I will occasionally post here.. articles such as this which I am sure of general interest.
The land where Mataranka is located today, on the Stewart Highway, was once called Birinjin in the local language. This little town with its post office, park and petrol stations, is about ten kilometers on bitumen, from the original ‘Homestead’ referred to in the book, We of the Never Never, which is still required reading in many Australian schools. It is and located in Elsey Park.
There are two season here, the Wet and the Dry.. and I quite honestly think the Wet has passed us by this year. So for 2012 anyway, it may be just the Really Hot and the Not-so Hot season: which is ok by me but not so good for the flora around here.
Elsey National Park, with its 13,844 hectars of land, was opened in the Never Never area in 1989 and because of water in the form of the Roper River, a variety of springs and of course the rain of the wet, is home to a variety of flora and fauna.
The Coolamon Tree is referred to as the Stinkwood or Shitwood tree, and when it is warm.. well.. it lives up to it’s name. It is a really soft wood and so was popular for carving with the Indigenous people.
I don’t see the Indigenous people here doing much carving today.. I see very little in the way of culture actually, but will continue to watch and listen.
Coolamons were made from this wood: those vessels we hear about to hold babies.. or berries and other forms of bush tucker. It was supposedly a giant Coolamon that fell from the sky, during ‘the Dreaming’ and formed the rock formation on the road to Areyonga.
It’s the Paper Bark trees I love the most, and there are at least seven varieties found around here. Huge white sheets of ‘paper’ bark just melt off these trees.. they are brilliantly white and look stunning in the setting sun or early morning light.
The Paper Bark is part of the reason we have the bats though: the Flying Fox love the nectar the tree produces.
We have River Red Gum Trees which also have a white bark.. but don’t shed like the Paper Bark: very smooth in texture. The leaves have antiseptic qualities and when infused with hot water are great for coughs and colds.
There is a Sandpaper Fig Tree whose leaves are so rough they were once used to rub down didgeridoos and tools made from the Coolamon. I haven’t tried it, but will give it a go on some of the seed pods I have found.
The Darwin Woolybutt looks twisted and dry and is prolific all along the highway from here to Katherine. Not lush by any stretch of the imagination, it does have a lovely blossom.
And we have palm trees. The Cabbage palm, named because the heart of the palm tastes like cabbage and not because of its smell, blossoms in early spring, which is about now. The Livistona Rigida is a rare species of the palm and the largest trees are found right here, along the banks of the Roper River.
On the banks of “Bitter Springs” where I now go daily as there are no bats, are thick stands of Pandanus. They are a low palm with a strong root system that goes right into the water and holds the bank together during the annual (except this year?) floods. They work in tandem with the Freshwater Mangroves and are home to water monitors and turtles.
Also in the warm spring water, we have the bull rushes and water lilies, with pink or blue petals and brilliant, yellow stamens. Indigenous people apparently used to eat the stalks, roots and seeds, but today they are just a pleasure to behold, home to brilliant blue dragon flies, as I swim by.
When you travel from Alice Springs north, you travel through miles of dry, barren red Australian countryside. The highway is straight and you can see for miles: a landscape of red earth, train tracks and termite mounds growing in height the further north you travel.
Mataranka is your first, glorious sight of the ‘Top End’. You can wake up and smell the.. smells.
Mataranka. Capital of the Never Never.
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