northern territory: kakadu, gagadju, animal tracks

It seems like a lifetime ago but about 18 months ago we were sitting a fancy Christmas dinner in Sydney with a bunch of Js colleagues. We were discussing our plans to do the big lap of Australia when one colleague insisted we do Patsy's tour in Kakadu. "If you are a foodie," he'd said, "you'll love it." 

I did a bit of research and a few weeks ago I found the notes of made for the Animal Tracks tour which leaves from Cooinda Lodge where we were staying with my parents. 

My parents were happy to mind the big kids while J and I headed out for the evening. I don't want to spoil the surprise for anyone who might take this tour but it really was a great experience. 

Attendees collected seasonal produce - fresh water mussels, bush carrots and what was left of water chestnuts at the end of a dry dry season. 

Preparing the magpie goose. Pluck, singe feathers, gut, portion, cook, eat. 

Patsy taught us some bush medicine and then her and our host Mark cooked our dinner the traditional way - on coals in a paperbark oven. We ate buffalo, magpie goose and barramundi on the edges of wetlands where thousands, some say millions, of magpie geese were nesting. 

It wasn't long before the loveable whistling kites came in for their share.  Back in the bus two dingos could be seen circling what was left of our feed.  

Thanks for the tip Paul. We are so pleased we took this tour. 

western australia: windjana gorge to fitzroy crossing via tunnel creek

It's a short drive from Windjana Gorge to Lillimooloora Station, the site where Jandamarra shot his friend, the policeman Richardson in order to free his people and from where he fled in to the Gorge at the onset of the three year battle which claimed many of the Banuba people and finally Jandamarra himself. 

The police outpost is now in ruins. Just standing at the station gives you a sense of the distances Jandamarra travelled. 

We love the boab trees right across the Kimberley and the red red dirt. 

Tunnel Creek is a thirty minute drive on the dirt and is where Jandamarra hid from police during the resistance. Sadly this is the place where the black tracker, Mickey, tracked and finally shot Jandamarra. 

In places you wade through knee deep water in the tunnel in the dark. To add to the adventure a few freshies inhabit the waters, which I was not aware of until J pointed out the bronze eyes staring at us! 

They stared. I might have squealed. And then they disappeared under the very water I had to wade back through! Did I mention it was pitch black?

Ironically we happened upon the huge muster of Brahman on the Leopold Down Station which is situated between Tunnel Creek and the highway. It was an impressive sight to see the cattle thundering around the rocks and boabs followed by a man on a motorbike while a helicopter hovered about jerking in one direction and then the next. 

Can you spot J, all of six foot three in this huge boab? We lept from the car (leaving the kids to ponder our excitement) when we saw this great specimen. We could only wonder how long it's been there!

western australia: windjana gorge

We "did the Gibb" about seven years ago when I was pregnant with our first born. I remember the corrugated road up to Mitchell Plateau and having difficulty having a conversation in the car. The road conditions vary depending on when the grader has gone through and how much traffic the road has endured. We decided that, despite the caravan being an off-roader, we'd leave it in Derby if we were to do the Gibb and that its just too special to miss Mitchell if we were to start the journey. It became evident, as we headed up the coast towards Derby, that we wouldn't do the trip this time and we'd wait until the kids are older. Two to three hours driving a day is best for our family with a break around the two hour mark. There are usually toilet stops in that first two hours too so it's slow going. 

We returned to Windjana Gorge though. The few kilometres from the turn off to Windjana was the toughest but it's so worth it. The tracks are well trodden by the thousands of visitors who, either privately or on tour, enter the National Park each year and whilst more people are visiting, the area has not lost its intrgue.The gorge is impressive and it's an equally beautiful place to go to sleep as it is to wake up in! 

The campground has had the addition of showers and toilets since we first visited and it cost us $24 per night.

Windjana Gorge is the setting of a three year campaign of Indigenous resistance to white settlement by the Banuba people, lead by Jandamarra. The establishment of this area for pastoral purposes came at a great cost to the local Aboriginal people whose sophisticated societal structure was decimated by those who were forging economic growth in Western Australia and the nation. Ironically that economic growth was dependent on free Aboriginal labour on those pastoral stations. 

Jandamarra's journey from being rejected by his family after an internal dispute to working for the constabulary and then fighting for his people is detailed in two books, Jandamarra and the Bunuba Resistance by Pedersen and Woorunmurra. A children's book, Jandamarra, has been written by Mark Greenwood. Our children engaged with this history and staying at Windjana Gorge took on a deeper meaning for them. Of course there were many questions asked and the discussions were sophisticated as they processed what had occurred here and across Australia. We could have told our kids stories like this one (and we will continue to) but it's experiences like this which will etch their understanding in to their beings. I am grateful to be able to both experience this (as a person, a mum as a teacher) and give my kids these experiences too.