Jetty Tour Day 4 - Wilcannia

Ring Neck Parrot

As I have previously said (May 2017), Wilcannia is a town I find confronting. Not in the sense that I feel scared - although there are places and times of the day I would avoid, like most towns - but in the sense that I find it hard to imagine a place where the difference between Australia's non-indigenous population and its indigenous population is more pronounced.

This is blatantly obvious in the infrastructure of the town, where splendid examples of the white colonial past, which took everything from the culture that was insitu, are still standing in the form of huge limestone buildings. Magnificent as they are - the courthouse, the police station, the post office and several others - they are an in-your-face reminder that in the 1860's, white fellas arrived and took over the place. Meanwhile, much of the other buildings in the main street are ramshackle dwellings or the remains of shops and businesses long since gone and beaten up and beaten down by locals. Everywhere, decay and disadvantage stands beside everlasting privilege. 

The cafe we visited last time is no more. "Miss Barrett has gone to Tasmania" we were told. Next door, an old shack with damaged corrugated iron roof, was having solar panels fitted!

We tried the road house for a cuppa but that was as limited and as expensive as it was unfriendly. We retreated back to our campsite.

A drive around the property revealed what we already knew from looking at what used to be the billabong in front of the campsite. The larger billabong was cracked mud with a fresh layer of green that some sheep were enjoying. In 2017, they would have be covered by water. One small puddle still battled the sun for survival. Not that it stopped the Red Tailed Black Cockatoos. A mob flashed past as we drove along. The red sand dunes seemed to have denser tracks and even in low range there was some  tyre slippage. The Darling itself sort of sat there, way down the bank, with all of the fallen trees exposed like piles of old bones (Sue's description).

They need rain out here.

Today's photos

The afternoon was spent chatting with new chums as they arrived and other relaxations. Sue read a book while I spent an hour updating our financial records. In the late afternoon, I enjoyed a few beers while sitting in my campchair with my camera in my lap, snapping the odd little birdie. I had been hearing a Whistling Kite for two days but hadn't been able to capture it, until late in the day, just as the last orange light was leaving, I caught it high up in a tree about 200 hundred metres away.

A lovely place Warrawong, despite the lack of water in the billabong, there are plenty of birds to marvel at, tracks to explore and peace and quiet. 

Broken Hill tomorrow.

AAA Tour - Day 10 - Walking Around Town

The original bridge

All of the morning was spent in the town of Wilcannia, after a cool night.

Wilcannia is a much maligned place. Even the BBC caned it in a recent documentary anchored by British actor and TV personality Reggie Yates. According to Bill Elliot, who we spoke with at Miss Barrett's Cafe, a passionate former property owner and now local business man, they chose to leave positive interviews and events they filmed on the cutting room floor when they edited the final to air program.

Thomas Mitchell passed through the area in 1835 and Sturt in 1844 but it was 1863 before the site for the town site was commissioned by JC Moore and the town was gazetted in 1866. White settlement had begun sixteen years early. Aboriginal Australians had been here for thousands of years of course. Local sheep stations soon needed a way to transport their huge bales of wool to market and paddle steamers solves that problem in such spectacular fashion that Wilcannia became the third busiest port in NSW.

Trade became so big that public and private businesses built the huge sandstone buildings which still stand today.

We walked the streets and examined the the prominent sandstone buildings dating back to the 1880's which seem so out of kilter with other abandoned shells which are almost side by side along the main street. Its complex. Most of the businesses have security mesh screens on what were windows and doors. There is no glass to be broken. The Club Hotel, a big dominant hotel on the corner of the main intersection, has no windows. They were boarded up long ago. A park on one side of the main river crossing is run down and broken and further along the river, another area down the bank, was covered in discarded beer cans and broken glass.

A statement of intent from local
Aboriginal women

In between, three large colourful boards beside the original heritage listed centre lifting bridge, define very clear, affirmative statement about how indigenous members of the community want to lead their youth to a better future. The photos and names are displayed. They are making a clear public statement of intent and taking personal responsibility. It was an inspiring action.

The people we spoke to were positive, such as an aboriginal women who asked Sue to visit the board by the bridge and the park opposite the hospital. Parts of the town speak of it but other parts maintain the stereotype you take there with you. It was disturbing. It was perplexing.

We drove out to the hospital. Built in 1879, the original building is still very much in use and has been continuously since it opened. Across the road, is a rough park, called Reconciliation Park, the most dominate feature of which was ten painted panels by indigenous artists. Beautiful artwork. We would have loved to have some explanatory notes but it was enough to appreciate the panels for how they looked.

Interesting morning.

During the afternoon, I sat in the camp kitchen and uploaded photos from the past few days. OnceSue joined me, the next hour or so was such a delight as we watched the birds come to the billabong and feed. Spoonbills, egrets, ibis, restless flycatchers, whistling kites, black-fronted dotterills, a pelican, a pied butcher bird, little corellas, herons. little black cormorants, galahs, magpies, mud larks and lots lots more. Brilliant, brilliant afternoon. Hopefully the photos will reflect that.

Click to see today's photos

Campfire circle again tonight talking with folks from Foster-Tuncurry, Penrith and the Clare Valley.

This is such a great place to camp.