Protector's lETTERS:  MAPS OF DEPOTS, 1840 - 1906

tHESE RATHER CRUDELY-DRAWN MAPS INDICATE the location over time, of the various ration depots and other issuing points.    Usually, a pastoral lessee would apply for rations for the Aboriginal people in his region, and they would be despatched promptly.   
Cartage was horrendously expensive - to ship a ton of flour up to the far north-east, for example would cost three times the cost of the flour. 
before the railway was put in, to Port Augusta, then to Beltana, Farina, Hergott (Marree), coward springs, and finally oodnadatta, a camel team could take up to a year to transport supplies to stations and missions.  
Issuers of the rations were not paid.
Except in droughts, rations were restricted to the old, infirm and sick, and occasionally nursing mothers.   aBLE-BODIED PEOPLE WERE EXPECTED TO HUNT OR FISH OR COLLECT THEIR OWN 'NATURAL' FOODS, OR TO FIND WORK WITH PASTORALISTS.  
during the frequent droughts, WHEN THERE WAS NEITHER WORK NOR 'NATURAL' FOODS, able-bodied people were also provided with rations.  
Rations and supplies included:  flour, sugar, tea, tobacco, rice, sago, soap, axes, tomahawks, pannicans, spoons, quart-pots, shirts, serge material, thread, needles, medicines,  and - for sick people -'medical comforts', i.e. milk, meat and bread.   As well, flour sacks for wurlies, Occasionally firewood, tents and tarpaulins. 
On pretty much all waterways, boats were supplied, along with fishing tackle - lines, hooks and netting twine, sometimes with sails as well.  About a hundred boats would have been in use at any one time.  At first, all Repairs were paid for by the Aborigines department, but from about 1890, Aboriginal people were expected, if they were working, to pay half of the cost of a boat, and its repairs. 
Similarly, Aboriginal people were expected to pay half the cost of guns, and their repair after about 1890.   
Depots - Spreadsheet 1840 - 1913  -  just up-dated to 1913 ! 
The number of depots grew as the frontier moved outwards.  At first, the issuers at most of the depots were local police troopers and missionaries, but as their numbers grew, in areas without police or missions, pastoral tenants took on the duties. 
Issuers were not paid, but were expected to build storerooms and send in monthly returns itemising the amounts of issues and to whom they were issued.  The peak year seems to have been 1896, with 74 depots. 



Ration Depots and issuing points, 1840 - 1857
Picture

RATION DEPOTS AND ISSUING POINTS, 1863 - 1866
Picture

RATION DEPOTS AND ISSUING POINTS, 1866 - 1870
Picture

RATION DEPOTS AND ISSUING POINTS, 1871 - 1879
Picture

RATION DEPOTS AND ISSUING POINTS, 1880 - 1884
Picture

RATION DEPOTS AND ISSUING POINTS, 1884 - 1891
Picture

RATION DEPOTS AND ISSUING POINTS, 1892 - 1906
Depot Ledgers, 1909 - 1927, Depot Stores Ledgers, 1926/27 - 1931/32, and Stores Account Book, 1932-1941:
These files are not as boring as it sounds, well, not quite, but they give an idea of the range of goods issued and the number of  depots at any time.  As well, one can get an idea of population movements and numbers by the opening and closing of depots.  

The last volume takes this record up to 1941.   
These files are also indexed for Aboriginal people named in the ledgers.   
Index to all Depot Ledgers
Point McLeay (Raukkan) Income and Expenditure Accounts, 1932-1946.
These extracts give an idea of the economic activity at Raukkan over the years of the Depression and the Second World War.   I was surprised to note that levels of income and expenditure rose strongly over this period.  
Chief Storekeeper's issues of flour, to Depots, stations, settlements and missions, 1935-1942.  The Commonwealth imposed a Flour Tax which had to be paid by the Aborigines Department, then claimed back as a refund.  Ah, bureaucracy !
Spreadsheet shows location of depots, and amounts of flour sent out annually - this gives a very rough idea of populations in those areas.   These are very incomplete data.
Wellington - Issues of Rations [Flour] 1935 - 1944.
Monthly lists of names of recipients of rations issued at Wellington on the Murray River, during the Depression and the Second World War.