Day 43 - Kings Canyon

We took the unsurfaced Ernest Giles Road to Kings Canyon. The first 80km was easy going but the corrugations on the last 20km were wicked. It is a remote and enjoyable drive for the most part with the odd sand dune thrown in for variety.

We saw some squash like melons at the side of the road and wondered if we had stumbled on a source of bush tucker until we read that cattle often died after eating them.

Kings Canyon walk is high with views over flat plains to the far horizons. The initial climb to the top takes you up by 100m over a short distance. Thereafter the climb is a bit easier. The rock colours vary from white of fresh broken surfaces to rich reds of oxidised rock and browns of the mud rocks. We were regularly rewarded with domes and eroded structures or views down sheer cliffs into the canyons and gorges below. For a desert there is plenty of wild life. Insects hum away in the lower canyons and birds sing far and wide. There are two main types of sandstone, Mereenie on top and Carmichael below. Water soaks into the Mereenie sandstone over the centuries and tends not to pass through the Carmichael sandstone which contains compressed mud. Animals and plants thrive where the water seeps out. The black colour comes from algae on the face of the rock.

Material deposited about 400 million years ago

Rock domes formed through millions of years of erosion

Rock pool on top of the canyon

Day 41 – Hermannsburg – Home of Albert Namatjura

Friedrich Kempe and Wilhelm Schwartz undertook a significant task in establishing the Lutheran Mission at Hermannsburg on the Finke River in 1877. Their dedication to their cause and their care of the aboriginal community was quite remarkable. Today the Finke River Mission still functions although the original buildings house museum exhibitions and a few private homes.

They brought with them german building methods and standards. The stone pavement and side drains look like they have been lifted directly from Germany

They followed the local custom of using calico to line the ceilings.

The isolation ward built in 1974 follows more of an Australian style in its construction technique.

Isolation Ward at Hermannsburg

Day 38 – Alice Springs

There is so much to see and wonder at in Alice Springs. We started with two days, extended to four days and could have stayed a couple more. We started by reminding ourselves how much good John Flynn’s Royal Flying Doctor Service does in Australia. It is a great example of cleric giving both spiritual and practical support to the community.

The goal houses the Pioneer Women’s Hall of Fame, an extensive tribute to Australian women who have achieved significant things. It was created in 1993 by Molly Clark of Andado Station in retaliation to there being no mention of women in the Stockman’s Hall of Fame in Longreach.

Another character of Alice Springs was Molly Pink who set up a botanic garden. She would name trees she planted after politicians of the day. If the politician displeased her she refused to water the tree which would wither and die. There were many dead saplings. On another occasion she refused to speak to her aboriginal gardener for over 1,200 kilometres of a journey because had made a negative remark about a plant.

The telegraph station gives an insight to life around the late 1800s before even reading the plaques. The investment in setting up and maintaining the telegraphic link from Darwin the Adelaide was considerable. The station operated 24 x 7 with two telegraph operators initially and later four due to the volume of traffic. There was also a battery maintenance person and a cook. None of the telegraph operators had time to hunt for food so all the supplies for the station had to be transported from Adelaide in the dry season and last through the wet season.

The men who surveyed the line must have developed significant navigation skills. Just walk away from the station out of sight of civilisation and imagine surveying a patch of land over 1,000 kilometres from Adelaide. Not only do you need to find a place within 100 miles (160 km) of the previous repeater station but it needs to be near a water supply but not in flood plain. You then have to record and mark the location so the people building the telegraph station will be able to identify the spot and to build in the right place.

A scene the surveyor would have seen

Telegraph Station

Alice Spring - or a dried up water hole.

It is amusing to note that Alice Springs was originally named after Lady Alice Todd, who never visited the place. It also refers to one spring which was not a spring but a water hole which dried up after the telegraph station was built. The township was actually called Stuart but was renamed the Alice Springs in 1933 because of confusion between the two. One small dried up water hole became famous indeed!

Day 37 – Daly Waters & Devil’s Marbles

Daly waters has to be home to the daftest pub in the Territory if not Australia. It is a delightful spot and the landlord obviously has a great sense of fun.

