From there we passed the huge ‘twin’ boab tree, with its massive metres thick branches. We stopped to look at the carvings and graves of Aboriginie station hands marked by stone circles, then drove on to the station. This current station was the third attempt by the early settlers to build a permanent presence, the first ones having been swept away by floods, destroyed by fire or eaten by white ants, or a combination of all those things. One of the old sites remains, constructed out of metal pipes. It is said the building was abandoned because the hollow metal pipes became infested with croaking frogs. At the station we set ourselves up in the shearer’s quarters, where we quickly learned not to leave any scrap of food, lest it (and possibly ourselves) would be carried away by an army of ants within minutes. The showers were also a novelty. At least two or three dozen green or brownish-yellow frogs would sit all around the walls and enjoy the water with you. And this applied to the toilet bowl as well, where several frogs would sit below the rim and watch you do your thing, be flushed down and then pop up again. The station is impressive, with a modest homestead once again being attacked by white ants, with many outbuildings; a school house, mess buildings and food storage refrigerated containers, storage sheds, horse yards and a camp for the Aboriginal hands back in the day when the station had 30 or more ringers along with their families. It also has a large swimming pool which, when we first saw it had many snakes in the sad puddles at the bottom. In later years when cane toads swept across the NT, the pool had thousands of dead toads piled up in corners where they had tried to climb over each other creating death pyramids. Although the main TA camp is not centred on the old station, Defence has fortunately decided to maintain it for posterity. Our task was to explore the TA and develop a ‘high level’ plan to create a formation manoeuvre TA, with its own direct fire ranges, indirect live fire sectors and manoeuvre corridors, roads and camps, large enough for two opposing brigade sized groups. All this was done with the cooperation of the local indigenous elders and through the formulation of an Indigenous Land Use Agreement. Fortunately we were not responsible for the ILUA, but a good outcome of that process was the formulation of local companies managed and manned by local Aboriginal groups, to do TA maintenance. This included wild fire control and feral animal control and fencing. I understand (as seen on Landline) that one of those companies still exists. I visited the TA many times over a 10 year period. We had the budget for our own (civvy) helicopters, allowing us access all over the place, exploring in detail the many untrodden (by European feet) gorges and re-entrants and mesas of the eastern Kimberley. Apart from identifying land for training, it allowed us to explore the wilderness and untrodden areas of the old station. Susan found a boab tree that had been carved by a midshipman on Charles Darwin’s ship the Beagle in 1813. He had been put ashore on the banks of the Fitzmaurice to measure the tides for two weeks and in his boredom carved ‘Jesu Christu’ and a date and a depiction of Madonna and Child. All this was verified in the Beagle Captain’s log, as investigated by Sydney University and the ABC, which made a 30 minute programme out of the discovery. A boab tree does not shed its bark. Hence the survival of old historic carvings. We also discovered a magnificent well-hidden cave, which had once been used by the traditional owners, with sleeping spaces and fire places that provided space for at least 30 people. All around the walls were numerous large paintings and in one corner was a painting of a three masted sailing ship… and a rifle! In the centre of the cave was a large hollowed out grinding block with the grinding stone left in the middle, as if the last hand that used it had only just put it down. Next to the entrance was a once yellow Capstan tobacco tin. Left by a station hand many decades ago. The cave entrance can’t be seen from the valley floor and strangely the local elders had no knowledge of the cave. It’s
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