A Murder in the Kimberleys –

Murder Ended a 1922 search for Oil in Kimberleys
Memories of the Locke Expedition
by Morva Gogan

In a specially equipped Dakota plane, a party from the Bureau of Mineral Resources has almost completed a survey of the North West Kimberleys with the object of exploring for oil and uranium. As the plane flies over a spot 150 miles south of Godfrey’s Tank, about 450 miles south of Hall’s Creek, I wonder if the roar of the engine and the whirr of the scientific instruments will disturb the ghosts of another oil expedition  –

“an oil search which cost the life of one of its members and almost resulted in the death of 2 others?

Above: W Turner (bandage on his head and gun beside him) leaning on a tree that marks the grave of John McLernon who was murdered by natives on an earlier oil expedition in WA. On the other side of the tree is geologist Leo Jones who was badly wounded in the attack.

Known as the Locke Oil Expedition, it was promoted and organised by the late Alf Locke of Perth. Setting out from Leonora in April 1922, the party comprised seven white men and two natives. They were Leo Joseph Jones (Geologist),
H Buckley (Assistant Geologist), A Thompson (Foreman), John McLernon, H Penniment and W Irvine (General Hands). The two natives with the group had been released from Rottnest gaol where they had been serving a sentence for a tribal murder and were sent with the Alf Locke Expedition on condition that he return them to their own home territory in exchange for help with the camels and horses. The party had sixteen camels and two horses and they were away for six months and covered 2411 miles.

Locke Oil Exploration had no aeroplanes or 4-wheel drive vehicles but covered the journey on foot with pack camels and two horses (brumbies & bush-bred). From Leonora, they went to Wiluna and then north along the rough and lonely Canning Stock Route, not then completed, to Hall’s Creek. The party was 450 miles from Hall’s Creek, near Billiluna cattle station and 150 miles south of Godfrey’s Tank when John ‘Jock’ McLernon was murdered by desert natives in a night attack.

Two of the party, John McLernon and William Turner, both excellent bushmen and explorers, had accompanied the geologist in charge, Leo Jones, on a further exploratory survey, to a spot some miles from the main camp. Unfortunately, the three men unknowingly camped for the night on a sacred tribal ground near a native well. In a surprise night attack, the natives murdered McLernon while he was still asleep, with native waddies, or nulla nullas, and badly wounded the other two men. McLernon was not killed instantly but died at dawn the next morning.

Turner, although badly wounded, strapped the dead McLernon to the side of a camel to take back to the main camp for a decent burial. He secured the badly hurt Geologist Leo Jones to another camel. He had fired some shots when the natives attacked and continued to do so throughout the night to stop the natives from returning. After wandering for many hours in a delirium from wounds on his head. Turner managed to reach the main camp. The party then moved on to Billiluna Station only to then find that the owners of the station Condren and O’Sullivan, had been murdered by the notorious native “Banjo.” who was one of their workmen.

The police were sent out from Hall’s Creek to investigate this crime and sent word back to Hall’s Creek, where it was telegraphed to police HQ in Perth and to Mr Locke. From this exploratory survey, geologist Jones reported he was confident that oil existed in commercial quantities and could be found in depths from 1500 ft to 3000 ft.

He also reported the presence of lower carboniferous limestone formation having all the conditions necessary for the presence of commercial oil. The search for oil and minerals in WA is not new. In 1921, almost the whole of WA was pegged out for oil search. A comparison of the two maps one issued in October 1921, and the other in July 1954. shows the large areas. In 1921 almost the whole of WA was pegged out for oil, but then there were no aerial surveys no flick of a switch that could set the plane’s magnetometer equipment working and no maze of instruments and high-powered cameras.

The oil and mineral searches were carried out mostly with pack camels or horses. In 1921 our chief need was for population for the empty spaces. The need is still great. Reports say that the Bureau of Mineral Resources, with its identification numbers BUR, MIM and RES will soon have a twin Dakota that is now being equipped with a magnetometer and scintillometer and will be followed by a smaller aircraft.

Today as these planes fly over the Kimberleys, probing for WA’s hidden wealth, I know those friendly ghosts of the first oil search won’t mind, for in life they endured great hardship for a State in whose prosperity they had the utmost faith. Perhaps, if the pilot listens carefully, above the engine’s roar and the whirr of the scientific instruments, he may hear from a distance of 32 years the grunt of the camels, the cry of wild natives or, growing even fainter, the sound of camel bells.

The Murdered Man: John Vincent McLernon died 4th September 1922 aged 32 years near Liberal Well. He was buried by Horace Buckley and Henry Penniment at the foot of a desert oak, 240 meters from Well No 37 (Liberal Well was also referred to as the “Haunted Well”) on the Canning Stock Route.

They blazed the tree with the inscription ‘J V McL 4.9.22″,

his death was later registered by Henry Penniment in Broome. John McLernon was born in 1895 in Gippsland Victoria, the youngest of seven brothers. His father died when he was three years old. In 1921 John and one of his brothers joined the Locke Oil Exploration Party to search for oil in the Great Sandy Desert. The Expedition set up a base camp at Lipuru (Well No 37) and John, Leo Jones and Bill Turner headed further east on a field trip. They camped unknowingly, for the night in a place that was a native sacred water hole.

McLernon who lay by the campfire had his skull smashed by a nulla nulla. Luckily (as the above article states) the others escaped though badly injured. McLernon had been in Western Australia for 16 years and Lake McLernon (a salt lake) on the Canning Stock Route was probably named after him.