Nellie Bowley - Killarney's Dingo Lady
Nellie Bowley, affectionately known as 'The Dingo Lady', died in August 2009, just a month short of her 109th birthday, after a life of shooting and trapping dingoes and wild dogs on her mountain property, 'The Falls', near Killarney in the rugged border ranges between Queensland and NSW.
Nellie was born on 15 September 1900 to Bertha and Daniel Watts. She was the eldest in her family and outlived her seven siblings and her two husbands. At the age of five she wandered off into the scrub. Her frantic mother and father finally found her safe and sound, but her father thought he had the remedy to stop such a thing happening again: "Don't put the damn shoes on her, and she won’t go far" he told her mother. Nellie became accustomed to not wearing shoes and didn't put on a pair again until she was 14. Prior to this she would round up the cows bare-footed, even when there was frost on the ground.
Nellie left school at age 12 to help work the farm; by the age of 15 she and her mother were hand milking 100 cows a day.
When dingoes and wild dogs were doing great damage to the family's cows, goats and geese (one night alone they took 13 calves), Nellie convinced her father to invest in a dingo trap and started trapping dingoes in the high country. Just 12 years old at the time, she soon became known as 'The Dingo Girl' – and was still setting traps 88 years later. At the age of 18, she bought a 10-gauge shotgun from a neighbour for ten shillings and became a dingo trapper and shooter.
Nellie married her first husband in 1938, but he died of cancer 12 years later. In 1952 Nellie married Lynn Bowley who had pursued her for two years before she agreed to marry him. Lynn, a returned soldier, was poor and could not afford to divorce his then wife, so Nellie paid for his divorce so they could marry. Six years later, Lynn also died of cancer and from then on Nellie ran the farm on her own.
Nellie gained nationwide attention due to her ability to call, trap and shoot dingoes on her property. She is reputed to have caught 30 dingoes in 30 nights at one point - and, at a pound a scalp, it was a good little income. (See note re the Dingo and Marsupial Destruction Act of 1918 below)
While Nellie would drive to Killarney on occasion, she rarely travelled into Warwick and only made a couple of trips to Brisbane during her lifetime.Nellie gained nationwide attention due to her ability to call, trap and shoot dingoes on her property. She is reputed to have caught 30 dingoes in 30 nights at one point - and, at a pound a scalp, it was a good little income. (See note re the Dingo and Marsupial Destruction Act of 1918 below)
It was not until her mid-90s that Nellie finally put down her rifle, frustrated by her failing eyesight because it made it difficult for her to take aim. She did however continue to set traps. She set her last dingo trap at the age of 101, when family stepped in and told her that it needed to end. It is thought that during her lifetime Nellie would have culled more than a thousand dingoes and wild dogs.
Aged 101, Nellie finally left her home and the 100-acre holding her father had gifted her when she first married. She then moved to Killarney's aged care facility. She attributed her long life to "good, clean country living and home-cooked meals". At each birthday party, Nellie would always say 'See you next year!'.
Nellie died in August 2009 and was farewelled in a simple country service at Killarney. She is buried in the shadow of her beloved Spring Creek Mountain.
This story was posted by David Owens on the Lost Faces of Warwick Facebook page on 24 June 2020.
Nissen hut in which Nellie lived. Source: J Explores via Flickr (31 January 2018)
Controlling Dingos
Efforts to control dingos in Australia began with European settlement and intensified as pastoralists occupied land west of the Great Dividing Range. The first dog fence was constructed in the 1880s, but by 1919, Queensland had a Dingo and Marsupial Destruction Act which came into force on 31 December that year. The Darling Downs Dingo Board was one of the Boards established throughout the State to administer the Act.
In December 1922, the Warwick Daily News reported the total destruction of various species of animals since 1877 (45 years).
The scalp price remained unchanged until the 1950s when Parliament announced the construction of the Queensland section of the dingo-proof fence. (The report below appeared in The Northern Miner, Charters Towers, on Saturday, 10 July 1954.)
The fence can be seen from the roadside near Jandowae, but the town itself boasts a steel sculpture of the Dingo (Canis lupus dingo) and a model of the fence. The sculpture by Andy Scott was cast in Glasgow (Scotland) and unveiled on 6 March 2008. (Photograph: Judith Anderson, March 2021)
