LEARNING ABOUT THE LAND

It is nice to stay put for two nights in the one place when touring by bus. We were in a very comfortable resort in Cooktown in FNQ (Far North Queensland).

Our balcony overlooked the pool area.

Our driver took us to meet a local aboriginal guide. We followed his 4 wheel drive into the forest. He pulled up at a clearing where we set off on foot to learn about the land.

Willy Gordon, our guide was a most interesting person to listen to. He is a well educated man with an astounding knowledge of both the white man's world and his aboriginal heritage. He also had a great sense of humour. He is an elder of the people who are the caretakers of this land.

He explained many customs and showed us how the bush is the aborigine's supermarket. Not only for edible fruits, berries, leaves and roots but also for medicine and cleaning products.

Willy gave our friend Mary a handful of leaves and added a little water and told her to rub her hands together until the leaves disintegrated. Then she showed us her hands and how the mixture had turned into a creamy soap. After she washed it off her hands were soft and clean. It was like a defoliant.
We followed a bush track over rocks and under trees. It was beautiful country. Willy took us into a cave where there were aboriginal  paintings from tens of thousands of years ago.

There were many many pictures on the walls and the ceiling. There were newer pictures on top of older ones. They are hard to see in the photo. Willy explained the stories behind the pictures.

 After two informative hours we returned to the clearing for morning tea, which the driver had organised while we were away. It was a magic view looking over Willy's people's land. The aboriginal people have a very close relationship with the land especially the land of their tribe. They had lived off the land for 40,000 years without damaging it at all in that time. We can't say the same about the last 200 years of white settlement.

We said good-bye to Willy of Guurrbi Tours and headed back to town. On the way we called into the historical cemetery, where there were many interesting graves including a Chinese Shrine. The one I found the most interesting was this one of the Normanby Woman. The plaque reads:

IN COMMEMORATION OF THE NORMANBY WOMAN

who was buried in the vicinity of this ground in 1886.

No one knows where she came from...or who she was...she took this secret with her .

She was an European woman brought up by the Normanby Aboriginal Tribe.

She was captured by the European authorities and brought to civilisation in which she could not survive.

Back in Cooktown we had a picnic lunch on the banks of the Endeavour River, where Bill found a musical boat in the park. He was happily playing a tune on the pipes.

 After lunch we visited the James Cook Museum, housed in the stunningly restored 19th century convent. We saw photos of how derelict it was before restoration. A lot of work was done to restore it.

Inside was an amazing collection of items for such a small town, but with Captain James Cook camping on the shores of the river for seven weeks to repair his ship in 1770, there is a lot of history here. He named the river after his ship "Endeavour". When his ship was holed on the Great Barrier Reef, he threw over board this canon and anchor to lighten the ship. It wasn't until recently that divers found these relics.

 After the museum we then visited the Botanical Gardens full of beautiful tropical plants and huge paper bark Melaleuca trees.

Needless to say it was early to bed after a delicious meal at the "Sovereign Resort" Cooktown.