Bell Gorge – King Leopold Range

The story of Jandamarra’s war is a ripping yarn that was produced as a film for the ABC. Based on facts, the narrative wobbles a bit through many versions in the telling. As a young black fella Jandamarra made his mark as a stockman in the Kimberley, respected by the white fellas. He returned to the tribe under the influence of his uncle Ellemarra. Together they were jailed for spearing sheep. On his release, Jandamarra was not accepted back into the tribe and he teamed up with constable Richardson in capturing black fellas. One of a chain load of captured black fellas happened to be Ellemarra who persuaded Jandamarra to change sides again. Richardson was shot as he slept, his guns taken and the war was on. For many years Jandamarra and his buddies created mayhem among the Kimberley cattle runs. Massacres of black fellas in retribution caused Jandamarra to target stock and property rather than white fellas. Many of the colonials were spooked off their cattle runs by tales of black fella magic. Inevitably a posse headed out led by black tracker Micky, Jandamarra was killed at Tunnel Creek in the Windjana gorge, and his head sent to England. Exciting to be told Annelies’s creepy version of this story as we slosh through knee deep water in the tunnel, our head torches revealing waiting freshies. The gorge and the tunnel would have been a spectacular place for a last stand showdown, lit by a brilliant sunset on the ruby red escarpment.

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Have you ever tried to cook damper using only flour and water, only to produce a sort of building material? Donna and Kevin, a couple of black fellas near Cape Leveque showed us how to make light and fluffy damper.

1. Get a deep bed of clean sand.
2. Light a fire with the right sort of ember making wood.
3. Get the sand very very hot.
4. Mix and knead a flour and water dough.
5. Pat out into a medium pizza shape.
6. Put the glowing embers to one side
7. Lay the damper in some of the hot sand
8. Shovel hot sand on top of the damper.
9. Embers on top of the sand.
10. Have a beer or two.
11. Sweep the embers and sand off the damper.
12. Pick up the damper and bang it on something to dislodge the last of the sand.
13. With butter and wild honey – yummy.    According to Donna the main trick is in the really hot clean sand. Makes the damper skin harden quickly, then the steam from the dough puffs up the damper. Let’s know how you go.

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Cathedral gorge in the Bungle Bungles utterly humbles any cathedral that man might have made. Slept through most of the geology chat, but liked the mango – ice block theory of the evolution of the Bungles. It was like this. About 360 million years ago the area was like a giant segment of mango with criss cross fault lines. Something happened down there and the mango got turned inside out, like when you make mango cubes. When an ice cube melts, it doesn’t stay square, it goes roundish. So that is how a few hundred million years of bad weather turned the giant mango into the domes that we call the Bungle Bungles. Geology for idiots. About a hundred million years ago there was a short pause, maybe as long as a couple of days, while a meteor struck forming the Piccaninni circle or the Wolf creek crater depending on who is telling the story. And we saw from the air that the rain and wind had resumed their persistent work.

When Patsy Durack sent cattle over from Queensland in the late 19th century, initiating the mega cattle runs, life was hard and particularly brutal for the displaced black fellas. Fast forward to the 21st century. Logan and Larissa, managers at the million acre Ellenbrae station, now owned by the Grollo group are serving scones, jam and cream to the guests and telling stories of the good old days. The wild bulls are still rounded up by choppers and bull catching 4WDs. Sold overseas as organic beef, but the main cash crop has changed from cattle to tourists. El Questro, another ex cattle station off the Gibb river road, harvests a crop of the rich and famous, helicoptering them in to $3000 a night luxury.

The finding of gold in quartz reefs put Hall’s creek on the map. The “walls of China” an exposed reef showed no signs of gold, so was left intact for the tourists.

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Nothing new under the sun. The broad waters of the Geikie gorge near the Fitzroy crossing have been undercutting the sandstone cliffs with art nouveau sculpture millions of years before the idea occurred to the Europeans.

Lake Argyle is another of those bigger than big features. 18 times the size of Sydney harbour – 70 times, if it ever fills to capacity, and disappearing way over the horizon. Captain Matt took us on a tour of the freshies, the rock wallabies, the seven spotted archer fish and the sunset, lubricated by the sparkling. The original Durack homestead was doomed to be 30 m under water when the Ord was flooded to provide water for irrigation and hydroelectricity. The building was relocated stone by stone and now stands on higher ground as the Durack museum. Much more remarkable than the relocation is the quality of stone masonry that was done way back then in such primitive conditions. It is said that there is still historic stuff down there, even a toothbrush in the outhouse bathroom.

But now we sit, sipping at Zanders Cable Beach as the sky goes through shades of pearl pink, to orange, blood, and deep smouldering red.