Soakage (source of water)

A soakage, or soak, is a source of water in Australian deserts.

It is called thus because the water generally seeps into the sand, and is stored below, sometimes as part of an ephemeral river or creek.

Soakages were traditionally important sources of water for Australian Aborigines in the desert, being the most dependable source in times of drought in Australia.

Aborigines would scoop out the sand or mud using a coolamon or woomera, often to a depth of several metres, until clean water gathered in the base of the hole. Knowing the precise location of each soakage was extremely valuable knowledge. It is also sometimes called a native well.

Anthropologist Donald Thomson wrote:

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Wells were covered to keep them free from fouling by animals. This involved blocking the well with dead branches and uprooted trees. When the wells fell into disrepair, people would bail the well, using the coolamon to throw slush against the wall. This would set like a cement wash and help to hold loose sand, preventing it from falling into the water.

Wells could be up to fifteen feet deep, with small toe holds cut into the walls.

Donald Thomson writes:

In the nineteenth century, both Warburton and Carnegie recorded that they had run down Aborigines with camels and captured and chained them to compel them to reveal their secret sources of water. This action left a lasting impression on the desert Aborigines, who would have handed accounts of this down through successive generations.

In the 1930s, when H. H. Finlayson made his journeys through the desert by camel, he noted that a gelded male camel, after a hard three-and-a-half-day journey in intense heat without water, drank 150 litres (33 imperial gallons) by actual measure without stopping, and fifteen minutes later, another 45 L (10 imp gal).

This sheds light on the resentment built up among desert Aborigines against explorers for the exploitation and, by enlarging well entrances and digging out springs, the devastation of their precious water supplies to satisfy camel teams.

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