Cattle Tick and Tirk Fever. 19 



Redwater first apears to have been noted at Glencoe, distant 104 

 miles from Darwin by rail, about the j^ears 1880-1. About this time 

 ii mol) of cattle arrived at Glencoe from Queensland, and a large per- 

 centaije soon succumbed to redwater. Mr. Lawrie boupfht a number 

 to take to Port Dax'win, but 50 per cent, died before reachinor there. 

 Subsequent arrivals at Glencoe experienced a like mortality. Gradu- 

 ally the disease and the ticks spread southward. About 1886, 150 

 head of cattle arrived from Newcastle Waters, at Katharine, where 

 deliver}^ was taken by Mr. A. Giles, who was to travel them north. 

 Between there and Glencoe nearly 50 per cent, died from redwater. Bv 

 1887 the disease had spread to the Roper River, and by 1890 to the 

 McArthur, beins: manifested chiefly, if not solely, in cattle travelling 

 through from Queensland. 



In the official reports presented to the South xA.ustralian Parliament 

 from the Northern Territory, the earliest mention of redwater is in 

 that of the Resident dated 1st January, 1886, which contains the state- 

 ment that '■ of .3000 "Wave Hill cattle passed to the westward, hundreds 

 died of redwater." In the report of 1st July, 1886, these losses are again 

 referred to, and also in some notes by Mr. A. Giles, then resident at 

 Springvale, near the Katharine Station, who states that ticks on cattle 

 and horses appeared here for the first time in any number this season, 

 arguing a recent invasion of the district. In the report of 1st January, 

 1887, redwater is definitely referred to as a " serious disease." That 

 its prevalence had pre^nously been well known to settlers is indicated 

 by a statement in the first report of a stock inspector, who stated that 

 redwater " continues to be the hete noir of drovers from Queensland 

 via the Roper River." Henceforth the disease assumes an increasing 

 importance in these official reports for several years. In that of 

 January, 1899, considerable space is devoted to its ravages, and Mr. 

 H. W. H. Stevens affords some valuable information : " The first cattle 

 that I know of to show redwater were Mr. C B. Fis-her's mobs that 

 came along the Roper during the drv weather. . . . Out of 1700 we 

 took delivery of in August, 1882, fully 400 died on arrival on the 

 Glencoe run." He then fixes the locality where the trouble begins as 

 "from the junction of the Hodgson River with the Roper River alono' 

 the Roper west and north-west as far as its head, and in the nei"-h- 

 bourhood of the Kine and Katharine Rivers for a few miles." He 

 mentions three mobs from different parts, Gregory Downs, Queens- 

 land, Limmen Bight, Northern TeiTitory, and Newcastle Waters, 

 Northern Territory, which suffered a loss of from 20 to 30 per cent, from 

 passing through the infected country. Yet Mr. A. Giles, then at 

 SpringA-ale on the Katharine, states the disease in cattle is unknown 

 there, a position quite easily understood in the light of present-day 

 knowledge. 



