BEYOND THE BLACK STUMP

IN THE LAND OF THE NEVER NEVER. Our country is a land full of extreme climatic conditions beautiful sandy and in a lot of places deserted beaches. In the most southern states it can and does get remarkably cold in the winter months, fortunately the winters are not as long as the ones in the Northern Hemisphere. Mind you even in sub tropical/tropical areas it can get quite cold at night. If one travels to the outback or what some would call unseeingly inhabited areas they would not realise that there is a lot of wildlife; there is of course and all manner of creatures mainly marsupial excepting lizards and the like can be espied. Large Goanna’s (Australian Monitor lizards) are no exception and although difficult to approach will eat scraps near a campfire. The true indigenous Australian eats them along with witchetty grubs; not my cup of tea but we are all different. Indigenous folk or Koori’s as they prefer to be called out here are nothing like the ones that live in our large cities and towns mainly on the East coast. They are still trying to live their old way of life but sadly the twenty first century is catching up awfully fast. Up until about 70 or 80 years ago they were known to have killed white settlers and were hunted down by Police with a native tracker to face the white man’s courts’ and punishment, knowing if they were not hung they faced their own brand of justice upon returning home to their tribe The outback is a place of very widely scattered communities and usually in touch with each other and the nearest piece of civilisation by radio. Some school children get their lessons via the radio and still do I guess. The true outback I reckon is in the Northern Territory, the Northern regions of Western Australia and the northernmost part of South Australia. One could travel for days indeed weeks and not see a living soul as this picture shows. Gold is still found here by canny old-timers supplementing their pension; they pan the old diggings and make a fair bit of cash one told me a few years ago. Of course big mining concerns are now prospecting in the West for all minerals bauxite, copper, diamonds gold seems to have been forgotten; will I strike it rich no I don’t think so. If you can get into some areas of Western Australia the cave drawings are unique, really good in fact Some are pictured here. ```````````````````````````````````````````````````