Journey to Horseshoe Bend

On 10 October 1922 a party left Hermannsburg Mission, west of Alice Springs, to make the perilous journey along the dry bed of the Finke River, in the heat of summer, to the settlement at Horseshoe Bend, in a desperate attempt to save the life of the mission’s pastor, Carl Strehlow. The story is told by his son, who was fourteen years old when he accompanied his father on the journey, and was marked by it for life. Journey to Horseshoe Bend was first published in 1969. Though long recognised, amongst readers who knew of it, as a classic of Australian literature, it has been out of print for almost forty years. TGH Strehlow was the author of a number of books on Aboriginal languages, traditions and religions, including the monumental Songs of Central Australia (1971). He died in 1978.