Daly Waters Pub

The Devils MarblesThe Devil’s Marbles are every bit as spectacular as we had heard. One of the notable characteristics of Australian natural features is that they tend to be on a grand scale. These gigantic rock spheres are strewn over a wide area which adds to the impact.

On a more prosaic note the long drop toilets by the information panels are quite the best we encountered. No need for breathing apparatus or gloves. Clean, odour free and almost a pleasure to use.

Day 34 – Adelaide River - Katherine - Cutta Cutta Caves

On the way to Katherine, we visited the Adelaide River War Cemetery. It was quiet, peaceful and beautifully kept.

Adelaide River War Cemetry

The main attraction at Katherine was the Nitmilik National Park or Katherine Gorge. Unfortunately, it is accessible only by walking track or charter flight so we just saw the first few kilometres. The main track is about 35 km and takes several days to walk.

Cutta Cutta Caves were amazing for their extent and the fact that the air was comfortable to breath all along the route underground. The name means many stars because the aboriginal people believed that the stars rested in the caves during the day and came out at night.

One of the formations looked just like a face which our guide told us was the face of the stockman called Smith who originally discovered the caves.

Day 31 – Batchelor - Wangi Falls

Batchelor was largely developed during WWII and by the Rum Jungle Uranium mine. The town is well signed and has an informative volunteer-run museum in the quarters for the single women working at the mine. 

The quarters were in use in the 1950s and ladies had a fitted wardrobe with cupboards above, a knee hole dressing table with electric light and their own wash basin. Presumably the Rum Jungle Mine owners had to offer good accommodation to entice city girls to a remote place.

The men’s quarters were not so good originally and took some significant action by the union before the mine owners improved conditions.

We guessed from the headlines that the fate of flight MH17 was past news.

Wangi Falls dip pool is lovely to look at and refreshing to bathe in. The campsite has some tight corners for trailers and caravans. It also filled up just after midday. The hopefuls that arrived after dark had to stay in the car park and avoid the wardens in the morning.

With so little light pollution, we were treated to views of the Milky Way and earlier the fruit bats flying over us at dusk.

There are two interesting tin mines and a tourist precinct at the west side of the Litchfield Park. The tourist precinct was a bit overstated.

Life in the tin mines must have been hell. They were remote and economically marginal.

Rustin Engine

The miners did not understand the damage that silica dust would inflict on their lungs and suffered badly towards the end of their shortened lives. The Bamboo Creek mine flooded in the mid-1950s and as it was economically marginal it was abandoned due to the cost of removing the flood water and making it workable again.

The second mine, Mt Tolmer Mine at the Blyth Homestead, had a more varied history. The mine conditions were similar to the Bamboo Creek Mine except there was no machinery to process the ore.

Harry Sargent established a homestead 1928 as an outlier to the main Stapleton Station some 25 miles away. The older boys stayed at the homestead and worked the tin mine. Harry Sargent had 14 children probably driven by the need for family labour the make his station and the tin mine economic. The children had a hard life. All the older children, boys and girls, worked the tin mine.

Harry Sargent taught his children that is was weak and cowardly to seek help in the bush. On one occasion a horse crushed one of the girl’s hands. The arteries were not broken so the boys held her down, straightened her hand and made a splint of paper bark. Two weeks later the girl was driving an ox cart one handed with the other in a sling.

Litchfield Park is also home to the magnetic termite mounds. The term ‘magnetic’ is a bit misleading as the termites build to reduce the impact of the sun’s heat and therefore orientate their mounds north to south. The cathedral mounds are truly enormous.

Day 23 - Darwin

We stayed at Big 4, Howard Springs which proved to be a good choice based on what other travellers told us about their sites.

This was mainly a stay to ‘Do the museums’ and to catch up with some friends. There are numerous museums, informative heritage walks, a guided tour of Parliament House and the Mindil Markets at sunset. For a city that we had previously considered a bit of an outpost, Darwin has an amazing amount of history and vibrant commercial activity. The displays about the bombing of Darwin by the Japanese and the destruction of Darwin by cyclone Tracy are remarkable and poignant.

