Being a tourist in our own country - a geographical perspective

FNQ August 2019 Reflections

Recently I had the opportunity to be a guest in far North Queensland, for which I am very grateful. What follows are reflections of the journey from a geographical perspective.

Yarrabah Reflection 

I have been to Yarrabah several times now. It is best described as started as a mission community in 1892 evolving into a vibrant community which is responding modern challenges. 

For those in Sydney its location is best described as Cairns being at Manly and Yarrabah at Bondi and you have to drive via Parramatta River to cross the river. 

Aboriginal communities were brought to Yarrabah from all over Australia and in the 1930 there were 43 different groups with their varied cultures trying to live together. 

The current population is 3000 people and my experience are one of witnessing a rich cultural community responding to the world we live in now. 

The locals call it paradise by the sea and yet it is the poorest local government area council area. 

It really raises questions about government and community involvement to improve health and education which seem to be the area’s priorities. 

Though three are difference in the way we live there are more similarities than differences.

If you are ever in Cairns and you would like an authentic First Nations people’s experiences let me know. 

Knowing the right people to see makes a big difference to one’s experience.

Cape Tribulation and Daintree Rainforest Reflection 

In the 1980s Daintree became a national park and trapped the landowners and commercial businesses inside the national park. Discussing the logistics of living in a rainforest has been interesting. 

Cape Trib is special because it is where the Great Dividing Range meets the coast. As you drive north it is noticeable how close the Tablelands of the GDR are close to the coast. Also, Cape Trib is where the Great Barrier Reef meets the coast. 

We stayed at the Cape Trib Beach House which goes down a slope of about 500m lined with cabins to the beach. I did 5 km of repetitions here because not safe along the beach at sunset. 

That have had metres of the rain this year where the river rose 8 m and there were multiple landslides along the road we were on which goes to Cook Town 90 km up the road by 4WD. 

As tourist it is worth doing a river cruise. Saw Scarface and put in a performance for us. Also, worth going to the Rainforest Discovery Centre, an ice cream place and buying tea on the roadside

Reflections: - Kuku Yalanji people and Mossman Gorge 

I first came to Mossman in 2006, went to the gorge, parked in a crowded narrow road and walked the gorge boulders/adjacent track and swam in the cool water. 

Now there is the Mossman Gorge Centre, there are shuttles to where we originally parked, elevated boardwalks and a lookout perched above the gorge. 

The centre is connected to the Kuku Yalanji people who nomadically engage with the coasts, rainforest and dry county depending on the seasons. 

It seems like a local community initiative which seems to be working for the community. 

The gorge walks and the centre are set up and quite tourist focused. While there I would book a Dreaming walk; the guides are genuine and it is to date is one of the better tours for learning. I believe it is not dreamtime any more. 

It was better and more natural years ago but I can see the benefits to community, environment and Mossman regional area.

Reflections:- Great Barrier Reef

I have been teaching about the Great Barrier Reef since 1987 for HSC Geography. 

There is no colour in the reef, though the tour described it as if there was colour. Speaking to others there does not seem to be much colour on other tourist reefs around the world. 

Also, they seem to be dredging the mouth of the river. I guess for boat access. 

The rain in the first half of the year has hit tourist numbers but there was plenty of activity on the marina companies taking people every which way. 

It is so hard to balance supporting local communities with balancing sustainability. 

Today I visited Michaelmas Cay the catamaran Ocean Spirit anchored off the cay and we did a glass bottom boat tour, snorkelling, some time on a small section of the beach as the rest was a bird sanctuary. 

For family and small groups, I preferred Fitzroy Island which were able to walk around when I was here in 2010 and 2011. However, the cay works well for bigger numbers. 

Though I don’t think I get sea sick but I took no risks by having a light breakfast and position myself in the sun seated looking to the front of the boat. It was a clear sunny day with winds and was told there were sections with 2m swells. 

I am convinced I am fair weather land-based person. So, I am very much looking forward to heading up the Tablelands for next week.

Reflections on the Atherton Tablelands. 

I have now been to the Atherton Tablelands six times now and have not cracked the surface. In fact, I have pretty well been to the same places six times. 

It is akin to the southern highlands in Sydney with a mixture of regional towns. I have come to know Mareeba, Yungaburra Atherton, Mt Magnet, Ravenshoe, Rocky Creek and Undara quite well. 

