Wildlife at Uluru/Kata Tjuta National Park

Many of the large animals in the area surrounding Uluru have been scared away by tourists, and most of the smaller animals come out at night when it's cooler, so we didn't see many things bigger than a breadbox. Except for the feral camels. We only got a glimpse of them in the distance, but seeing wild camels cross the desert was definitely a highlight. A few weeks ago Andy and I had seen Tracks, a movie about Robyn Davidson's nine-month trek across the desert of Western Australia, and this gave us just a teaser about the landscapes and the stories of feral camels.

I did capture pictures of two interesting birds. One was a crested pigeon and the other was a species of magpie, smaller than the ones we have in southern Victoria.

Such a cool shot with Uluru in the distance

But the insects were most spectacular:

Grasshopper on jackets in the market

Caterpillars were widely varied and interesting

A huge walking stick-like bug out at night

We saw many moths but only this one colorful butterfly

Lots of beetles - we saw one that was sparkly like a brooch

Camouflage at work

Not camouflaged

And then there are the flies, and that's nothing.

As we waited for our bus to the airport, I caught a shot of this Huntsman spider in the hotel lobby.

Kata Tjuta

Sunset on Kata Tjuta from the previous Uluru tour

I forgot to mention that we arrived at Uluru 2 days after "the Royals" Will and Kate were there. As a result, we saw many spruced up paths and repainted posts. We even met a local artist who told us about her opportunity to meet and curtsy for them.

We specifically chose to visit Uluru during the Tjungu festival, an Anangu cultural event which included food, music, a footy game featuring indigenous sports star Mickey O, and, our personal favorite, local artists selling their beautiful wares.

We got up early on Sunday to see the first rays of sun light on Kata Tjuta, with the bonus of seeing the sun rise behind Uluru.

The moon and Venus over Uluru - just wow

At first light

It's early...

Although Uluru is the most famous of rocks in the area, we had heard that Kata Tjuta, or The Olgas, was also pretty spectacular. The Uluru tour had included many stories about Tjukurpa, the Anangu creation stories and explanations for physical sites around the rock. The stories of Kata Tjuta remain unknown to most “white fellas” and so our guide on this tour, Monica, provided mostly geography lessons on how both Uluru and Kata Tjuta formed. Uluru is sandstone and Kata Tjuta is conglomerate and both were formed approximately 500 million (!) years ago. The highest point, Mount Olga, is approximately 546 m (1,791 ft) above the surrounding plain. That point is  198 m (650 ft) higher than Uluru - about 2/3 higher than Uluru, which when standing below it just didn't seem possible. It may be because that is just one peak, and most all of Uluru is 350 m high making it feel more massive.

Eight-foot boulders just scattered about like pre-baked chocolate cookies

Melbournians Vincent and Leon (ages 4 and 6) enjoyed Monica's stories

Big rains had come just two weeks ago and a little still remained.

Our flight out on Sunday also featured some pretty cool views of both Uluru and Kata Tjuta where you can see land mass area rather than just a one-sided view.

Kata Tjuta

Uluru with airport in the foreground

More of an aerial view of Uluru

Uluru and Kata Tjuta

These places are otherwise known as Ayers Rock and The Olgas, named by European settlers.

We signed up for a special charter flight (with about 50 other people) direct from Melbourne to Ayers Rock Resort. We flew three hours into the center of the country and it was beautiful to see the barren desert landscape, but it made me glad we were flying over it and not driving through it for what would take approximately three days by car.

Uluru

We arrived just in time to check in, clean up, and eat a quick lunch before joining our 2:30 tour to see sunset at Uluru. We opted for a small group tour of 10. We were on the other side of the planet, in the middle of this vast country, and as this small world would have it, we sat next to a young couple from Fairfield! Jennie, our tour guide originally from Adelaide, drove us around Uluru, stopping various places to walk along the base. She told us some of the Anangu stories as we stopped at various caves, watering holes, and sacred spots. We were asked not to take photographs at places that were traditionally designated “women’s places” or “men’s places” so that there would be no chance of Anangu men or women to see these places kept secret from one another in their culture. Jennie explained that in Anangu culture, knowledge was shared in increments so she, and we, were considered small children, so we were only allowed to know beginning pieces of information.

