Gwoya Jungarai has become much more famous than his photographer.  I could find no personal information about Roy Dunstan, not even his date of birth.  But I found that Gwoya Jungarai was born around 1895 in the Tanami Desert, northwest of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory.  In 1928 he survived a massacre near the Conniston cattle station in Central Australia, but many of his relatives were butchered.  Historians believe that up to 110 Aboriginal men, women and children were slaughtered.  Later, he trapped dingoes and made and sold boomerangs.  When asked how much he charged for handcrafts or odd jobs, he would answer "One pound, boss."  So he became known outside his people as One Pound Jimmy.  He died in 1965, but he has been immortalized by the photos of Roy Dunstan.