The highlight of the stay was a day trip to Bathurst Island.

We were transported from the Sealink Cat to the Bathurst Island by a sort of landing craft. On our arrival the police checked our bags for alcohol.

Landing craft to Bathurst Island

Police welcome

Strong current in the straits

The current between the islands being considerable as shown by the pull on the mooring buoy.

Our guide was an elder who told us about the history and customs of his people. Once again ‘skin colour’ plays a central part in who can marry whom to maintain health in the gene pool of about 1,800 people across both islands.

The only taboo place for photos was the cemetery where Christian beliefs and traditional beliefs mingle. Each warrior paints their face before a battle with a design which is unique to them. They do this so that the spirit of any opposing warrior they might kill will not be able to recognise them after the battle. It might be more confusing for the spirits if they all had the same design.

We were also treated to a smoking ceremony with fires lit using the traditional Zippo lighter. The blessing is “Good mind, good heart, good spirit.”

One of the girls, Roslyn Orsto, is a talented artist and she is due to exhibit in Sydney shortly.

Day 18 Katherine – Kakadu - Cagudju Lodge

We stopped at Katherine for supplies. It has a wide range of shops, plenty of servos and some places to visit on our return.

Cagudju Lodge, Kakadu,  caters for fly in tourists with the restaurant menus costing $150 per person which at least included wine. We settled on the A’van restaurant.

We are now in the land of salties and there are a few about as we saw later. Yellow Water is a picturesque wetland with plenty of fish, birds and maybe some small salties.

Crocodile safe walkway

 

The Warradjan Aboriginal Cultural Centre has an excellent exhibition showing the life and activities of the traditional owners. They now work very closely with the Parks Service to manage Kakadu. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take photographs. The other centre, Bowali, shows the history and nature of the land where we were allowed to take photographs.

We had a guided talk from a Njanjma ranger at Ubirr in the East Alligator Region which is right on the border of Arnhem Land. Once explained, the rock paintings for an encyclopaedic history and guide to the land. They told hunters which food was available in the area and recorded the clan culture for when they could eat certain types of food. They also recorded the punishments for breaking the laws. The laws seem harsh by our standards but they were the way the clans enforced their land management to secure a food supply all year round. They also enforced a strict marriage compatibility, presumably to preserve gene pool for their limited populations. It is interesting how our civilised perspective can blind us to a lot of knowledge from a different type of culture.

Our guide told us that his ‘Black man name’ was Wambirja and his ‘White man name’ was Grant

Original rock artwork shown on the above signs

Senior clan members ‘own’ particular parts of the rock painting library and they teach the young about the stories. We over-heard an Australian tour guide talking about the rock art. He was doing a good job but we learned more of the meaning from our guide.

White man arriving with guns

Top left of this picture is the rock Crocodile Dundee stood on as he whirled the bull roarer to summon help

Wambirja also told us how his people use some of the plants and materials. He kept stressing the distinction between ‘women’s business’ and ‘men’s business’ telling us that he should not be demonstrating some of the uses of the plants and could get into trouble. He introduced us to the delicacy of green ants. They made a refreshing titbit and tasted a bit like ascorbic acid.Cahills Crossing looked tranquil and obviously a good place for fish.

We spotted a slide from a reasonable sized crocodile which was probably a saltie.

Slide marks

White tracker up a tree

We looked but could not see the croc although we later saw two salties swimming up the South Alligator River.

A bit of local ingenuity for smoothing the corrugations on the unsurfaced roads.

 The rangers have a program of burning so the new growth is encouraged which in turn brings animals for food. They manage their fires so they are ‘cool’ and do not destroy the landscape.

The outcome seems to be plenty of new growth each year. It is interesting to contemplate why we have different fire management regimes in places like Kinglake and whether a change might yield a safer outcome.

The fires also flush out small animals so there is a general feeding frenzy for the raptors.