I have never lived in the country, except for a brief stint in Bowral, when it was essentially rural, when in the outback I feel at home. At the very least I feel at peace.

It might be that my dad’s father was from rural Switzerland and there are distant rural relatives on mum’s side of the family. 

Much of the tablelands were a training ground and a field hospital during WWII. 

I really like the landscape not so much the rolling rural lands but the natural dryland scrub and bush. Undara is my most favourite location which I will write about later. 

I would not know what I have learnt about the aboriginal community on this part of the Tablelands had it not been for work. 

Originally through one elder, whom I cannot name out of respect because he has passed, his sister Aunty S and now Uncle L. I sadly have a greater understanding of aboriginal culture of the tablelands than I do of my own local area. 

Fortunately, I am building a greater local understanding through Uncle Laurie in Hornsby, Mariko and through the work of my Federal Member Julian Lesser on constitutional recognition. 

Lake Barrine is a must-see location but, like so many things when you visit new areas, you have to know the right people. It is a meeting place for people and where the land meets the sea - 800ASL. 

It is a significant geomorphological location, a meeting place, a focus of Aboriginal culture, an early source of timber, a social location for early settlers in the 1930s and a place of recovery for WWII soldiers. 

At Lake Barrine here are two majestic 800-year-old trees known as the elders. They have only seen a portion of the 1500 generations of aboriginal people who have been on this land. 

How do 1500 years of aboriginal generations mix with three generations of the same family with a tea house on the shores of Lake Barrine? From what I saw - together. 

Reflecting on what I have learnt about this area, though storytelling and observations, there is much I can also learn about comparable areas in western NSW. 

This dovetails well into my readings about the geographical investigations into Australian explorers and their motivation, endurance and relationships with aboriginal peoples. 

So many questions to ask and many more unasked. I am hoping it is a landscape that can be shared with everyone.

Reflections on the road to Undara 

This part of the trip is special. It moves from the rolling rural lands and rainforests outback scrub country, red soil and the volcanic lava tubes of Undara. 

The Rocky Creek area is the location of WWII jungle training and the recovery of soldiers who were injured in the war. I did not realise the extent to which

Cairns was bombed during the war let alone all the training on the tablelands.

There are a series of waterfalls we visited, Millaa Millaa Falls is 30 kms from Ravenshoe and the turtles in the pool were all

washed away with the 2019 rain. After these falls were some significant climbs taking us to higher altitude and resultant landscape change. 

On the way to Ravenshoe is the Windy Hill wind farm which interesting has one side of the hill with the turbines spinning

Ravenshoe has about 135 km SW of Cairns at 935 m ASL. Population 1400 people with 200 indigenous people. It has limited infrastructure. Ravenshoe was the site of a gas explosion due to a car accident when two people were killed and 19 injured next to a cafe in 2015. 

It is really a nice community township to wander around and spend some money in the community. I buy my yearly flannies for here. 

Mill Stream Falls is located next to a WWII training facility. To prepare soldiers for PNG in the forests to get use to jungle warfare and foxholes. 

Innot Hot Springs are another sign of the changing landscape with the start of red soil with metre to two metre high termite mounds dotting the landscape. 

My Garnet is a zinc and iron mining town and the landscape has less trees and more low lying scrub. 

With my other reflections I tended to have some opinions with this landscape I am content with observing and experiencing. 

I am a little bit of awe of the changing landscape and climate. I woke up this morning at five degrees slowly delayering to shorts and t- shirt. 

My mind wanders to what it was like for First Nation peoples, early cattle and mining, soldiers and the explorers prior to them. How did they all survive?

Time will fix things or you will adapt.

Undara 

Undara is a unique kind of experience. The area was a pastoral station called Rosella Plains run by the Colin’s family and became national park land. 

You can stay with your caravan, clamp in elevated tents with electricity with a meeting area to cook food. Or you can have a campfire dinner and breakfast. In the evening there are activities like trivia. You can eat meals in railway cabins or in a large inside/outside area. 

In the morning there is a lovely walk up to the bluff overlooking the whole landscape. During the day you can take a guided tour of two lava tubes. 

