Things up here are pretty good – the weather is a steady 29-30°C each day and the nights are a beautiful 24. When it gets down to 28°C it feels positively cool!
We have met a few people here and managed to get a couple of invites out to social events at night – last Friday night we went to the surf life saving club. The Club are set up right on the beach (with a fence around) and every Friday they have a massive barbie, with a bar and everything. You grab a table and chairs, and set up anywhere on the lawn, and have a yarn over a few drinks and a burger while the sun sets. Pretty nice.
At about 11 or so, the gang decided to head to the Walkabout Tavern or the ‘animal bar’ as it is locally known. Its a pretty gross bar in the centre of town that hires hookers to come out from Darwin and Brisbane for a weekend – they serve behind the bar and once the beer jugs are filled with cash, they do a little topless action. Don’t get too excited anyone – they were feral, as were some of the patrons! Our group was attracting a little too much attention from some drunk old white folks so Em and I piked without regret. The Walkabout does have a nice lounge bar near its accommodation section complete with a pool, which is a much nicer way to spend an hour or so.
On Saturday, Em and I hired a 2wd hilux and headed out to Turtle Beach again – stopping at Yirrkala on the way to meet up with some people and watch the AFL. It was great fun - we had a kick with the local kids, and took a few marks from several missed shots at goal. The indigenous guys up here are so fast – that’s the biggest thing I noticed anyway. To my chagrin, the local hawks (Djarrak) team lost!
On Monday night, we went around to Dan the Doctor’s house for a birthday get together – he was cooking up a massive fillet of buffalo that he had hunted out at the Raminginning community (W of here) with a mate of ours, James. There were also couple of Yolgnu families there, and it was great to have a chat with them too – I learnt some Indonesian in exchange for a bit of Italian! The kids were very cute and told me about some local hip hop I need to check out. After talking with them for a while, we have decided we are definitely heading to the Garma Festival while we are up here at the beginning of August – its a five day cultural festival, music, dancing, food, camping etc.
With luck by this time next week we will have wheels (4wd ones!) so we can head out into the country again.
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adventures in the top end
Nhulunbuy/Gove - an intro
Gove Peninsula (including Nhulunbuy and Yirrkala)
An important mining town on the edge of Arnhem Land. At the northeastern corner of Arnhem Land lies the Gove Peninsula and the mining town of Nhulunbuy. It is accessible, on a regular basis, by air from Darwin (650 km) and Cairns (1190 km). During the dry season, and with the appropriate documentation from the Northern Land Council, it can be reached by 4WD from Katherine. The journey which passes through the Arnhem Land Aboriginal reserve is 700 km over rough dirt roads and takes approximately 14 hours. There are no fuel stops on the way. The current attitude of the Northern Land Council to such journeys is that there must be some reason beyond sightseeing or simply wanting to travel around the edges of the continent. Consequently applications to travel through Arnhem Land are not easy to obtain.
The Gove Peninsula was originally occupied by the Yolngu Aborigines and its proximity to the Arafura Sea means that for centuries the locals traded with the Macassan trepangus which visited the coast. In 1931 the area was included as part of Arnhem Land but during World War II, with the imminent danger of a Japanese invasion of Australia's northern coastline, the area became a major air force base with a population of over 5 000 servicemen. The peninsula was named after a young Australian airman, Pilot Officer William Gove, who was killed in action in 1943.
In the 1950s the Commonwealth Government carried out mineral exploration and in 1952 bauxite was discovered. The bauxite deposit covered 65 sq. km and contained an estimated 250 million tonnes. Initially the government resisted demands to mine the deposit but in 1964 Nabalco was set up and with a commitment to spend $100 million and build a port, township and mine, the company was granted a lease.
The town of Nhulunbuy (the word is the term used by local Aborigines to refer to the hill named Mount Saunders by Matthew Flinders) was started in 1969. Today it has a population of over 4 000. With no easy land links to the outside world all supplies are either shipped or flown in.
