Pitjantjatjara man Jimmy James famed for his tracking feats with the South Australian police over 40 years

The granite memorial to tracker Jimmy James on the River Murray shore at Berri.
Image courtesy Monuments Australia

Jimmy James of the Pitjantjatjara people became a renowned tracker with South Australian police for more than 40 years from 1948. His most famous hunts among a hundred others were the skilled and risky tracking of dangerous escapee James Smith in 1982 and finding nine-year-old Wendy Pfeiffer after she was abducted near Mylor in 1966. He treasured the gold medal from Wendy’s family.

He was the inaugural South Australian Aborigine of the Year in 1983 and given an Order of Australia Medal in 1984.

Jimmy James was born in the hot spinifex desert of Central Australia, at his father’s waterhole, west of Ernabella, in about 1913. He survived the harsh bush existence as a Pitjantjatjara tribesman. His father was Warlawurru (Eagle-Hawk) and his mother was Kaarnka (Black Crow).

The Ooldea Mission became his home from late childhood, and camp life on the fringe of white civilization offered a blend of conflicting lifestyles.

In 1945, the Oodnadatta Court’s landmark decision to find the Mount Dare station manager guilty of assault and maltreatment of Aborigines sent shockwaves through the far north and James unwittingly assumed a key role in the affair. He was chained up and mistreated on the station and wrongfully arrested and gaoled for assault. The incident prompted the move from his homeland to Berri on the Riverland.

James’s link to the South Australian police began after he helped to establish the Gerard Mission near Berri, in 1946. In 1947, he married Lilian Florence Disher, who was the unofficial adopted daughter of another Jimmy James, also a tracker. They had four children but one son died soon after birth. James outlived his whole family, who all succumbed to alcoholism and the pressures from loss of tribal traditions.

James’s tracking career began formally in 1948 and by the mid 1950s he had proved his worth as a talented tracker of escapees, arsonistsand lost persons. Landowners relied on him to help track wild dogs or gather evidence against poachers.

Two famous criminal cases, the Sundown and Pine Valley murders in 1957 and 1958, were his most publicised successes. The skills of James and his fellow trackers led to the arrest of the offenders and provided vital evidence.

As Dreamtime man of Gerard Mission council, he encouraged the teaching of traditional lore to Aboriginal children, narrated stories and taught bushcraft. He was skilled at making boomerangs and spears. His sense of humour and chuckle were trademarks of Uncle Jimmy.