The local Aboriginal population were consulted about the name for the area of the lava tubes and they did not have one because they tended not to go there. There are no rock drawings and very little evidence of the aboriginal community activity in the lava tubes. 

They did say Undara means a long way or a long journey and since the area has the longest lava flows of 160 km, perhaps in the world, it has been called Undara for about 50 years 

Savanna woodlands and eucalyptus trees dot the surface landscape with the sun penetrating the through to the ground enabling grasslands in the Undara region. The savanna runs for 3000km to Broome. 

Undara is a great example of past active shield volcano. Enough lava flow in its eruption to fill Sydney harbour in six days. 

The lava went into valleys and travelled for kms. It cooled from the outside in, leaving a skin on the top with lava moving beneath. As the lava flowed through it left behind the tubes when the volcano stopped. 

We saw a lava tube 19 m high 45m across and 150m deep the biggest is 1300m long which is not accessible to the public. 

There are considerable changes to the landscapes as you walk to the lava tubes. There is a mini bus ride to a location so you can walk to the lava tubes. The public are not allowed access. 

In the immediate location of the lava tubes on the surface amongst the Savannah there is granite and basalt geology side by side- big granite boulders and lower down small black basalt rocks. The rocks break down to soil, the soil enables grass growth and ecosystems developed. 

At the entrances of these 160 km of lava tubes, where the ceilings have collapsed, there are specialised ecosystems like remnant rainforests. In these forests there, more roots below the surface than vegetation above the surface. 

It is quite hard to describe and if you have a good guide you learn so much. It is quite strange to go from red soil, volcanic rocks and then through a boutique rainforest to cool damp caves with bats and dripping water. 

In the past when the lava tubes had water 45 000 people per year come to swim in the water. Now about 25 000 visitors per year. 

Hopefully, some photos will assist visualisation of the story. 

Tjapukai Cultural Park 

I am not one for overt tourist activities but believe you need a base of information when you are exploring a new area. 

This is why there are aspects of the Tjapukai centre which are most useful. It also seems to provide employment for a number of aboriginal people which I believe is a good thing for the community. 

I learnt about the relationship between the wet and dry aboriginal communities. There are 500 Tribes 300 languages in Australia. We learn how aboriginals for the dry can only marry those from the wet and those from the wet marry the dry. 

I am not very good at understanding the art bit there was a wall canvas which had the centre representing Kuranda and the lower section the wet and the upper section dry. I saw three paintings which were explained well and I have a greater understanding. 

I particularly liked the one which was based in reflections. If you draw a line down middle in portrait or landscape the drawings are mirrored. This is the type of painting in this area while in Darwin the paintings aerial perspectives hence the dots. 

Though not comfortable and feeling like a full tourist, the sporting side of me enjoyed the boomerang throwing and spear throwing with a woomera. I was really concentrating on the technical aspects. If you follow the technique you can return the boomerang and throw the spear, though the target was illusive. 

If you are right handed put boomerang hold at 1 o’clock angle, step forward with your left foot and while throwing flick your wrist to make it comeback. 

They have the follow four statements with pictures and biographies in the initial gallery. 

Our land was taken 

Our culture broken

Our children stolen 

We are still here. 

What was really interesting was talking about what is like to be a modern day aboriginal person. I hope their Voice is heard.

Being a tourist in our own country

For two weeks I have found it very interesting being a tourist in my own country. 

Since the 1980s I have kept a journal which I call a Pubbook - which is another story. On this trip it has been in the form of taking notes on my iPhone during the day as I observe, experience and hear things. 

I have posted it on Facebook, texted and posted on WhatsApp to a few family members and friends not in FB land and, if it is not too long, I post it on LinkedIn. I will keep a copy of all of them in a word document. 

While travelling I have found I can look at things in a bit more depth which has improve my understanding. Then I feel more immersed in the experience. 

I hope to carry forward the lessons from being a guest in Far North Queensland to where I live and visit in NSW. 

Perhaps I will gain a greater insight into the changing landscapes as I move through Sydney and regional areas of NSW. 

Also, I want to connect more with the local Aboriginal population, develop a greater depth of knowledge, agricultural communities and appreciate the shared nature of the bushland in which I take my 6 km runs. 

I have had so much enjoyment in writing these reflections and then sharing them with some photos. 

Thanks to those who joined me online on this journey.

Cheers Martin

August 2019