Alexander Tolmer was a Police Commissioner, initiator of the gold escorts, and by all accounts a colourful character with a thirst for action and adventure.
With their carnivals and regattas, bathing-beauty competitions, amusements, sea and sand, beaches were one of the key gathering places for South Australians from the 1870s to the 1950s.
Camel driver Bejah Dervish, highly-regarded for his part in the Calvert Scientific Exploring Expedition in 1896, became a familiar figure in South Australia’s far north.