Pam's Book Reviews: Dingo Tails: Kane Guy

Pam's Book Reviews: Dingo Tails: Kane Guy: I have never read a book on any subject that contained such a wealth of knowledge in a series of short stories by so many different w...

New book by Berenice Walters and Pamela King

This is the story of the love Berenice Walters had for her Dingoes and her endeavours to prove they were not the savage and sinister brute authorities portrayed them as.

The stories in this book are about three of her Dingoes; Dora, Napoleon and Snowgoose.

They tell how she acquired her first Dingo, eluded being arrested and her Dingo being destroyed then successfully obedience training her Dingoes. They tell how she proved the so called experts wrong about the character of the Dingo but mostly they tell of her love and dedication for the most falsely maligned of Australian native animal.

Australian buyers can purchase through the website www.dingolady.com.au with Paypal. Price $18.65 including postage (within Australia only)

Overseas buyers can purchase through Amazon.  

Berenice Walters was known as the Dingo Lady

She devoted over 30 years of her life as the Dingo’s advocate. Through commitment to observing, studying, breeding and being at one with the dingo’s spirit she became a recognised authority on Australia’s Native Dog.

In the Footsteps of Berenice

Since making the commitment to write Berenice Walters’ biography I have become even more in awe of this amazing lady. Just trying to keep up with the time and energy she committed to the Dingo cause is exhausting!

Why? It’s all a matter of putting things in perspective. Here are some examples for you.

Berenice spent many hours in the State Library undertaking research. I travelled into Sydney for another Dingo related event and while there decide to visit the Australian Museum and the State Library. I know I will need to go for further research.

On this particular day my trip in took one and a half hours from Picton; the trip home the same but add an extra one a quarter hours sitting at Central Station because I missed an earlier train. So my day in Sydney was 10 hours long including travel. Berenice lived even further down the line and undertook her research at a time when the train service was not as reliable or frequent as it is today.

Berenice spent many hours typing up information from books borrowed from libraries. It is just as well she was a much better typist than me – no scanners in those days to save copies of to a computer.

Yes, she typed her information onto a typewriter and for you younger readers that means if you make a mistake you have to start again. I don’t think even White Out had been invented at the time! Using a typewriter also meant no auto word wrap and no spell check.

Her own manuscripts, articles, early books, the society newsletters and correspondence were all created using a typewriter. Each would have to be typed and retyped with corrections and editing.

Did I say she wrote letters? Of course! There were no emails. You wrote a letter, waited 3 or more days (depending on its destination) for it to arrive. It depended on how diligent, thoughtful and efficient the receiver was before they replied; then you waited for it to come to you via post.  

She spent many hours writing to politicians, fellow dingo supporters and conservationists involved with other canids around the world. In the days of post only (and the occasional fax) can you imagine how long it took to establish contact and relationships with kindred spirits in the world of conservation? Today I just open up my Facebook and can instantly establish a rapport with people who have like interests.

Then you have to remember she had her Dingoes to care for and train, she bred, trained and showed Australian Cattle Dogs, she was a wife and mother and the family also ran a small farm.

Phew! How many of us could make that commitment today with our ‘busy’ lives, modern appliances and instant communication?

So when I get overwhelmed and wonder what I have taken on just in the research and digitising of my project including:

• researching new information via the internet (not travelling to a library 1½ hours away)
• looking at a mountain of papers to scan so they are preserved (because in this ‘modern’ age I can)
• transcribing faded documents using my computer with all its fancy helpful features AND text recognition if the document is clear enough (not typing and retyping on an antiquated machine)
• setting up a new and separate computer with special software and high graphics capability so we can start copying old videos and audios tapes to disk. (Not to mention the boxes of photos; both family and dingo ones that need identifying and scanning)

I stop to think “How would Berenice have managed this 40 years ago?” I wonder how much more she could have achieved with modern technology.

I know I will ultimately finish the biography because I know my efforts pale in significance compared to what Berenice achieved on behalf of the Dingo. It will take me two years to complete but I can’t think of a better way to pay tribute to a true Australian pioneer.

I realise I am not walking in the footsteps of Berenice I am in her shadow simply putting light on what she achieved in her lifetime.

For the Love of a Dingo by Berenice Walters and Pamela King

Available soon “For the Love of a Dingo” by Berenice Walters and Pamela King.

This book is a compilation of stories about three of Berenice’s dingoes, Dora, Napoleon and Snowgoose. They demonstrate the love she had for and dedication to our most falsely maligned Australian native animal.

We are taking pre-orders – no payment and no obligation, just your expression of interest. Price is $18.65 including postage within Australia. (Overseas buyers please request a price for postage)

Proceeds from the sale of the book will be put towards research costs for her biography and digitising of her manuscripts and records.

If you are interested in reserving a copy please email info@dingolady.com.au or leave a message on this post.

White Settlement in Australia: Dingo and Aboriginal Parallels

I met recently with elders of the D’harawal Traditional Descendants and Knowledgeholders Council, Frances Bodkin and Gavin Andrews.

We were chatting about Berenice, who both were very close to, and I mentioned her belief that many of the attacks on sheep in the early days of white settlement were by young adult Dingoes separated from their pack because of indiscriminate slaughter.

Because the Dingo pack is like a family, young Dingoes are taught and disciplined by the older members. When these teachers are absent, particularly the alpha male and female a young Dingo can go rogue.

Gavin pointed out that it was the same with his people. White man’s diseases caused the deaths of the oldest members of the community as well as the young and the weak. With the loss of their teachers and disciplinarians the young bucks went rogue.

Another parallel was the loss of land. White settlers accused Aboriginal people of stealing crops and livestock resulting in mass slaughter and incidents like the Massacre in Appin (NSW). The white settlers had in fact taken over what was Aboriginal land, their food basket.

As settlement moved inland taking its sheep and cattle so these people took over land where Dingoes roamed resulting in the slaughter of Dingoes when they were caught attacking flocks.

In 1978 Berenice wrote a paper titled “The Australian Native Dog, The Dingo (Canis Familiaris Dingo): Moves to Develop its National Identity*. In it she asks several pertinent questions:

Why has it taken so long to stop and think; to question the wild claims of those who accuse the Dingo of such mighty feats as travelling 50 miles to kill 300 sheep, then returning to sleep it off; to state it takes a pack of domestic dogs to kill one Dingo; that Dingoes threatened the lives of settlers: Then claim the Dingo is a coward!!!!!
 
If the Dingo was such a rapacious killer, how come Captain Cook wasn’t met by an island of killer dogs?
 
 If the Dingo was capable of such feats of ferocity and stock killing, how come in 1788 when six head of cattle were lost form the first settlement, they were found some seven years later at Cowpastures near C

amden, the original six having increased to 61. (By 1801 the original herd had grown to 300 head – by 1811, known as the ‘wild cattle’, their numbers were estimated at around 4,000).
 
How come it was a prosperous business for bushrangers to hide stolen cattle in isolated valleys where the cattle thrived – and increased?

Those very same questions could be asked in relation to the Aboriginal people.

* I have used Berenice’s title for her paper however it should be noted that in 2015 it was confirmed that the Dingo is not a dog; it is, in fact, now its own species, Canis Dingo.

Pamela King (Ferrari)