At The University of Queensland Library, we are deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Kooma Elder, and University of Queensland Press author, Uncle Herb Wharton.
Herb Wharton, Cunnamulla, Qld 2004. Photo by John Elliott. National Portrait Gallery, Canberra, Australia. Used with permission.
Uncle Herb touched the lives of everyone he encountered. His first book Unbranded (1992) conveys a close-up view of Queensland through the intimacy of his experiences as a stockman. He was born in the Aboriginal camp, the Yumba, near Cunnamulla, and contributed much about life in the West in his short stories and poems.
His considerable talent earned him the Australia Council Award for Lifetime Achievement in Literature in 2012, the Order of Australia in 2020, and international recognition as a storyteller. The Irish poet and Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney described him as, ‘a voice and presence in Australia’.
His book Cattle camp: Murrie Drovers and Their Stories (1994), a collection of droving histories as told by Aboriginal stockmen and women, is held in the Fryer Library along with all his publications and his papers.
I was honoured to contribute this account of my first meeting with Uncle Herb to the collection Storying the archive: evoking the Fryer Library Indigenous Collection edited by Professor Tracey Bunda and Dr Laura Deane. Professor Norm Sheehan also wrote about his experiences of being with Uncle Herb and the importance of his presence and his writings.
We give thanks for the life of a true gentleman, poet and storyteller.
