Hermannsburg and The 'Singing Strings'

The inside story, not the fairy story

Chapters 36-41 from volume one of The Tale of Frieda Keysser

Why did Frieda Keysser, aged just twenty, set out from Bavaria at 4 o’clock in the morning of 5 August, 1895 to travel to the other side of the world to marry a man she had only met in person for thirty-six hours?

Hermannsburg and the “Singing Strings” introduces you to the world Frieda was about to step into, one which would test her resourcefulness to the maximum, for Hermannsburg in Central Australia was on the frontier of the British Empire: life was harsh, most Aranda people were still nomadic, and often there was bloodshed. The nearest doctor was a thousand miles away, supplies came up twice a year from Adelaide, and even finding a reliable water supply was a constant struggle.