Across the Kimberley Part 7 - Visiting a wetland, more rock art and the Mitchell Falls Wilderness Lodge

Today is Anzac Day, 25 April, the day on which Australians and New Zealanders honour those who served in World War 1, World War 2 and all the other conflicts that have occurred since then. Services are held all over the country, and special services are held at Gallipoli in Turkey and the Somme in France. When I was on my river cruise along the Seine river in France last year, I visited the Somme and if you look my posts about that experience you will know how profoundly that moved me. 

In particular today I honour my own father, who served for the entire duration of World War 2, mostly in a hospital unit. He was one of the highly respected, very brave ‘Rats of Tobruk’. Before he died my children and I used to march with him in the Anzac Day parade in Melbourne, with my children holding the unit’s banner. In his later years, each early April I also used to take him to the service for his unit at the Shrine of Remembrance as well as to his reunions that were held after the service. It was a tremendous privilege to do this. And yet my father and his mates never talked about the horrors they experienced - only the occasional funny incident that happened. 

I have been delighted to hear that at last those Aboriginals who served in the wars, especially World War 2, are being properly honoured and recognised today. 

Speaking of Aboriginals, as we travelled further along the Mitchell Plateau, we visited a picturesque spot called Munurru, where there was a wetland and we had a picnic lunch, and then another site with both styles of Aboriginal rock art. The photos will speak for themselves. 

Eventually we arrived at the Mitchell Falls Wilderness Lodge, where we spent two nights. 

The next day the other members of our group either went for helicopter rides over the beautiful Mitchell Falls (which many of the passengers on the ship on which we travelled along the Kimberley Coast also had done) or hiked into the Falls. Chappy advised me not to do the hike because it was very tough going, and of course I could not go in a helicopter, so I spent the day in the camp on my own. But I didn't mind - it was day of catching up with my hand-washing and just relaxing. It was good to have a break from the long drives over very rough, bumpy roads and hikes in the heat. And the staff were very friendly. But I believe the Falls were spectacular. 

I have included photos of the campsite and my ‘tented cabin’, which was just like the other Lodges we stayed in. You can see there was bush right up to the cabin door. This site even had a creek running through it. 

Our lovely Chappy telling us about the rock art.

Some tiny wildflowers growing at the base of the rocks.

Reflections in the creek at the Mitchell Falls Wilderness Lodge.

Some of the 'tented cabins'.

Our gathering area where we enjoyed nibbles and drinks around the campfire at dusk before our evening meal.

My cabin and luggage.

Inside my cabin. The shower, basin and toilet were in the back section. 

My veranda.

Across the Kimberley Part 6 - The Drysdale River and Aboriginal Rock Art

I seem to have a gap in the photos stored on my laptop, both in their dates and context. According to my notes, after our last night at the Bell Gorge Wilderness Lodge, we travelled through Kimberley cattle country to Galvans Gorge and Barnett River Gorge, then headed for the Drysdale River Station. It was great to stay on a working cattle station that was set up to cater for visitors. The staff and owners were most friendly, as Chappy  knew them well and had worked for them during a break to help set up the accommodation. In fact, after our tour he left APT for a full-time job at the station. A great gain for them but a huge loss for APT! I have met other APT tour guides since then -  none could measure up to our Chappy! I an not sure what happened to my photos of the station. They may be stored elsewhere. 

I believe that the photos of a river environment shown below are actually of the Drysdale River, as I remember how picturesque it was. 

The next day we drove on the Mitchell Plateau and visited some stunning Aboriginal Wandjina and Gwion Gwion rock art galleries. There are two very different styles of painting found in the Kimberley, which we also saw on the islands on our Kimberley cruise. Gwion Gwion rock art (also known as Bradshaw rock art after the pastoralist who first discovered the paintings) consists of images that are basically stick figures, which are shown wearing various accessories, such as pouches. Wandjina rock art looks more ghost-like, as it depicts various spirits or gods. They have no mouth, as it was believed that water would pour out from their mouth continuously if it was shown. 

It was just awe-inspiring standing there looking at the beautiful, yet simple images, left on such richly coloured rock tens of thousands of years ago. I tried to imagine the people gathered there with their ochre and white and yellow clay telling their stories, telling of what they could see or what they believed through the images they created, no doubt chatting away to each other as they did so. This was a most memorable, fascinating, moving experience. I felt very privileged to have the opportunity to see these ancient rock galleries.

I have included quite a few photos of the rock art and surrounding area. 

Looking through the crystal-clear water.

You can see our bus in the background. 

See the tree roots wending their way through the rocks.

Standing further back from some of the rocks. You can see the paintings on the lower parts.

Standing with my back to the rocks looking at a large termite mounds. These came in all kinds of shapes and sizes. 

A solitary tree and its roots.

Across the Kimberley Part 5 - Bell Gorge

After our picturesque yet bumpy journey right out in the wilderness along the Gibb River Road, we finally arrived at the Bell Gorge Wilderness Lodge, which was literally right in the middle of ‘nowhere’, surrounded by native grasses and trees. 

It consisted of a central building with an outdoor but covered dining area and a huge circular area, in the centre of which was a big camp fire, as well as ‘tented cabins’. As I was a solo traveller, I had one of these cabins to myself. These had a slatted timber floor and corrugated iron ‘ensuite’ with a shower and basin and toilet, and canvas walls.

