Sam Irvine
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Sam Irvine (12 January 1890 – 12 December 1959)[1] was a bushman and mail contractor who worked throughout the Northern Territory in the 1920s and 1930s who became a well known identity in the area.[2] Ernestine Hill called Irvine a "hero of the north".[3]
Irvine was born 12 January 1890, the youngest of 12 children to Scottish immigrants John and Margaret Irvine in Boucaut, South Australia. Irvine started work at a young age, when he was only 14, and worked on various cattle stations and wool sheds in the area.
At 22 Irvine married Mary Farrell, at St Ignatius Church in Norwood, who he met when working at Coonamoon Station; their wedding was held in the vestry of the church as Irvine was not a Roman Catholic like Mary.[4] The couple would go on to have 4 children; Margaret, Jean, Donald and Kathleen. In 1919, for the education of their children, the family moved to Adelaide and, unable to find work, Irvine took on the mail contract between Kingoonya and Coober Pedy in 1920[2] (a distance of 218.63 km or 135.85 miles).[5] Irvine was the first contractor on this mail run to motorise the mail service, which had previously being done using camel train or pack horse, and, in doing so, had to make his own road and even cut the last 96 km or 60 miles through the opal fields. He created many of these roads by dragging a log or steel bar behind his truck.[6] Irvine also had to carry a significant collection of spare parts as there were no mechanics or service stations to help and few people had his mechanical knowledge.[7]
This separation from his family, differences in religion, loneliness in the work he was doing and other personal problems contributed to his relationship with his wife breaking down.[4]