Editing Canning Stock Route (section)

====Canning survey====
After it was determined that ticks could not survive a desert crossing, the government endorsed James Isdell's scheme and funded a survey to find a stock route that would cross the [[Great Sandy Desert]], the [[Little Sandy Desert]] and the [[Gibson Desert]].<ref name="Canning">''The History of the Canning Stock Route'', Education at the [[National Museum of Australia]], Canberra, available at [http://www.nma.gov.au/education-kids/classroom_learning/units_of_work/yiwarra_kuju Yiwarra Kuju: The Canning Stock Route – Education Kit] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120202075342/http://www.nma.gov.au/education-kids/classroom_learning/units_of_work/yiwarra_kuju |date=2 February 2012 }}</ref> [[Alfred Canning]], a surveyor with the Western Australian Department of Lands and Surveys, was appointed to survey the stock route.<ref name="Culture" />

Canning's task was to find a route through 1850 kilometres of desert, from [[Wiluna, Western Australia|Wiluna]] in the mid west to the Kimberley in the north. He needed to find significant water sources – enough for up to 800 head of cattle, a day's walk apart – where wells could be dug, and enough good grazing land to sustain this number of cattle during the journey south.<ref name="Canning" />

In 1906, with a team of 23 camels, two horses, and eight men, Canning surveyed the route completing the difficult journey from Wiluna to Halls Creek in less than six months. On 1 November 1906, shortly after arriving in Halls Creek, Canning sent a telegram to Perth stating that the finished route would "be about the best watered stock route in [the] Colony".<ref name="nmaMining" /> Canning was forced to delay his return journey because of an early wet season in the Kimberley that year. The survey party left Halls Creek in late January 1907 and arrived back in Wiluna in early July 1907. During the 14-month expedition, they had trekked about {{convert|4000|km|mi|abbr=on}}, relying on Aboriginal guides to help them find water.<ref>Ron Moon, [http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/journal/the-canning-stock-route.htm "The Canning Stock Route", Australian Geographic] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100430174937/http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/journal/the-canning-stock-route.htm |date=30 April 2010 }}, AG Online, accessed online 1 August 2010</ref><ref>Ronele & Eric Gard, ''Canning Stock Route: A Traveller's Guide'' (3rd edition), Western Desert Guides (2009)</ref>

Canning had always planned to rely on Aboriginal guides to help him find water and had taken neck chains and handcuffs supplied to him by the Wiluna police to make sure local "guides" stayed as long as he needed them.<ref name="Canning" /><ref>''Canning Stock Route Royal Commission: Royal Commission to Inquire into the Treatment of Natives by the Canning Exploration Party 15 January – 5 February 1908'', edited by Phil Bianchi ''et al'', Hesperian Press, Carlisle, WA, 2010: p. 126 (Q3126).</ref> In order to gain assistance in locating water along the route, Canning captured several [[Martu (Indigenous Australian)|Martu]] men, chained them by the neck and forced them to lead his party to native water sources ([[Soakage|soaks]]).<ref>Knowledge of the locations of soaks was essential to survival in the desert and subsequently Aboriginals, who knew soaks had been misused by Europeans in the past, were reluctant to reveal their locations. Canning's 23 camels are known to have destroyed several soaks due to drinking them dry. A mob of cattle on the Canning route required more than {{convert|110000|L|gal|abbr=off}} of water a day.</ref> As many soaks were sacred, the Martu may have misdirected the explorers away from these, resulting in the eventual stock route winding more than would otherwise have been necessary.