Afghan cameleer from outback, Mahomet Allum shrugs off quack claims as popular Adelaide herbal healer
Mahomet Allum used testimonials calling him “the wonder man” in advertisements for his herbalist practice in Adelaide.
Images courtesy State Library of South Australia
Mahomet Allum, one of the best known herbalists in 20th Century Adelaide, was described in testimonials as “the wonder man” and by adversaries as a faith healer and a quack. Allum was an Afghan cameleers working in the outback before he moved to Adelaide in 1928 and set up his herbalist business at his home in Sturt Street, Adelaide.
Born in Kandahar in the 1850s, Allum traded horses, selling to the British Army in Afghanistan. From the 1880s, he was one of around 800 Afghan cameleers in the Australian outback in the late 19th Century. After also working in mining and selling carpets, Allum moved to Adelaide in 1928 and set up his herbalist business in his home at 181 Sturt Street, Adelaide.
He advertised his services regularly in Adelaide newspapers, emphasising Allum’s generosity and charitable works for the city’s poor. Allum was charged in 1935 with “imposture as a physician” under the 1919 Medical Practitioners Act. His detractors described him as a quack and a faith healer. He rejected this, saying he practised natural medicine.
Allum’s glowing testimonials were weighed up against the accusations levelled at him. He was fined £45. The colourful Allum continued practising, with publicity stunts and advertising making him well known.
As well as practisng alternative medicine, he also wrote numerous pamphlets on Islam. As an “alien” living under the White Australia Policy, he challenged his treatment and argued for justice.
Allum appears to have married three times before but he wed one of his patients, Jean Emsley, in an Islamic ceremony in 1940. Allum was probably into his eighties while Jean was 19. They had a daughter Bebe in 1941.
After this, Allum travelled between Australia and Afghanistan four times, and again to Afghanistan with his wife and daughter in 1953. This last trip may have been a permanent move but Allum often claimed to be leaving or give up herbalism, setting off petitions for him to stay, followed by triumphant returns to Adelaide with more glowing testimonials.
In 1954,12-year-old Bebe wrote back from Afghanistan to Adelaide women with the news that Jean Emsley had died of smallpox in Afghanistan. Allum returned with his daughter in 1954. There are some suggestions Bebe blamed her father for her mother’s death, as Allum didn’t believe in vacination, and they became estranged.
On his return to Adelaide, Allum bought a house on Anzac Highway in Everard Park (named after one of Adelaide’s first doctors).
Customers continued to visit Allum who built on his reputation for charitable works. He treated many people for very little or for free if they couldn’t afford payment. Allum died in 1964, aged 108, leaving large funds in his will to charities associated with children.