The establishment of the town did not occur without resistance from the local Aborigines. A land rights court challenge was mounted in 1968 and currently the participants in the Gove Joint Venture (Swiss Aluminium & Gove Aluminium Ltd) pay $9.5 million royalties each year.
Part of the royalties go to the local Aboriginal community. The rest benefits Aborigines throughout the Northern Territory.
To the south of Nhulunbuy is the Aboriginal community of Yirrkala. The settlement, which was probably inhabited for tens of thousands of years before the arrival of Europeans, was set up as a mission station in 1935 and was run by the United Church of North Australia until 1976.
In 1976, after four years of preparation, the Church handed ownership of the mission site back to the traditional owners who had set up the Yirrkala Dhanbul Community Association Inc. This subsequently came to incorporate the Yirrkala Town Council. The arrival of a large number of Europeans at Nhulunbuy and the mining of the area saw many of the traditional owners leaving the area and moving back into the hinterland regions of Arnhem Land.
An important mining town on the edge of Arnhem Land. At the northeastern corner of Arnhem Land lies the Gove Peninsula and the mining town of Nhulunbuy. It is accessible, on a regular basis, by air from Darwin (650 km) and Cairns (1190 km). During the dry season, and with the appropriate documentation from the Northern Land Council, it can be reached by 4WD from Katherine. The journey which passes through the Arnhem Land Aboriginal reserve is 700 km over rough dirt roads and takes approximately 14 hours. There are no fuel stops on the way. The current attitude of the Northern Land Council to such journeys is that there must be some reason beyond sightseeing or simply wanting to travel around the edges of the continent. Consequently applications to travel through Arnhem Land are not easy to obtain.
The Gove Peninsula was originally occupied by the Yolngu Aborigines and its proximity to the Arafura Sea means that for centuries the locals traded with the Macassan trepangus which visited the coast. In 1931 the area was included as part of Arnhem Land but during World War II, with the imminent danger of a Japanese invasion of Australia's northern coastline, the area became a major air force base with a population of over 5 000 servicemen. The peninsula was named after a young Australian airman, Pilot Officer William Gove, who was killed in action in 1943.
In the 1950s the Commonwealth Government carried out mineral exploration and in 1952 bauxite was discovered. The bauxite deposit covered 65 sq. km and contained an estimated 250 million tonnes. Initially the government resisted demands to mine the deposit but in 1964 Nabalco was set up and with a commitment to spend $100 million and build a port, township and mine, the company was granted a lease.
The town of Nhulunbuy (the word is the term used by local Aborigines to refer to the hill named Mount Saunders by Matthew Flinders) was started in 1969. Today it has a population of over 4 000. With no easy land links to the outside world all supplies are either shipped or flown in.
The establishment of the town did not occur without resistance from the local Aborigines. A land rights court challenge was mounted in 1968 and currently the participants in the Gove Joint Venture (Swiss Aluminium & Gove Aluminium Ltd) pay $9.5 million royalties each year.
Part of the royalties go to the local Aboriginal community. The rest benefits Aborigines throughout the Northern Territory.
To the south of Nhulunbuy is the Aboriginal community of Yirrkala. The settlement, which was probably inhabited for tens of thousands of years before the arrival of Europeans, was set up as a mission station in 1935 and was run by the United Church of North Australia until 1976.
In 1976, after four years of preparation, the Church handed ownership of the mission site back to the traditional owners who had set up the Yirrkala Dhanbul Community Association Inc. This subsequently came to incorporate the Yirrkala Town Council. The arrival of a large number of Europeans at Nhulunbuy and the mining of the area saw many of the traditional owners leaving the area and moving back into the hinterland regions of Arnhem Land.
1 comment:
Wish we could join you at the Walkabout for a bit of topless action!
Sounds like you're having fun.
Enjoy the new 4WD beast! Are you driving back from Brisvegas?!
EV, AW, CF, LB, RG, MB xxx
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