Wendy pays tribute to her saviour Jimmy James five decades on
WENDY Sheppard was just nine when she first met Jimmy James. A kidnapping victim, she was freezing, lost and near death when Jimmy appeared from the darkness. Wendy was just one of his miracles.
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WENDY Sheppard was just nine years old when she first met Jimmy James.
She had just endured her third freezing night after being abducted and dumped in bushland in the Adelaide Hills when he and fellow Aboriginal tracker Daniel Moodoo appeared through the trees.
There is little doubt Jimmy James saved Wendy’s life. She had wandered over 20km, hopelessly lost, over the previous three days. Without his intervention, it is unlikely she would have been found before succumbing to the elements.
Although their somewhat unorthodox meeting occurred in 1966, it is something Wendy has not forgotten.
“I really don’t think I would have made it through another night,’’ she said this week.
“I was starting to fade and was a little delirious and incoherent when Jimmy, Daniel and the searchers found me.
“There is no doubt their skills saved my life.’’
While Wendy, now 60, has thanked Jimmy James on several occasions when they met privately over the past few decades, she this week returned to SA and took part in a NAIDOC Week ceremony at Jimmy James’s memorial at Berri, in the Riverland.
She laid a wreath and publicly thanked him for not just saving her, but using his tracking skills to help the community on dozens of occasions.
In the years prior to his death in 1991, Wendy had visited Jimmy James on a number of occasions and they had spoken about his tracking and how he had mastered the now lost art.
“He told me he had been used for criminal cases before and that he was overjoyed at finding me,’’ she said.
“We talked about his tracking skills and he tried to explain how he did it.
“It was a rare talent that sadly is now lost with his passing and that of Daniel.
“South Australia owes both of these men a great deal and their efforts should not be forgotten.’’
She remembers Jimmy telling her his tracking skills involved close observation and awareness of the immediate environment, a sense of mindfulness of the moment and an understanding of psychology – to interpret just what the person being tracked was trying to do.
For almost 50 years Jimmy James worked closely with SA police and, in doing so, became one of the most significant Aboriginal figures in SA’s history.
Using tracking skills and instincts honed by generations of Pitjantjatjara men, Jimmy was instrumental in catching murderers, escapees and just about any other rogue who was silly enough to flee into the bush. Of the 104 times police enlisted the services of the proud tracker, two cases have become celebrated.
The first was in 1966 when he found Wendy, which ensured a place for him in the hearts of all South Australians at the time.
The second case is perhaps even more recognised. In 1982, he spent six days tracking child killer James George Smith after he escaped custody in the Riverland.
The chase covered more than 100km through some of the state’s roughest country. In the end, Jimmy’s brilliance prevailed.
The Smith case is remembered fondly by veteran detective, Senior Sergeant Sid Thomas. In 1982, he was attached to the former Special Crime Squad, assigned to the Smith manhunt.
He took a woman Smith had raped shortly after his escape to the last location she had seen the child killer in the Riverland.
From then it was a game of cat and mouse. While some clues were obvious, others were only noticed by Jimmy. A broken twig, disturbed insect nest or a barely perceptible footprint Smith left behind as he headed for the border.
Sen-Sgt Thomas remembers Jimmy explaining his work to him and other police officers involved in the manhunt as it unfolded.
“He tried to teach us,’’ he said.
“He told us what animal tracks belonged to, how big and even what they were doing and how he knew.
“He could tell how long a twig or a branch had been broken by looking at it, but we had no idea. It made the whole thing quite interesting. Often he joked that he had taught us enough and we should take over the tracking.’’
Sen-Sgt Thomas said Jimmy’s skill was evident when he lost Smith’s trail. He would sit and study his environment, the landscape and the terrain and try to predict the path his quarry would take. Invariably, he was spot on.
This occurred for the umpteenth time on day six of the manhunt when, seemingly out of nowhere, Jimmy told police to stop. He walked into the scrub for a few hundred metres until he again picked up the trail.
But this time he would walk no more, simply pointing to a rise another few hundred metres away.
Sure enough, Smith was found sleeping under a tree, just where Jimmy indicated. A polite tap on the head with a shotgun barrel woke Smith from his slumber.
“You could see the look of satisfaction on Jimmy’s face that he had achieved what he set out to do,’’ Sen-Sgt Thomas said.
“He loved it, he loved helping.’’
Originally published as Wendy pays tribute to her saviour Jimmy James five decades on
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