Apart from the annual race meetings held between neighbouring sheep and cattle stations, there wasn’t really much for people in the North to get excited about. In fact, most of the news which reached the newspapers concerned weather events – drought, flood, hail or, in many years, just a sprinkle of rain that barely kept the dust down.
The Spring of 1904 was a memorable one in The North. October 18th brought a major storm system across much of South Australia, with dumps of rain up to several inches in the Flinders Ranges. The mail road from Mount Serle to Yudnamutana and beyond became impassable, with washaways and hundreds of fallen trees. The local correspondent described the scene – Umberatana Homestead’s roof damaged, even large trees snapped off as if they were matchsticks, large tree limbs hurled great distances from their parent trees.
It was impossible for the mail coach to even attempt the trip, so supplies at Yudnamutana had to wait for the road to dry out and the track damage to be repaired.
By November 7th the mail coach was able to make its first trip. It was just in time, because that was the occasion of Mr P O’Reilly’s birthday celebrations. O’Reilly was the owner and manager of the Willigan Mine, a few miles further on from Yudnamutana. He had ordered his party supplies, which were to be sent up by the mail coach.
O’Reilly and his mates, along with others from the surrounding mines, wasted no time getting into the party mood – and into the liquid refreshments brought up by the mail coach. In no time at all there were a dozen or so men getting into fights, well and truly charged with the celebratory bottles of rum. An Italian man had O’Reilly flat on the ground, with his hands choking his windpipe. French Charlie came to O’Reilly’s rescue and dragged the Italian off him. O’Reilly’s drunken response was to lay into the Frenchman, loosening a couple of his teeth.
This gave the Italian the chance to make a rush at the Frenchman, who headed for the bush, closely followed by the Italian. Another eight or so men were having a general brawl, and things were rapidly getting out of hand – particularly for a group of miners who normally got on quite well with one another.
Into the fray came Richard Peachey. Peachey was in his late 50s, a long-time miner and resident of the district. Peachey had more-or-less retired from mining and was now best-known as Yudnamutana’s ‘deputy postmaster’ – the storekeeper’s assistant who sorted and distributed any mail in the district. However, he clearly still retained the brute strength and stamina gained from years of mining.
Peachey sailed into the brawling mob, scattering them in all directions. In no time at all everything was peaceful again, and Yudnamutana could settle down with the expectation of another twelve months of humdrum existence.
In the words of the Yudnamutana correspondent, ‘These little pleasantries break the monotony of outside camp life from which new friendships spring. The fighting over – rum all gone – aching heads and bodies next day, peace and quietness again reigns supreme.’
And, to this day, peace and quietness still reigns supreme at Yudnamutana.