Mohammad Alam (Mohomet Allum) was born in Kandahar, Afghanistan in 1858 and moved to Australia as cameleer between 1884-1890.

However, he is famously known as herbalist in Australia who cured thousands of patients without charging a fee but accepted donations. https://twitter.com/NafeesRehmanDr/status/1286728930716778497

An earlier thread on the Afghan cameleers in Australia in case you want to read about how Afghans played a role in developing Australia but also suffered from systematic racism and discrimination. https://twitter.com/NafeesRehmanDr/status/1216343775146139648?s=20

Mohammad Alam settled in Adelaide in the late 1920s and started to practice as herbalist. He soon found fame in the town and elsewhere and many patients started to benefit from his herbal mixtures and advice.

That fame didn't sit well with the medical community and he was

charged with having posed as a medical practitioner while not registered under the Medical Probationer Act. Despite him saying that he never posed a doctor and had produced witnesses in large numbers to testify to it, he was convicted and was handed down a fine.

However, that trial and conviction earned him even more patients. Acc. to this new article published in Sunday Times (Feb, 1935), six hundred patients would call him DAILY & benefit from his services.

He was referred to as "Humanity's Benefactor","Wonder man" , "Uncrowned King", "The Modern Father Christmas", "The Idol of the people".

Source: The daily Voice April 11, 1936.

Though Mohammad Alam didn't know to read and write but he would publish pamphlets and write to newspapers with the help of others on Islam, racism, equality etc.

"The conquering, empire-building white man robbed them of their lands, their honor and their wild, free Independence. And, along with the men of India, Afghanistan, and ancient Japan & China, the intolerant white man is apt to display, in his arrogance, a "superiority complex..."

He generously contributed in the community, but also funded publications of Islam and contributed to construction of mosques.

Mohammad Allum married one of his patient Jean Emsley in 1940. In 1941, when he was 83 and his wife 20, a daughter was born. This news item reported on the birth of his daughter.

"Mohammad appears to have discovered the mystery of perpetual youth...."

"His eyes are bright, his steps firm, and his general demeanor more of a man of 50 years."

The proud 83 years old father with his daughter Bibi Nora. On the right, his home and some display of the jewellery of he and his wife wore.

Here is another report on him. "Moslem, 90, To lead 30-Day Fast".

[He always wore the turban which was (and still is) a significant Pashtun tribal identifier.

"When All Shall Face the Judge" a poetic tribute to Mohammad Alam published in the press.

Source: Sunday Time, Feb 1935

During the Great Depression, he gave away generously in charitable donations and would donate 6 sheeps to the unemployed every week.

In the mid 1930s, he had moved out of Australia. I can't say with surety what caused this decision but some say that he was upset with the govt taxing him for his charity.
However, his decision caused an uproar through Australia and he received thousands of letters asking him to

reconsider his decision. A petition signed by thousands, including mayor of Adelaide, was presented to him to stay in Australia. In the photo below, he is holding that petition.

He travel out and back to Australia would receive coverage with interesting headiness like this one.

"The Man of God Mohamed Allum Returns To Australia. In India, in Colombo, hundreds begged him to stay but to the call of the country where has spent 46 years he has hearkened"

He moved out of Australia again and lived with his Australian wife, who had converted to Islam, in Kandahar for some time. But she died there due smallpox. He then again moved back to Australia in mid 1950s.

He died on 21 March 1964 was buried in the cemetery that he had purchased much earlier and had already erected his tombstone there. The funeral procession from the mosque to the Centennial Park cemetery was over a mile long.