MUIR, Ronald Sibbald 'Peter'

Blue Peaks and Red Ridges. The 1965-66 Campfire Field Notes of Desert Explorations in W.A. [Together with] Stagnant Wells and Sandhill Stages. The 1967 Campfire Field notes .... [and] Dewdrop Fresh and Bitter Brine. The 1967-68 Campfire Field Notes ....

Leonora, The Author, 1989, 1989, and 1990.

Quarto, three volumes, ('Blue Peaks') xvii, 402, [2], A.1-A.8, [14] (appendices, including maps) pages plus 34 pages of illustrations (numbered xvii-l); ('Stagnant Wells') xii, 259 pages plus 20 pages of illustrations (numbered xiii-xxxiii) and 8 pages of maps; and ('Dewdrop Fresh') xiv, 297, [130] (appendices, including maps and illustrations) pages plus 30 pages of illustrations (numbered xv-xliv).

Blue buckram lettered in gilt (one volume) or black (two volumes); corners very slightly bumped; edges slightly marked; a few other minor signs of age and handling; an excellent group.

Numbers 2, 2, and 3 respectively, each from an edition of only 50 copies signed by the author. Each volume is additionally inscribed and signed by the author to Dick Kimber (Richard Glyn Kimber AM, 1939-2024, Centralian author and historian), who contributed the foreword to 'Stagnant Wells and Sandhill Stages', dated in the respective year of publication and signed as Pituri Pete.

This trilogy comprises Muir's daily journal as he travelled through remote and largely unsurveyed desert interior of Western Australia while employed as a dingo trapper by the Agricultural Protection Board. It includes his observations relating to the desert ecology in the country around the Canning Stock Route, Aboriginal beliefs and practices, and documentation of Aboriginal rock art sites, in particular Karnatukul/Serpent's Glen in the Carnarvon Range/Katjarra. 'Peter Muir's graphic account is of a primeval landscape unspoiled, yet in the few years since he completed his task for the APB and departed from the scene ... that beautiful land he describes in such detail and came to love so much, has already suffered from mineral exploration activities, and much irreparable damage has been done by earth moving equipment. What a fortunate thing for posterity that the author was so acutely aware of his unique situation at the time ...' (from the foreword). The trilogy is essentially an expanded version of Muir's 1988 publication 'Sand Soaks and Desert Oaks. The 1965-68 Exploration Journals of Peter Muir'.

Loosely inserted in the third volume is a lengthy autograph letter (quarto, 8 pages) signed by the author as 'Pituri Pete' and dated 23 July 1990. He discusses politics (railing against the 'excessive Social Service payouts to our local alcoholics which I am not alone in regarding as a deliberate passive form of social genocide as it is directed mostly towards the aboriginal race ...'); a trip with his wife Pukungka into the desert north of Wiluna ('The country changes over 25 years and not to the better either. Every rockhole in the country was dry'); his belief in Aboriginal customs, stories and stewardship of country; and the sensitivity of some of the material contained this volume ('This particular book will never be distributed to the general public as it contains an excess of extremely sensitive material. I instructed the National Lib Canberra to restrict access to serious students or historians until at least the year 2000. I could not do otherwise than include my opinions of certain individuals ...'). A second autograph letter (octavo, 1 page, dated 6 November 1989) is loosely inserted in 'Stagnant Wells and Sandhill Stages', discussing the publication of this trilogy.

Offered together with eight further publications by Peter Muir. They are:

MUIR, Ronald Sibbald 'Peter' and PUKUNGKA [Dolly WALKER]: Genealogy of a Ngalia Family. Leonora, The Author, 1985. Quarto, [i], 93 pages with numerous illustrations from photographs and artwork by the author. Black buckram lettered in gilt; a fine copy.

Number 31 of only 50 copies signed by both authors. The family history Walker's wife, Ngalia woman Pukungka (also known as Dolly Walker). The publication page states that Pukungka 'desired to record for posterity the known facts about her forebears before the knowledge becomes lost for all time with the gradual decline in numbers of the once numerous Ngalia population. Few of the old folk are left and when the last of the oldtimers are gone the younger generation will have lost for ever all knowledge of their ancestors and the old ways'.

Loosely inserted is a substantial autograph letter signed 'Pituri Pete' (quarto, 6 pages, dated 21 September 1988), addressed to Dick Kimber. Muir discusses his nickname, this book, his future publishing projects and his wife's family, touches on differences in Western Deserts kinship structures, and asks Kimber to track down two old acquaintances in the Alice Springs area.

MUIR, Ronald Sibbald 'Peter': Pituri Pete. A Saga of Cattle Lands and Desert Sands by R.S. Muir, 1929-1985 [Stockman & Legend (cover subtitle)]. Leonora, The Author, 1987. Quarto, xx, 646 pages with numerous illustrations, plus a loosely-inserted cancel leaf (to replace pages 639-640). Half morocco and cloth; covers slightly worn; a few other minor signs of age and handling; an excellent copy.

Number 12 of only 50 copies signed by the author. This copy is additionally inscribed 'With Best Wishes To Dick Kimber from Pituri Pete himself, 21st Sept 1988' and initialled by the author. Muir's colourful memoir includes accounts of the initiation ceremonies he underwent with the Arrernte people of Central Australia, including circumcision and sub-incision, possibly the only white man to do so. The book contains chapters on Muir's many outback journeys - droving (including on the Canning Stock Route), prospecting, dingo-trapping, and water-finding. A short autograph note signed 'Pete' is loosely inserted with the cancel leaf (which expands the 'Notes & Afterthoughts' section).

MUIR, Ronald Sibbald 'Peter': Pack Saddle. Leonora, The Author, 1988. Quarto, [vi], 260 pages with several illustrations. Ochre buckram lettered in gilt; a fine copy.