Similar to Mount Shasta’s significance to the Hupa and other northern California tribes, all of Uluru is considered a sacred site by the Anangu people, the traditional custodians of that land. One of the major controversies of its time is whether or not to allow people to climb it. Visitors are strongly and repeatedly and in multiple languages encouraged not to climb both for reasons of spiritual respect and safety. We were told that there is a council that makes decisions about the park and all 12 of them have to agree to ban the climb. Currently there is one person who still wants to allow the climb and it’s the government’s minister of tourism. Our guide Jennie likened it to hundreds of strangers scaling the outside of one’s church. She told us that previously nearly 90% (of 300,000 tourists annually) climbed and today only about 27% do. Frankly I was shocked that even that many did. We saw mostly 20-somethings climbing when we were there, but I also saw a family with two young children and I wondered what the parents told their kids to justify that decision.

I had seen many pictures of Uluru before coming here. I started to write that it’s Australia’s iconic natural wonder, but honestly there are so many here it would be unfair to characterize it that way. Perhaps it’s the most iconic site in the red desert. But the postcard pictures in no way illustrate the massiveness or the varied textures of the surface of Uluru. There is generally just one side of Uluru depicted in tourism ads, but there are many cracks, crevices, and caves that you only see when standing in its shadow.

At sunset

You can google it if you want more details about the geographical history of Uluru but the basics are:

•   348 metres (1141 feet) high

•   3.6 km long (2.2 miles)

•   1.9 km wide (1.2 miles)

•   9.4 km or 5.8 miles around the base

•   covers 3.33 km sq. (1.29 miles sq.)

•   extends about several km/miles into the ground (no-one knows exactly how far)

More on Kata Tjuta and desert insects in the future posts.

Schulte Family Visitors

Our second set of family visitors arrived early last Thursday morning.  Neither my brother Tim nor his wife Karen slept much on the plane, but they were ready to see the city. We spent a couple days in Melbourne admiring the views of the beaches, marinas, and cakes.

Our friend John had invited us to an Essendon vs. St. Kilda Autralian rules football game on Saturday night at Etihad Stadium. We joined 36,000 other fans as we cheered on the Essendon Bombers, because that's who John barracks for... He lent us his black and red team scarves but, sadly, that didn't help the team win. Despite the loss, a good time was had by all.

Selfie at the game - Andy, John and Tim behind Karen and me

The next morning we hopped the country train and arrived in Warrnambool midday. We went straight to see the uniquely Australian animals at Tower Hill. We scored with close-ups of wallabies, echidnas, kangaroos, and one of the coolest koala experiences to date. See videos here and here.

Tim video taping the koala's trip

Koala pictures never get old

Kangaroo stopping to check us out

Echidna

We spent Monday exploring Yambuk beach and river wildlife.

Tim learning to fish for gummy shark from a local

Did you know pelicans mate for life?

 On Tuesday we headed out to the Great Ocean Road for coastal vistas and more walks on the beach.

That's Tim and Andy, mostly Tim, getting hit by a rogue wave.

Going On The Country

Saturday, April 12, was past, present, and future at the Framlingham Aboriginal Reserve.

“Ngatanwarr !”

“Welcome !  You are now standing on the Land of the Peek Whurrong, Tjap Whurrong, and the Kirrae Whurrong clans of the Gunditjmara Nation.”

The 150^th Anniversary Celebration, plus 50,000, of the Country.

The Framlingham Mission, the Mish, Fram, now Aboriginal Reserve, is a powerful place.  

A few more excerpts from the program….

“We have survived on our land. This short sentence carries a great burden and great expectations. Our people have lived here for many more than 1000 generations. The invasion of our Country by Europeans 7 generations ago robbed us of our land, our natural resources, our culture and way of life. Our people were murdered, killed by foreign disease, rounded up and put on reserves. Many European families became wealthy and powerful from stealing and exploiting our assets. If there is to be reconciliation the truth must be told and understood.”

