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In another lifetime I worked as a river guide in the Katherine Gorge National Park, now known as Nitmiluk National Park. My daytime work saw me taking groups of tourists in flat bottomed boats up the Katherine River that flows beneath the towering sandstone walls of the serpentine gorge formation. I worked at this for 3 years and in that time grew an immense appreciation for and a reasonably good working knowledge of the flora and fauna found in the area.
As an outside interest in my second and third years I also took on the role of organising and hosting the 3 times a week corroboree held at Springvale Homestead a few kilometres to the West of Katherine township. These were a blatant "for tourists only" show with only a slight nod to the traditional corroborees that would have been held for special occasions such as funerals and initiations for the men. That aside it did give me a wonderful opportunity to get to know some of the more traditional ways of the local Jawoyn people. One such opportunity arose at the end of my second "dry season". In the Top End of the Northern Territory the year is simply broken into 2 seasons, either it is "wet"for Summer or it's "dry" for Winter. So, at the end of my last dry season one of the older men asked me if I would be interested in seeing some very old rock paintings at which I replied that I would be most interested. The fellow, who I suspect would have passed away by now so I will not mention him by name and I drove out to the Edith Falls area North of Katherine township. A little distance along the access road to the falls he asked me to pull over and we walked some distance into the bush. Soon I saw some rocky outcrops spread out over a hectare or so, some huge boulders were leant against others producing a good natural overhang and shelter. My guide explained that the "old people" used to live here but "no more". He picked up some sharp pieces of rock saying that they would have been chipped off larger rocks to make spear heads and axes. He showed me a large gallery of white paintings that obviously had been red ochre originally but had been touched up with white "pipe clay". Unfortunately the second painter had not the skill of the original artist and there were quite a few runs from the white paint dribbling down the rock. He took me into a large sheltered area that had signs of long gone cold camp fires being lit there and small hollows in larger boulders where ochres for paint had been ground up and mixed. The ceiling of this shelter held some much better preserved art of the more traditional red and black paintings. More than 35 years later I find myself driving passed the turn-off to Edith Falls and with some time on my hands. I manage to locate the same outcrops, my task made easier by the very recent grass fires that had been through and cleared a lot of the tall spear grass. The paintings are still there, still as I remember them with no fading or wearing away of the paints colours. I notice that a high voltage powerline has been strung not far from the outcrops and wonder if any of the workers even thought to investigate what might be hidden there. I take some pics for posterity as my original photos have probably been long lost in one of my many moves. As I walk back to my vehicle I see the vapour trail of a high level passenger jet passing overhead. A slight smile crosses my face and I guess that the people on board have any idea what is below them and I wonder what other changes these paintings might witness in their lifetime. |
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