Number 8 of only 50 copies signed by the author. It is additionally inscribed and signed 'To Dick Kimber from Pituri Pete'. A collection of verse and other writings; Pack Saddle was the name of the home Muir shared with his wife Pukungka.

MUIR, Ronald Sibbald 'Peter': Sand Soaks and Desert Oaks. The 1965-68 Exploration Journals of Peter Muir. Leonora, The Author, 1988. Quarto, [xii], viii, 164, [144] (appendices, including numerous maps) pages plus numerous pages of illustrations (from photographs). Blue buckram lettered in black; slight paper flaw to the head of two early leaves; an excellent copy.

Number 17 of only 50 copies signed by the author. It is additionally inscribed and signed 'To Dick Kimber from Pituri Pete'. Based on Muir's journals kept as he travelled through remote and largely unsurveyed desert interior of Western Australia while employed as a dingo trapper by the Agricultural Protection Board.

MUIR, Ronald Sibbald 'Peter': 'Empress Spring'. A Diminished Aura. Leonora, The Author, 1991. Quarto, [iii]-vi, 170 pages with numerous maps and illustrations plus 39 pages of illustrations (most from photographs) numbered vii-xlv. Strip bound with transparent plastic front cover; a few minor signs of age and handling; an excellent copy.

Number 8 of only 50 copies signed by the author. It is additionally inscribed and signed 'To Dick Kimber with all the best from Pituri Pete, 12th Feb. 1994'. The account of travels in the Little Sandy Desert by bushman, drover, dingo trapper, prospector and poet Peter Muir, in his attempt to rediscover Empress Spring the cavern and waterhole, named by David Carnegie after Queen Victoria in 1896 (desperate for water, he captured local Aboriginal man and forced him to lead the party to a water source under duress). It includes stories told by Muir's wife, Ngalia woman Pukungka, and descriptions of other desert soaks.

MUIR, Ronald Sibbald 'Peter': The 1990s Dominion Debacle. Collated by NHRC Heritage Officer Peter Muir. Leonora, Ngalia Heritage Research Council (Aboriginal Corporation), 2000. Quarto, iii, 174, [174] (appendices) pages with numerous illustrations (from photographs). Comb-bound wrappers with transparent plastic front cover; a few trifling signs of age and handling; an excellent copy.

Number 48 of only 50 copies signed by the author. It is additionally inscribed and signed 'For Dick Kimber | With Compliments of | The Author | March 12 | 2001'. The account of resistance to a proposed open-cut nickel mine at Yakabindie in the Western Australian goldfields area by bushman, drover, dingo trapper, prospector and poet Peter Muir. He co-founded the Ngalia Heritage Research Council (Aboriginal Corporation), which led opposition to the project on the grounds that it would destroy Aboriginal sites. Other Aboriginal groups did not oppose the project; they are dismissed in this publication as 'renegades' opposing traditional values, 'paid agitators', and 'bogus elders'. The lengthy appendices include Muir's 'Ethnographic Report on the Cultural Significance of the Barr-Smith and Violet Ranges, 1990-91'. This includes a restricted transcription, translation and exegesis of the relevant songline, which tells the story of the dragonfly man Tjiinkuna and three snakes. (In the introduction to this work Muir writes that 'There is actually no geological feature of the landscape that can be destroyed without it also destroy [sic] a page or pages in the encyclopedia of Aboriginal history'). The appendices also reproduce contemporary media reports, the ethnographic, archaeological and ecological reports relating to the mine, correspondence, and more.

[For a later alternative account, consult 'A Report on an Aboriginal Heritage Consultation & Inspection of the Violet Range Site ID 22277' by Aaron Rayner (available online), which states in part 'The Violet Range is not - an Aboriginal site of importance and significance in accordance with Aboriginal tradition. It is a site fabricated by Mr Peter Muir in his attempt to prevent Dominion Mining from developing their mine at Yakabindie in the early 1990s - [nor is it] a cultural and geographical reference point. It is not associated with the Tjinkunya Tjila myth'.]

MUIR, Ronald Sibbald 'Peter': The APB, Dooley & Me. Leonora, The Author, 2000. Quarto, [iv], xviii, 234, [56] (maps) pages with numerous illustrations (most from photographs) plus numerous others additional to the pagination. Comb-bound wrappers with transparent plastic front cover; a few trifling signs of age and handling; an excellent copy.

Number 47 of only 50 copies signed by the author. It is additionally inscribed and signed 'For Dick Kimber | With Compliments | The Author | March 12 2001'. Bushman, drover, dingo trapper, prospector and poet Peter Muir's account of his marriage to Pukungka (here called Dooley and otherwise known as Dolly Walker), whom he met while employed as a dogger by the Agricultural Protection Board (APB) in the remote and largely unsurveyed desert interior of Western Australia.

TALBOT, H.W.B.: Geological Observations in the Country between Wiluna, Hall's Creek, and Tanami. Western Australia Geological Survey Bulletin No. 39. Leonora, Peter Muir, 1986 (facsimile)/ 1910. Quarto, [vi], 114 pages with numerous maps and illustrations. Strip-bound overlapping plain card covers; tiny tear to the upper edge of the overlapping wrappers; in near fine condition.

Number 6 of 50 copies of this facsimile edition, additionally inscribed and signed (as Pituri Pete) to Dick Kimber. This edition includes some additional illustrations and the maps have been reorganised.

Provenance: All items come from the collection of Dick Kimber (Richard Glyn Kimber AM, 1939-2024, Centralian author and historian). [11 items].

Item #147151

Price (AUD): $7,500.00
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