Volkes Hill to Cook track

Thank you very much for a thorough, detailed overview, Stephan. You are very kind.

That is great information.

Hi Boobook

That’s what it is all about, helping out fellow travellers.

If you check out my user treks, 2012 you should be able to download a copy of my track file.



Cheers



Stephen

Thanks Stephen, unfortunately, the User Treks seem to be broken again. I can't see any trek for that section and even if it was there, you cant select a treck from the map anyway.

I've raised this as an issue.

.
Yep, a nice quiet drive.
I seem to forget some details so am grateful for Stephen's photos.
If he was still using film, I would buy Kodak shares. lol
Good on you Stephen.

Thanks Phil. Great information.

Hi Tony,
Any info you need, just ask - done that road maybe a dozen times since 2001. I like to use it when travelling to WA - last time we used it was 2 years ago - took the shortcut to Dirk Harthog Island!
BTW, sold the 200series after one of the turbos died - I replaced it before selling to a mate who insisted he buy it. Bought a brand new Troopie so currently having good fun fitting it out.

Gday Peter,
Its good to see that Hema have finally worked out how to spell "Voakes" - at least on the Hill and the Corner. One day they'll get it right in their comments on the maps.
The old track via Bringyna and Churina has been closed for maybe 6 or 7 years now. Pity because it was part of the adventure of doing that track, but I guess these sites were of huge significance to the MT people - not a lot of permanent water sources out there, but at least Muckera and Waldana are still on the main road. It was great that Len Beadell was able to line up the road to take in these water sources. I think that after the Mt Davies Rd, it was probably the 2nd hardest track he put through because of the mulga and dunes he had to cross.

I see Hema call it Volks Hill and Voakes Hill is various places.Austopo calls it Voakes Hill and Westprint call it Vokes Hil. No one calls it Volkes Hill except me above LOL.

But I see it is Vokes Hill on the Beadelltours website, and for apparently for good reason. Len called it Vokes on the Plaque at the site.

Maybe Hema is still right half the time, but the 'other half'.

Another source of information on this subject.

This is the back of the road sign at the junction of the ABH and the side track that leads to Voakes Hill:





Note that the author is P. L. Vernon. If this is the great Peter Vernon of Canning Stock Route fame then I would trust his claim. At least he is right about the distance to Voakes Hill.

Cheers, John

My money is on Vokes Hill Corner. That's what Len Beadell named it on several of his plaques, and This 1909 article at the time of RT Maurice's death calls the cook and General hand W. Voke.



Besides, Westprint call it that. They generally do their research well.

R.T.Maurice called it Vokes Hill on the plan showing his 1901 exploration trip:



So Len Beadell was correct in calling it Vokes Hill in 1956.

Subsequently the name was changed by the Geographical Names Board. Voakes Hill was gazetted on the 18th November 1993 and then recorded on 28th November 1994.

So the correct spelling today is Voakes Hill.

Cheers, John

It's listed under both spellings here

SA Government Place names search.

Gotta feel for Bill Voakes - even his boss spelt his name wrong and got it wrong in the history books! :-)

John, can you please point me to where the name changed. I can't find that, or even a Geographical names board in SA.

Thanks

The name change was reported in newsletter number 31, June 2007, Friends of the Great Victoria Desert Parks.

The relevant section is ‘What’s In A Name’ on page 2.

Friends of the Great Victoria Desert

That was a nice find John. That was about the time I joined FOGVD.
I knew it had been spelt Voakes because that was the way it was spelt on Government maps. But his name got misspelt everywhere, so its nice to see Exploroz has it correct and the other mapping people are gradually getting it right.

You vokes are getting your knickers in a knot, over whether it should be spelt Vokes, Voakes, or Volkes? [;-)

Maybe it was originally Volks, because everyone knows that it's spelt and pronounced, Volks-Wagen!

I reckon I could bring up many hundreds of place names that have been misspelt, misheard, mispronounced, and changed from one form of spelling to another, several times over!

The name Vokes or Voakes actually comes from the ancient Norman conquest of England.
It comes from the French name "Vaux" - and because of the English linguistic stew of the Middle Ages, the scribes of the day couldn't settle on a precise spelling of the Anglicised version of Vaux.

Thus, the name became, Vose, Voase, Vaux, Voxe, Voaux, Vokes, Voakes, or Volkes! Take your pick!! LOL

Cheers, Ron.

I don't really care which way it is spelled, but I can see a lot of evidence that it is Vokes. And none other than some graffiti ( and a newsletter quoting that graffiti that it's Voakes.

I dunno why but it is bugging me.

The employer called him Vokes, a newspaper at the time called him Vokes, the person who naked he riad called it Vokes Hill but some graffiti guy says that's wrong.

I cant find any reference to the name change either.

Tony, at least we know its not Volkes :-)
Not sure why you are ignoring the Australian Government data.
Geoscience Australia (formerly AUSLIG) are responsible for the mapping of the country. They use Voakes on their maps. But Vokes still comes up on a search for historical reasons as that what was used prior to the change.
http://www.ga.gov.au/placename

Phil, I am not sure why this is bugging me so much.

But all the historical records show that the person's name was Voke. Voake is a recent name change.