On our arrival we received the warmest of welcomes, and after being helped to our cabins to store the luggage we needed for the two days, we were greeted with some wonderful nibbles and drinks around the campfire. There were small groups of other people staying there as well, and very soon we were all chatting away and sharing stories of our journeys. And it was not long before I knew the reason for the campfire. There was an incredible drop in temperature over that hour, from about the 40 degrees Celsius we had over the day to nearly zero!  This is what happens in outback areas as the sun sets! Soon we were all availing ourselves of the thick warm ponchos that were on offer, and were very glad of them as we then ate our delicious dinner. 

That night I was so cold I went to bed fully clothed in my thickest jacket, woolly hat, socks, etc. I still shivered like mad until I eventually fell asleep. And I nearly froze having a shower in the morning. My goodness that was tough! I have never towelled myself and dressed so quickly. (This was to be the case on much of the rest of our journey!)

And yet a couple of hours later it was back to 40 degrees! And we were off to see the lovely tiered water-holes and rugged cliffs of Bell Gorge. some of which were a wonderful rich red colour. I am not allowed to swim because of my ears, but most of our group had a wonderful time in the water, delighted to have relief from the relentless heat. It was great for them to have a safe place to do so - there were no crocodiles here! 

However, even though I sat in as much shade as was available to enjoy my picnic lunch and watch everyone having fun, I came close to having heat stroke as I carefully picked my way over all the rocks along the track on the way back to our bus. I became quite dizzy, but Chappy again rescued me, sitting me down and placing cool wet cloths on the back of my neck until I recovered enough to go on. 

That night we had another great time around the camp fire and terrific food, so we were sorry to leave there the next morning for our next destination. 

My first photograph is the only one I was able to get of the lodge, the next one I think was a creek we stopped at on the way to Bell Gorge, and the rest of the photos were taken at Bell Gorge. 

Across the Kimberley Part 4 - more about our Aboriginal people

After we left the colourful Windjana Gorge, we began a new phase of our journey - driving along the famous Outback highway, the Gibb River Road. This was an unmade road. Even though it had been graded since the last floods in the previous Wet Season, it was quite a bumpy ride! 

Along that road, we first visited the remains of the old homestead on the cattle station where the young Jandamarra had lived with his mother for a while. I found that very moving. 

If you saw the Opening Ceremony of the Commonwealth Games at the Gold Coast in Australia last week, you would have seen some performances by our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, including the Bangarra Dance Company. I have seen several performances of the Bangarra Dance Company. They are simply extraordinary and powerful, especially when telling the story of the early encounters between our First People and the white settlers with symbolic imagery and artistic and very talented dancing. 

Many white people both here and overseas in those early times claimed Aboriginal people were ‘no better than animals’ - even sending their skulls to museums in England to try to prove they even had smaller brains (which of course was not the case)! The arrogant, ignorant beliefs of these white men were used to excuse and justify their brutality towards the Aboriginal people - the killing, the raping of the women, and the stealing of their land. On top of that, the early settlers introduced diseases that wiped out many groups of Aboriginals. 

I am sorry to say that white people have gone on causing untold harm and heartache. Countless Aboriginal children were forcibly taken from their parents for years and years - ‘The Stolen Generations’. Different tribes were herded into settlements away from their sacred sites and land, and forbidden to celebrate their culture - their stories, their art, their dance, their music. If they tried, they were beaten. The consequence was most of their 500 or so different languages have disappeared and most of the Aboriginal people who were incinerated in this way lost so much of their spirit, their dignity, their way of life and incredible knowledge of medicines and bushcraft that had been passed down from one generation to the next over sixty thousand years. It is simply appalling! I am absolutely ashamed of all those who participated in this dreadful destruction of a people. 

Now there are big social problems due to the introduction and promotion of alcohol into many Aboriginal communities by greedy white men. This has been just as destructive as tearing them away from all they knew. Before white men came our First People never drank alcoholic drinks, so they lacked the enzymes needed to break down the alcohol and were seriously affected when they drank. Between the way they have been treated and the introduction of alcohol, little wonder many have committed suicide and many have turned to drugs and alcohol and crime. 

But that is only part of the story. Many Aboriginal people have risen above all this. We have had an Aboriginal State Governor, and many Aboriginal Members of Parliament, wise leaders, university lecturers, doctors, lawyers, authors, teachers, leading sportsmen and women, opera singers, musicians, artists, cattle station managers, and so on.  And now various state governments are recognising that our indigenous people are far better at looking after our national parks than white people, so have given them charge of a number of parks. Thank goodness! They are far better custodians of our land than most white people. 

But, in fairness, I also have to say that a lot of white people have worked tirelessly to redress the wrongs that have been perpetrated. I have tried to do my bit working alongside Aboriginal and white people to provide really worthwhile programs for school students. The students simply loved them! Through this I have met many wonderful Aboriginal people and learned so much of their story. 

In the next post I will talk about the Wilderness Lodge where we spent that night and the next, and our visit to the spectacular Bell Gorge. In the meantime, enjoy the photos of the the old homestead, as well as some of the rugged scenery and majestic escarpments along the Gibb River Road. The photos speak for the selves, so I have not included captions this time, though I will say that since the signs were erected outside the old homestead, new evidence has shown that the Aboriginal people were here at least another 20 000 years earlier than the 40 000 years stated on the sign.This makes them the oldest living race in the world.