“No longer do we live under the control of the Aboriginal Board of Protection Act. In 1967 we were granted the right to vote and be counted as Australian citizens. And in 1970-71 the Victorian Aboriginal Lands Act created Framlingham Aboriginal Trust and handed the Framlingham Aboriginal Reserve over to its traditional owners.”

It is a testament to the strength of telling the truth, and of the resilience of reconciliation, that this event was sponsored by the Framlingham Trust, in conjunction with the Australian Government and the State Government of Victoria. (and just like in Chico and many elsewheres, Rotary International helped with the parking.)

In Tasmania a month or so ago, I felt a great sadness in the land. It took me back to a dream and feeling from a long ago visit to Zacaleu, Mayan ruins outside of Huehuetenango in the northern mountains of Guatemala.  A massacre of Mayans on a massive scale took place there at the hands of Conquistadores. I fell asleep on a pyramid and heard the screams.

In Tasmania though it was sort of the reverse, but the causation much the same. It was the silence, the absence of any feeling of the first people, of things and spirits aboriginal.  The aboriginal custodians of the land in Tasmania were all, as in every last one, driven away or killed. A pained silence seemed all that was left behind.

Happily, in Framlingham the sounds, scents, and sentiments of the land are much more robust and complete. The Country and all it nurtures is just so alive and vital, that being stuck in the past is just not an option.

As now deceased local elder Banjo Clarke put it, “there is no past….everything is still happening.”

Or as the program put it…”We can’t change the past but we can shape the future.”

To enter on the land, to be in Country, was a real treat. A rare treat, as this event was thought to be the first time ever the non-aboriginal general public had been invited.

I had learned from previously reading Banjo Clarke’s transcribed oral history and autobiography Wisdom Man that being invited on to Country was of great importance to the social construct. Although there was a general invitation to the public, that invitation did not feel like a proper honoring of my understanding of going to one’s Country.

As luck or fate would have it, I had met and gotten to know one of Banjo’s adult daughters, Patricia Clarke, as she was an elder and representative in and for the local Koori Court. I arranged a meeting with her to ask permission to enter on her Country, which added a richness to the day, to the experience of being there.

Ever since we got to Warrnambool I had been attracted to the mouth of the Hopkins River, where it meets the sea. Estuaries have always been of great attraction and intrigue to me, where life begins and ecosystems meet.

Turns out that my elder friend Ms. Clarke wrote a book, The Rainbow Serpent of the Hopkins River. The Rainbow Serpent is a creation totem, one of the makers of Country. Life beginning and eco system creation. (Added bonus, Patricia is going to give me a copy!).

Hopkins Falls

Framlingham overlooks the Hopkins further up above the Falls. We got a tour to the river, to where the eel traps were. There was a sense of completion to my eel attraction.

From the river we went on to the cemetery. There was a burial section for the remains of unknown Aboriginals to be returned to the Country. Remains come from natural history museums in Europe, and from WWI AND II battle fields. Aboriginals volunteered and fought for Australia, but were not officially recognized. This resulted in burials overseas in unmarked graves.

One has to come home to Country, to continue the journey.

“See you in the Dreamtime” it said on the monument.

We toured the now closed school. The school where the uninvited black cars would come as public welfare officials stole a generation. 

We heard the music of Kutcha Edwards and Archie Roach, themselves both stolen children.

I got to talk with Kutcha, who I had met before at a Brophy House performance. Ann got to see her friend Tracy Roach making art with children. Our across-the-street neighbors Wayne and Deb were there. We met Deb’s parents.

We saw an eagle when we left.

There are so many pieces to an experience. Each one shapes and completes the whole.

In Journey To Ixlan by Carlos Casteneda, the “ending” is leaping off a cliff, continuing the journey in another dimension.

We are almost ready to jump, to come home to our Country to continue the journey.