Derby II

Well, yes I know I said never, never ever again, but there we were, waiting for the luxury 4x4 bus to take us out for the day. At least it's only 140km and a fair bit of that on sealed road.

Naturally, we assumed that the Derby Town Bus, a 20 seater Toyota pulling into to the van park, would be ours. It was. At least it was neat and clean, appeared to be roadworthy and potentially more comfortable than the last one.

Just out of town we turn onto the world famous (i'm not over using that am i?) Gibb River Road that runs for almost 900km from Derby to Whyndam and was originally conceived as a stock route in the 1860's.

It is feared by caravanners who unless they have the ruggedised off road van, universally take the highway back through Fitzroy Crossing and Halls Creek. The first 100km takes us out to the Windjana Gorge turnoff and doesn't seem so bad: it is a patchwork of proper sealed road, corrugated dirt road and 'developmental' road. Developmental means a single lane of tar, flattish areas of dirt either side. The rule is that you're both supposed to move over when approaching another vehicle, unless you're a road train or a truck or bus or a 4x4 a metre off the ground with huge bull bar and festooned with driving lights, or you are a daredevil or sick of living.

Anyhow, we got to Windjana Gorge in one piece and were treated to a walk up a gorge through a gap in the Devonian rock reef. They explain that the reef used to be 200m under the ocean floor 75 million years ago. You stumble through a rock arch and out into a wide sandy creek bed running between the cliff faces. The rock holds many fossils, one of which we see, a nautiloid, and bones from ancient crocodiles and turtles. Further into the gorge there are billabongs, and then we see them: freshwater crocodiles. They are lined up along the opposite bank basking in the sun, except for the odd one on our bank. They wont bite you unless you annoy them, they say. Check out those teeth though.

Next stop a bit further down the track is the ruins of the Lillimooloora Police Station. You can't help but wonder at the quality of construction given that it was built in 1884 and the nearest settlement as such as 100 miles away. It's also the start of one of the saddest conflicts between Aboriginals and Europeans. The local Bundura people weren't too happy about having their lands taken from them and their traditional food and water supply being used up. Naturally they took a few sheep and cows to stay alive. Naturally the settlers just went out, tracked down a group of Bundura and shot a few of them in retaliation. Things got out of hand fairly quickly: they would round up the young men and ship them to Broome as slaves to work in the pearling industry. One young man, Jandamarra was a fine stockman and an excellent shot and joined the police force and then proceeded to help them hunt his own people down. It came to a head when one of the captives, possibly a blood uncle, talked some sense into him and he shot the policeman and set them all free. They chased him for 3 years as he helped his people to avoid them and also he and others attacked the settlers any time they could. Jandamarra was  attributed with magical powers for his ability to apparently disappear, and his favourite place to do that was Tunnel Creek.

Ah, Tunnel Creek. You can't imagine how anyone found the entrance to what is basically a cave, but as you drop down into it, it is breathtaking. It really is a proper stream, probably not as big as the one at Windjana Gorge, but it is 30 - 40 metres wide and runs the 750m length of the Tunnel.During the dry you walk along the sandy bed and wade across the stream. There is one place where the roof has caved in and another where there are stalactite and 'curtains' that you see in normal caves. There are tree roots hanging down from the fig trees some 60 metres above. The final treat is that once out the far end of the tunnel, there are some aboriginal rock art (first ones we've seen this trip) and these are unusual in just being there, the type of shapes drawn and the fact that carbon dating is putting them much earlier than the 5000 years that the local people reckon that they have lived there for. It is into this tunnel of perfect blackness that Jandamarra would escape - disappearing up into a cave or out a secret entrance.

Sadly though, the police brought in another aboriginal tracker from another district. There is no love lost between aboriginal people from different areas. This fellow tracked Jandamarra into the cave and then the police taunted him by bringing his family to the entrance and threatening to kill them. When he came out to help them, they shot him dead. Not happy with that, they cut off his head and sent it back to England, to the manufacturer of the guns they used, as a trophy. One assumes, just like they would display a lion or elephant head, they used it to tout for business. Not happy with that, they killed another aboriginal, cut his head off and sent that back to Broome to prove that they job was done and possibly claim a reward.

I've put up three lots of snaps, but here's one I like: