We’re just past the halfway point on our Arnhem Land adventure and now beginning our exploration of east Arnhem Land, specifically the Gove Peninsula, from our base at the Walkabout Lodge & Tavern located in the middle of Nhulunbuy. This map shows the various trips we took during the week we were based in Nhulunbuy.
This is the map of the area we were exploring around Nhulunbuy on the Gove Peninsula.
The first foray was to Cape Arnhem and as there were size issues with our van we rode with Denise and Steve in their 4WD. It was a long day with challenging sand driving as we visited one of the most remote beach areas in Australia, most of which was superbly beautiful.
An endless array of sand dunes to cross over between our beach drives.We parked on this beautiful beach, went exploring, climbed sandhills and had a bbq lunch.Interesting rock formations to explore and we had the place to ourselves.Denise and I enjoying a beach walk.I scrambled up to the top of this high sand dune.This was the view from the top of the dune.So many beautiful beaches. Steve and Denise with their 4 WD.Lots of beach drivingAs part of their commitment to be a positive force when they visit Arhnem Land, our tour group, Great Divide Tours, got us to pick up rubbish on the beach.Denise found a baby turtle in the rubbish we were collecting. She put him into the sea so he had a chance of survival, but he looked very tiny.With all that sand driving, the only one to get bogged on the beach was Neill, our guide. With Maxx tracks and some pushing he got out quite easily.In a short period of time we collected many bags of rubbish and took them into town.Beach convoyWe called ourselves the Fearless Four for our radio calls. This was taken in the bush where we aired the tyres up to go back to town on the sealed roads. It was a very long day of challenging 4 wheeldriving and we got back in the dark.
With some spare time in Nhulunbuy we could catch up on chores. A cheeky bird got into our van and left a mess on our bed so I had extra washing chores to do. The afternoon saw us visit Rainbow Beach and get in a nice beach walk before we had a session with the owner of the hotel who talked about the history of Arnhem Land and the aboriginal people who live there. He showed us the deep harbor in town and the secenic lookout tower. Nice to get some local flavor.
Rainbow beach with its colorful cliffs. They would be more colorful if we’d been there on a bright sunny day.The view over Nhulunbuy from the tower.Our info session at the harbor in Nhulunbuy.
The next highlight was a drive to Yirrkala to visit the Buku-Larrngay Mulka Art Centre. It was established in 1976 and is one of the oldest and most celebrated Indigenous community controlled art centres.
Upon arrival we were greeted with two very large, impressive murals on buildings next to the Art Centre, honoring the land rights pioneers.Father of Land Rights honored here.Inside the art centre a woman is working on a large painting.This internationally renowned art centre exhibits and sells bark paintings, memorial poles, fibrework, handmade jewellery and limited edition prints.These are the memorial poles (larrakitj). A bit big to take home. They also had lots of didjeridus (yidaki).
We had a look at the nationally treasured Yirrkala Church Panels and learned the story of their history. Amazing to see and no photos were allowed. The two Church Panels (each 12 feet tall and four feet wide) were painted in 1962/63 with the sacred designs of clans in the Yirrkala region. As we learned, the Yolngu society is divided into two moieties -Dhuwa and Yirritja- and so too are the Church Panels. Since the paintings mapped Yolngu rights in land, they were the first significant “land rights” statement documenting Aboriginal custodianship of their country. These panels were the forerunners of the famous Yirrkala Bark Petition sent to Canberra in 1963. The more aboriginal history we learn in our travels, the more I feel ashamed for what has been done to the traditional owners and the more I marvel at their continued interest in sharing their culture with non-aboriginal people.
As we drove out we saw how the trees were ‘barked’ or had their bark stripped for the bark paintings.
After another lovely beach stop for lunch we visited Garanhan Beach or Wurrwurrwuy, where a unique cluster of stone arrangements or stone pictures records the trade between the Yolngu people of Arnhem Land and Macassans from Indonesia that existed for several centuries until 1907, when the SA government enforced a customs duty on traded goods. The stone pictures illustrate praus (Indonesian boats), fireplaces (for cauldrons to boil trepang), fish traps, houses and trepang (beche-de-mer or sea cucumber).
The beach and rocky shelf that overlook the Gulf of Carpentaria, near the stone picturesStone picture of trepang (beche-de-mer or sea cucumber) which were collected by the Macassans to sell to Chinese traders. They are known as a Chinese delicacy and an aphrodisiac. The Macassans traded knives, axes, fish hooks, glass, cloth, tobacco and rice with the aborigines.
To finish off another full-on day we were promised a swim at Goanna Lagoon. A group of young aboriginal boys and their teachers were enjoying themselves so much there, that we opted out of a swim and just watched their antics.
These young boys were jumping in, spearing cherim (like crayfish) and having a great time. Looks like they develop their hunting skills early on.The spring-fed Goanna Lagoon was a beautiful unmarked spot, which we could never find again.
Returning to town, we had to pick up our rental vehicle for a weekend away where we couldn’t take our van. We were going from being the ones in the most luxurious vehicle to having no accommodation and carrying our food, crockery and clothes in two bags. That night we all went to the Boat Club for sunset and dinner. Missed the sunset but got dinner in the beer garden overlooking the sea. The next three days were incredibly memorable and a big bit of cultural immersion so that will start the next blog post.
This next stage of the trip continues in West Arnhem Land and then goes out of Arnhem Land to get us back to the main road to take us into East Arnhem Land and the second part of our adventure; in other words from Wiligi Outstation to Nhulunbuy.
This is the journey covered in this post.
Our second stop in West Arnhem Land was at Wiligi Outstation. Another beautiful, private campsite on the beach. This time we had our own island to explore.
