MEETING COUNTRY IN ARNHEM LAND
Far from the Red Centre’s well-trodden trails, Arnhem Land offers a different kind of adventure. After travelling with Outback Spirit, Kassia Byrnes reflects on a journey through one of Australia’s most sacred and remote landscapes.
WORDS Kassia Byrnes
PHOTOS Jessica Miocevich
A soft breeze rustles the leaves of the Tamarind trees we sit under, bringing with it the gentle scent of the ocean metres away from our shady patch. Members of the Galpu clan have brought us from our bus to Wirrwawuy’s (Cape Wirrawoi’s) long beaches. And we’re about to experience a meet and greet unlike any I’ve experienced.
It’s a family affair. Young children pay close attention to the hands, feet, and cries of the adults around them. Clan leaders play bilma (clapping sticks) and yidaki (didgeridoos). Men and women of all ages take turns as they tell the Songline of a spiritual man searching for food and water. Their joy is infectious.
To finish, we’re officially welcomed to Country, with jilka leaf smoke to protect us on our Arnhem Land journey.
This ceremony starts Outback Spirit’s 13-day Arnhem Land Wetlands & Wildlife tour in the Gove Peninsula, where we stayed to explore Nhulunbuy and Yirrkala.
Following our Welcome to Country, our bus takes us to Buku-Larrnggay Mulka/ Yirrkala Art Centre. Here, two four-metre-tall Yirrkala Church Panels stand proud in their own viewing room. These artworks form an important part of Australian history, when eight Yolŋu elders set out to describe their law in 1975.
Elsewhere, local artists work on their canvas as we admire the artworks for sale – each one telling an important part of local songlines.
ARAFURA AWAITS
We leave Gove for Outback Spirit’s exclusive Murwangi Safari Camp on the banks of the Arafura Swamp. It feels a world apart from the peninsula.
We spend the morning on the swamp – a vast, seasonally flooded freshwater wetland at the heart of Ganalbingu Country – guided by local Ganalbingu man Graham Gunurri and adopted Indigenous man Lachlin Dean. The Arafura’s waterbirds provide the soundtrack: the mad cackle of blue-winged kookaburras, the majestic cries of various kite species. And honks of magpie geese, totems of the local Ganalbingu people (and very good walle (eating)).
Crocodiles make themselves known with the occasional thrash of a tail and whip of a pointed, scaly nose. It’s hard to believe when Graham tells us his clan used to be able to dive right in.
After a tasty lunch back at camp, it’s time to explore the land. We’re taken out by Ganalbingu man Frankie, discovering cooking uses for termite mounds and how to turn milkwood trees into canoes and spears.
Frankie’s father was the famous painter David Malangi, and it showed when he demonstrated the basics of Indigenous art forms.
I’ve spent plenty of time on different lands around the world, but I’ve never witnessed the breathtaking busyness of such a remote place before.
BARRAMUNDI LODGE
Before we know it, it’s time to head to our next location: Barramundi Lodge, another safari-tented stop located just outside the small community of Maningrida.
Stringybark and woollybutt gum trees surround each tent. The main dining cabin boasts sweeping views of the plain below, transformed each evening under sunset’s vibrant oranges and reds.
Every year, Barramundi Lodge attracts guests hoping to catch a juicy barra, and some of our group had their own luck out on the nearby Liverpool and Tomkinson Rivers.
Fishermen satisfied, we head back to shore and visit the Maningrida Arts and Cultural Centre – the oldest and largest of its kind, with all profits going back to the artists – and nearby Djómi Museum.
Doreen Jinggarrabarra is our guide to both, a leading fibre artist whose work has been shown in galleries around the world. She shares the basics of her art before walking us around Djómi, explaining each artefact.
Despite her huge success as an artist, it’s not until she’s finished that she allows a modest sense of pride to enter her tone. But it’s not for herself.
“We don’t forget our culture,” she tells us. “We teach our kids, we keep it going.”
ANCIENT ART
It’s a sentiment that stays with us as we make our way to Mount Borradaile, home to one of the world’s most extensive and best-preserved rock art galleries.
Artworks here date back as far as 55,000 years, with well-studied styles and materials giving clues as to which period they come from. While modern artworks are detailed, showing everything from mythical figures to local animals to guns, the oldest keep it simple with grass strikings and handprints believed to serve as the original mark on Country.
It’s here that our guides lead us to one of the largest known depictions of the Rainbow Serpent.
We spend the afternoon on Coopers Creek. Sitting in a boat under Mount Borrodaile cliffs, I’m struck by the waterways’ beauty. They teem with life, making them at once the busiest places I’ve ever seen, yet somehow also the calmest. Our penultimate stop is oceanside, at Seven Spirit Bay Wilderness Lodge, where, at night, the waves take over nature’s duty of lulling us to sleep.
The beach is so idyllic it’s almost cruel; crocodiles and sharks make it impossible to swim. Still, the salty sea breeze, gentle buzz of cicadas and bird calls all add to the ambience.
So, we explore in boats. It’s rough on the water, but still breathtaking. Striking, corrugated cliffs replace vast, open ocean. Eroded over the years by rainfall, trees with exposed roots desperately cling to the red and white ochre.
Here, settler history seeps in, with a morning spent fishing in the open ocean and exploring nearby Victoria Settlement – one of two failed attempts at British settlement in these parts.
Back at the lodge, lemon sharks circle the pier, hoping to feast on any remains from freshly caught fish our chefs are preparing for the night’s dinner.
Our journey will end tomorrow in Darwin, but the emotion of leaving Arnhem Land hits me tonight. It’s not lost on me that most Australians don’t get to explore these parts. And I know it’s a journey that will never be forgotten by those who do.
THE DETAILS
Travel where few do, and where stories run deep. Outback Spirit’s Arnhem Land Wetlands & Wildlife tour is a 13-day journey into one of Australia’s most sacred and remote regions. Guided by Traditional Owners and enriched by culture, ancient art and vast landscapes. Stay in exclusive lodges, move slowly across Country and return changed. From $12,995 per person twin share.