I just think that the guy deserves to have a place spelled correctly if he was an explorer in those days, and two significant Australian explorers believe he deserved a place named after him. Even if he was 'just' the cook.

Every piece of evidence at the time, including many newspaper reports by different journalists, his boss, maps at the time, place markers, etc all point to his name being Voke, none suggest it was Voake except someone who decided to put graffiti on a sign recently. No other evidence of his name being spelled that way seems to exist.

If he was called William Voke, and a place was named after him with the same spelling, then it is Vokes corner. Surely? If contemporary accounts have it wrong then they should be corrected. I think the guy deserves that respect.

The blokes name was William Paul Voake (spelt that way in virtually all Govt records), he was born in Somerset in the U.K. in 1845 and died at Coorabie on 29/09/1922 at the age of 77.

He was sometimes called Paul Voake, and sometimes called William Voake.

On his marriage certificate (he married a woman called Girldina Smith on 20/11/1875), his name was incorrectly recorded as Paul Boake! (quite a common misheard name error, as I understand).

There's plenty of information on the man on the Ancestry message boards.

Cheers, Ron.

Can you point me to the official records please?

Ancestry can lead you in the wrong direction in less than 50 years.Been there.

The message boards are the only reference I can find of the person you are talking about. They have that person married to an Emily Dinah Voake. Typical Ancestary search. LOL.

The S.A. Births, Death and Marriages records are where to start. But you can't do any online search on their website, you need to be "on the ground".

S.A. Births Deaths & Marriages records

The above site also provides links to;

The Family history service - State Library of South Australia

The National Library of Australia. The NLA is really only suitable for finding military records and immigration records for the 20th century.
As Voake immigrated in the 19th century and does not appear to have served in any of Australia's military, I'd say the NLA can be discarded as a source of information on Voake.

The Ships List has been compiled from newspapers and records from State Library South Australia, official passenger lists (mainly of immigrants arriving in South Australia under United Kingdom assisted passage schemes) 1847-1886 GRG 35/48a (formerly ACC 313); the Sydney Shipping Gazette; the South Australian Register; the South Australian Government Gazette; GRG 35/48/2 Crown lands and Immigrant ships papers; the Biographical index SA 1836-1885.

I think that is a fairly comprehensive list of sources, which sources can be cross-checked one against the other.

One Paul Voake is listed as arriving in Australia on the "Electric" on Sat., Sept 23, 1865, and his nationality is listed as "English".

The Ships List

Genealogy S.A. is also a very helpful group.

Genealogy S.A.

Trove is an excellent source for digitised newspaper and other publications records, going back to the early 1800's - but be aware there are still many publications yet to be scanned, the OCR scanning is imperfect, and Trove still relies a lot on internet volunteers to make corrections to badly-scanned articles, and badly-printed publications.

Due to the regularly-imperfect OCR scanning, it is often easy to miss articles in a Trove search.

No need to scoff at the Ancestry information giving another wifes name for William Paul Voake - it's entirely likely Emily Dinah Voake was Voakes second wife, after the death of his first wife, Girldina.

Unfortunately, I can find no immediate-to-hand record of the death of Girldina Voake.
This could be because she was buried outside Australia, buried in an unmarked grave (of which there are many in Australia), or her death/burial record never made any publication, and is only held in the S.A. Births, Deaths & Marriages records, which can only be accessed in person.

Death of Emily Dinah Voake - 1939

Marriage of Paul William Boake to Girldina Smith

Cheers, Ron.

Thanks Ron, none of those point to Voakes being directly related to the person that was on the Explorations, though Paul Voaks was living near the area. Other than families tracing in Ancestry forums =tracing their history 80 - 100 years later guessing their name as related.


On the other hand, the following DIRECTLY place W Vokes with RT Maurice BY RT Maurice and at least 4 - 5 independent journalists AT THE TIME. All from TROVE and the SA Government sites.

References to W Voke

Map from 1902 showing RT Maurice’s travels from 1901
https://archive.sro.wa.gov.au/uploads/r/srowa/9/4/94d5083120defcff29be3c3a04e7173f63592697fbb9bc5c9252bc855993553b/3423-107.jpg


1901 article in the ‘Adelaide Observer’ just after the trip return
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/161769153?searchTerm=w%20voke%20maurice%20cook&searchLimits=l-state=South+Australia

Another article with interview of Maurice and extracts from Diary in ‘The Register’ paper
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/55676065?searchTerm=w%20voke%20maurice%20cook&searchLimits=l-state=South+Australia

Another article in the ‘SA chronical’
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/55676065?searchTerm=w%20voke%20maurice%20cook&searchLimits=l-state=South+Australia

1909 Newspaper article on RT Maurice’s death mentioning W Voke in 1901
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/164679853

Then Len Beadell named the corner on the Anne Beadell Highway Vokes Hill Corner.

Evidence of this includes to plaques he made at the time which still survive.
http://www.beadelltours.com.au/plaques/vhcnr_intact.jpg
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/44/Beadell_Sign_at_Anne%27s_Corner_5618.jpg

Also his daughter’s web site refers to Vokes Corner in many places.
http://www.beadelltours.com.au/past_2013.html