23rd – 26th June

Kakadu is an amazing area of the world.  We have been here for seven nights now and we have not seen everything that is available to see.  Many sites have not opened this year due to the late wet season.  Makes a great opportunity for another time or visit. 
 

We have spent the last three days at Jabiru visiting the northern sites of the park.  The town here is actually a freehold land site and resembles a mining town in it’s layout.  Nearby are the Ranger mining sites and the airport is on their land.

Ffording the East Alligator River

 
Highlight of this time was a visit to the nearby West Arnhem Land area.  We obtained a permit, forded the West Alligator River and drove some 15 klms along a dirt road that took us through some of the most amazing wet lands and mountain escarpments we have seen.  The final destination was a small aboriginal town of Ooenpelli (Gunbalunya people) to visit the Injalak Arts Centre.  The scenery along the road was in itself a great experience but having combined this with the visit to Injalak made the day complete.

The road to Oenpelli

A Jabiru beside the road - wish we had a bigger zoom.  He had 3 mates

An island in the wet lands

A wet garden beside the road

 

The Injalak Arts Centre is a creative arts workshop established and fully owned by the Aboriginal artists of this area.  In this establishment the artists create their works and present them for sale.  It is managed by a local Aboriginal Board but managed by an art specialist who we found had moved there from Noosa.  During the visit we were able to sit & talk with the artists and weavers as they worked and they explained how they developed their creations.  There are other activities including screen printing of their designs and carvings also but being a Saturday not all artists were available. 

Injalak Arts Centre

His works sell for over $3000 each & he barracks for Geelong AFL team

Weaving a great tale

 

Audrey & her creation

Injalak is actually the name of a large hill behind the town. The centre can actually organise guides to take visitors to see the Aboriginal art on this mountain but as the path is quite difficult and the cost high for hiring the guide we did not choose this option. It is on this mountain that many of the painters receive their inspiration. 

Injalak Hill from the rear of the Arts Centre. 
A snappy reception awaits those who take a shortcut.

In this establishment the management are not only finding sales for the local art work but creating markets.  The two senior painters have recently shown their paintings in Melbourne at a special showing and have sold all of their works at over $3000 per item.  All profits stay in the community.  Added to this the local people are being trained to play the roles of guides for the mountain, lead groups around the centre, serve in the sales area including the computing records of sale, training screen printers for a new market of “T” shirts and many other works.  The whole concept was truly impressive.  On the Saturday we visited (Saturday is a short day for them) there were four bus tours expected.  It was great to be able to meet and talk with the local people and Alice certainly showed she had a gift for communication.

Back across the East Alligator River and we visited a special art site called Ubirr (pronounced Oobeer).  Ubirr is on the very northern boundary of the park and a short walk took us to several displays of Aboriginal painting.  These were in very good condition and had been preserved well.  The park managers have also established good protection around each of these exhibits.  Some photos are attached for you to see. 

Ubirr art

I think they enjoyed fishing

At the end of the track we climbed up onto the top of the rock and saw the most magnificent view over the wetlands and neighbouring hill areas.  A guide pointed out that this was the same view which was included in the movie Crocodile Dundee and even though it is a long time since I have seen that film I am sure it was greener this time than my memory of it previously.  It was one of those places one did not really wish to leave.  This lookout is promoted as a great place to see a sunset however climbing back down the track in failing light was not something we wished to attempt so we passed this opportunity.

The movie view

Can't show you 360 degrees but this is a glmpse

Next day our travels took us to Nourlangie and more Aboriginal art sites.  Nourlangie is actually a large rock mountain and the art is spread around the lower sides of this monolith.  They too were impressive however the rock appeared to be softer and the works were not as well preserved. 

Nourlangie

A natural artwork itself

We learnt that the Aboriginals actually used these art works for teaching their youth.  The youth were not allowed to visit these places until a certain stage of their development and then the paintings (which a record of past history) were relayed to them.  They are mostly painted from their spiritual encounters with their dreamtime, hence their culture and beliefs were handed down from generation to generation.  We were told that at nearby Nanguluwur one of the paintings actually depicts a sailing ship of European design.  This track was too difficult for us to traverse so we can only hear about it.

Also dotted around the area are several small billabongs, wetlands where birds abound as well as some snappy friends.  Unfortunately we did not time our visit to one of these nearby well as in middle of the day the birds are not very active.

 
Our exploration of Kakadu has been wonderful and though we have not seen it all we do know there is more to see if we return again.