On this drive to Wiligi we moved up from last in line to first behind the guide..This was our campsite on the beach and behind us in the photo is Copeland Island, a small deserted island about 1 km away from our beachIn the morning Neill captained a small runabout boat to take us over to explore the island. A bit of a change as he used to be a ship’s captain in the Australian navy.Dick, Denise and I hiked through grass up to our armpits, as we climbed to the highest point on the island.Although the going was a bit rough, the panoramic views from the top were worth it.Another view of the island from our journey back to camp.Denise and I enjoying the beautiful day on the water.The waterside view of our camp.More beautiful sunsets – and a nice place to have our daily briefing sessions.
We had a relaxing couple of days at Wiligi. Dick had time to do some maintenance on the sink and the stove as the rough roads were taking their toll. The evening fires, amazing sunsets, good conversations and card games made for a pleasant stop. All seemed well, until we did the daily ‘under-bonnet check’ before leaving.
This was becoming a familiar site, as we had problems with a broken battery clamp. Thankfully our bush mechanics kept us going and we were able to leave almost on time, as we had a big day ahead of us.
We were leaving West Arnhem Land and driving via Katherine before we re-entered East Arnhem Land. On the drive we saw water buffalo, wallabies and horses. Our first stop was at Oenpelli, aka Gunbalanya, an aboriginal community about 60 km from Jabiru and 16 kms from the infamous Cahills Crossing. The area is known for its rock art and bark art, and many people just go there to see the art sites and art centre (injalak Arts). Unfortunately the art centre was closed when we arrived.
These women were weaving outside the Art Centre which was closed the day we visited. They did have some things for sale, like woven drop earrings, but it didn’t seem easy to organize a purchase. Thats our group watching on.This man was doing bark painting beside the Art Centre. The women weavers told us the men had it easy as all the did was paint, whereas the women had to harvest the pandamus leaves, dye them and then weave the baskets, earrings etc.The brilliant green wetlands and spectacular escarpments are a key feature around Oenpelli.
After we left Oenpelli we had an uneventful trip back across Cahills Crossing and on to Jabiru, where we had to get fuel, air up the tyres, get groceries and eat lunch in an hour. Needless to say we struggled with the time pressure.
We saw lots of fires along the roadside throughout our trip. These ones were particularly close to the road. All appear to be part of traditional aboriginal land management practices.This gif gives more of a sense of what it felt like driving along.
Our final stop of the day was a hard to find place at the side of the highway, where we walked in a bit and saw some striking granite carvings done by Mitsuaki Tanabe, a Japanese sculptor who aimed to draw public attention to the need for conservation of wild rice as a genetic resource; and the co-existence of human life and wild life. It continues to amaze me what interesting things we see in the middle of nowhere!
A close up of the carving, which was inn bushland and surrounded by other carvings on the rocks.This gives more perspective on the length of the granite carving (82 meters).
Our camp for the night was the Corroboree Park Tavern and campground, which meant flush toilets, showers, air con and a pub meal in a typical Northern Territory roadhouse. It was also very close to our morning Jumping Crocodile cruise on the Adelaide River.
We were in a smallish boat on the Adelaide River and it didn’t take long for the guide to find a croc ready to jump for his breakfast!This gif should show the croc jumping up for the fresh eat. Maybe this is easier than catching their own and the boats visit a few times every day.All the crocs had names and seemed well known to the guide. Even the little ones were scary.The largest crocs were 6 m long and quite scary as they were so close to the boat. If we needed any convincing to be careful and croc-wary this cruise did the trick.The guides threw meat up in the air for the birds, and if they flew too close to the water, the crocs were waiting for them.After the drama of the croc cruise, we took a scenic shortcut to Katherine and passed by this Leaning Tree Lagoon with lots of birds and water.
The time in Katherine was for restocking, but we had another issue to attend to. We’d noticed a gas leak in the van so needed time for Dick to take the stove apart. He found nothing there but the gas smell was bad and getting worse. Again we were rescued by Neill, our practical guide. He agreed the stove was fine and then asked if there were any other gas services in the van, which led us to the culprit, the hot water heater. Once we turned that off, all was ok again and who needs hot water anyway. Could have been worse!
The next day we did our fuel, water, grocery, mail stop in Katherine before we headed back into West Arnhem Land, via the Central Arnhem Highway. It was 729 kms to Nhulunbuy so we had one stop along the way at Mainoru Store, a roadhouse and campground. That meant they had fuel, toilets and a restaurant where we all ate dinner together. Funny how Neill managed to find interesting spots to visit wherever we stopped. This creek walk from the campground was delightful.
Paul took advantage of any opportunity to put in his line, even in this lovely creek next to our camp.Dinner for 18 at the Mainoru Store roadhouse.This lookout was called ‘Jurassic Park’ and gives a good view of lots of Arnhem Land.
Another long day of driving (dry season access only) got us to Nhulunbuy, our home base for the next week, and the main service centre on the Gove Peninsula. The town, which is home to 4000 people, was built by Nabalco to service its bauxite mine.
Group photo near an impressive termite mound.Yes, the termite mounds were BIG in the NT!One of our guys broke all the rules of common sense by wading across this rather large water crossing in known crocodile country. Thats the guide standing on the rhs looking a bit worried. He’s only holding a hand held cb, not a gun.Before the Cape Arnhem Road was upgraded in 2014, this water crossing was part of the main road. I drove this water crossing so was pleased with myself for getting through, although I did have someone giving me directions on where to cross.We saw lots of road trains like this, and when they passed us from either direction, we just pulled way over and stopped.More fires and at times we just drove into black smoke across the road
In Nhulunbuy we settled comfortably into the camping area of the Walkabout Lodge. Little did we know that the most exciting part of our adventure was about to begin………
