To East Arnhem Land

We were excited to be setting out on our East Arnhem Land adventure yesterday - and not quite believing the trip was about to happen - third time lucky for us after two previous misadventures arranging outback Australia trips in the Covid years. 

We left Cairns on our Air North flight in perfect conditions.

And an hour and a half or so later we landed at Gove Airport, the main access point for East Arnhem Land. David, our tour leader for this Outback Spirit Tour was there to meet us.

It's about a 15klm drive from the airport to Nhulunboy and our driver extended the tour to include a drive by of the Rio Tinto bauxite mining operations on Gove Harbour. The distinctive red of the bauxite mounds lining the access road leave you in no doubt about why the region has developed the way it has (although not for much longer as the mine is due to close in four years time).

Gove has a surf lifesaving club apparently - crocodile infested waters notwithstanding! This is Nhulunboy's Town Beach (patrolled by the local SLSC too!!)

Were staying in the Walkabout Lodge in Nhulunboy for two nights. Nhulunboy is a mining town, with excellent community facilities, neatly laid out suburban streets and well kept public spaces. This is thanks in part to the local low security prison inmates undertaking community work as part of their rehabilitation programs. 

We were up early this morning ready to walk the length of the Town Lagoon in search of bird sightings as the sun rose over the Arafura Sea. 

It was a beautiful early morning walk - but there were not too many exotic birds around this morning despite our best efforts. 

On the way back to Walkabout Lodge I took this pic of the Nhulunbuy Community Pool - a beautiful Olympic size pool complete with soaring shade sails - all perfectly maintained! 

This morning our group was treated to an awe inspiring Welcome to Country by the local Yolngu people on Wirrawuy Beach - just north of Nhulunboy.

The extended family group danced and sung their sacred stories for us for well over an hour in this perfect beachside setting.

The lead dancer was so charismatic and engaging but this master songman  was obviously the true lead man of the group. His songlines were heartfelt and mesmerising.

We were very taken by the didge player taking his turn to look after his adorable baby son - while still playing!

I got to have a cuddle with this adorable bub - he was so calm about being passed around ... but very sleepy by now!

He eventually found just the right lap to have a good doze on ......

With the welcome dances over our leading man (Vernon) went sand crab digging .....

....... while the kids courted crocodile danger at the edge of the water despite the warnings from the adults!

The women then conducted some bush healing on us using Butjiringanin leaves which had been boiled and kneaded to almost a paste like consistency.

There were some very powerful Yolgnu women in this group. The grandmother who worked on David's shoulder was a member of the Yunupingu family - and a niece of Mandawuy Yunupingu (frontman of Yothu Yindi).

This beautiful young woman is the adorable baby's mother (and wife of the didge player!)

It was a wonderful experience for everyone in the group - what a way to start our tour of this most amazing part of Australia.

Afterwards we drove south, along the coast to the Aboriginal township of Yirrkala - site of the most famous and internationally renowned Aboriginal Art Centre in Australia  - Buku-Larrnggay Mulka.

I was blown away walking into the completely unpretentious art centre building in this very remote part of Australia to see the standard of work, the volume, the quality - no wonder galleries and buyers from all over the world are interested in this work and the amazing artists who produce it.

The Art Centre has a museum incorporated into its display space too. It was such a thrill to see one of the original bark petitions here, dating from the 1960s, just as the land rights movement was gathering momentum.

We also saw the iconic Yirrkala church panels - safely restored now after their years of cruel neglect by the local mission church - but no photographs allowed.

There is a strong print workshop operating out of Yirrkala too - i was wishing it was in operation today - but instead it was a quiet space in the busy gallery.

We had lunch picnic style at a beach around the corner from Yirrkala.

Plans for more driving/exploring in the late afternoon had to be changed due to difficulties with our bus a/c. It turns out its quite a problem and we'll have to change buses tomorrow (no worries!). It made no real difference to us to miss out on a bit more exploring today. We'd had an early start - and it had felt like a very full day. We enjoyed a swim at the hotel instead this afternoon and an hour or so of chilling out before dinner.