Initial preparations

Murray Barrett returned from his sabbatical leave in Europe with renewed enthusiasm and a clearer idea of how he wished the Yuendumu study to progress. Extension of the research to include general and craniofacial growth would require additional funding and personnel. The researchers needed specialised equipment and to learn and test new research techniques before the next visit to Yuendumu in 1961. The number of academic staff members involved in the research projects soon increased from one to two: Murray Barrett, the Reader in Prosthetic Dentistry, and Tasman Brown, who had recently joined the staff as Lecturer in Dental Anatomy. Technical staff and occasionally students joined the principals on field trips to Central Australia. In later years, many postgraduate students and visitors from overseas made substantial contributions to the research objectives.

In the early 1960s, the main source of financial support was grants from research funds of The University of Adelaide. Transport of equipment and supplies to Alice Springs was generously provided through the auspices of the Commonwealth Minister for Shipping and Transport. Support was freely given by Government officials from South Australia and the Northern Territory. As always, the Baptist missionaries at Yuendumu offered accommodation to the principals and provided living quarters for others in the team. At this time, funding for the research was minimal and Barrett's team often relied on the generosity of others. For example, Brown recalls his first visit to Yuendumu in 1961 when he, Ross Macdonald and Peter Reade shared the tray of the Settlement truck with a group of Warlpiri people returning from Alice Springs.