Upper Gascoyne

Distinguished and Famous people from Upper Gascoyne

🎵 Peter Salmon

Peter Salmon's working life began on stations at ten in 1943, and he was still mustering in his eighties. Growing up on Country, he learned Thiinma from his mother and grandfathers and Warriyangga from his stepfather. Later he worked with linguists Rosie Sitorus and Jacqui Cook to record language and develop teaching material. By the time of his 2021 Artlands profile, the collaboration had produced more than a hundred hours of recordings and seventeen songs. The songs gave language work a particularly lively form, carrying knowledge through music alongside the recorded conversations of a lifetime spent in the Upper Gascoyne.

🐑 Lachlan “Locky” McTaggart

Locky McTaggart's family connection with Bidgemia Station began when the McTaggarts purchased it in 1946. He took over management in 1977 and bought the property with his wife Jane the following year. Station responsibilities ran alongside nearly four decades in local government: he joined Upper Gascoyne council in 1978, served a long term as deputy president and became shire president in 2015. On his retirement in 2017, the shire acknowledged work extending into pastoral organisations, regional roads and community life. The story spans both running a family property and the persistent practical business of serving a remote district.