Walter Smith

Walter Smith also known as Walter Purula (Perrurle) or Wati Yuritja (2 July 1898 – 14 June 1990) was a legendary Australian bushman from the Arltunga region in the Northern Territory of Australia. He was also a miner, dogger and perhaps the most widely travelled cameleer in Australia who could speak more than 30 languages. Early life Smith was born at the Arltunga goldfield and was the eldest of eleven children to William Smith, a goldminer of Welsh descent and an Aboriginal woman Topsy White (Topsy Smith). Although he had no formal education, his father taught him English and his mother and grandmother taught him eastern Arrernte and Arabana languages. At the age of 12, he accompanied Arrernte people on their last large ceremonial gathering in the Simpson Desert. They travelled with camels to a large clay-pan, where traditional hunting and gathering took place. After severe drought in 1914-15 drought and the 1919 influenza ceremonial gatherings took place on the desert-fringe cattle stations or at the edges of outback towns instead. After the death of his father in 1914, Smith's family moved to Alice Springs with the help of the Hayes family of Undoolya station and police sergeant Robert Stott. In Alice Walter lived with his mother at The Bungalow, a ‘half-caste’ institution.