Whitefellas in Wugularr: March 2012

Blog 2 of Life in Wugularr

We have enjoyed moving in status from the new teachers in town who may or may not stay for a while, to developing a greater sense of place and building stronger relationships.

Prue's running regime is limited to out and back circuits - out past the Waterhouse River and back towards Katherine. Our cycle rides have also been limited to the same road and we need to explore other tracks. A back road to Mataranka awaits our exploration.

We have fitted our touring bikes with the same tyres we used in Ladakh two years ago, so we have the capability to ride on mixed terrain. (Whether they'll do the job in sand or mud when we are chased by a buffalo is yet to be seen)

The Waterhouse River bridge, at this time of year, is a topic of many conversations. It is the Wugularr equivalent of Wangaratta's Yogi Bear in Apex Park. Flooding can occur quickly and our school is the evacuation point if the lower section of town does go under. Last week the river rose to just under the bridge. The BOM site graphs the automatic gauge at the local bridge so several teachers have it displayed on their smarts boards for the children to discuss. The other issue for the school is that half the staff live at Barunga - the other side of the flood zone. The river could stop them getting to school or getting home. Each teacher has a bag of necessities at school just in case.

Weekends have seen us exploring more of the area with trips to Litchfield National Park, Nitmiluk Gorge and our local gem - The Malkgulumbu Falls.

Our trip to Florence Falls with other teachers from Katherine.

Katherine teacher, Kim, enjoying

a spa in the Florence River's rapids

Erosion on the rocks surrounding

Beswick / Malkgulumbu Falls

A rainy day at the Malkgulumbu Falls - 20 kms out of town.

Ian, Deb Wasley and Prue

Yes...there's a nice line down the left hand side.

Local boys in our backyard. This is the closest a couple of them have got to school this year!

Sport is a big part of the lives of most Wugularr residents. Several weeks ago our Boys team played footy against the Katherine High School Clontarf team. (Clontarf is a program across three states that merges education and passion for footy) The whole school came down to watch. We have another match this week in Katherine for the boys plus a Footy Fever day for all the school just before the Easter holidays. Prue's Senior Girls footy team has continued to travel into Katherine on Wednesday evenings for the competition. Most of Wednesday afternoons are taken up with preparation. The girls are on top of the ladder and are in the Grand Final next week. Check out the AFL Katherine website for the results!

Early years teacher, Gerose Bolton, sitting in one of the grandstands at the footy.

Parents and interested community members

come down to barrack for the Beswick Bears

Basketball also has a huge following and we have helped the local Sport and Rec team to run a Monday/Thursday afternoon competition. Sport and Rec do a fantastic job organing all sorts of activities after school and on weekends to engage the local kids. The Hawks, Pythons, Geckos and Magpies do battle each week.

Having our Pajero and Richard, a tribal elder just living across the road, has meant we have the wheels and easy access to ask permission to visit the local area. We have visited the local water falls twice and just love the grandeur of the escarpments and red gorges.

I have purchased local 1:50,000 maps and we are currently planning an overnight walk for our senior students.

Last weekend we had a quick trip out to Nitmilik Gorge for a short walk and we explored the Katherine surrounds taking in more of the local history. From dreamtime stories and bush tucker to the sheer audacity of the early European explorers and settlers - the stories of the Katherine region are about water, seasons and who coped or didn't cope.

I loved this sign on the river bank in town.

It got me wondering about Disclosure Clauses in hire contracts and Risk Management strategies.

NT Times (Darwin) - any issue - there's always a croc story!

Rango the Agile Wallaby.

Jasmine, a teacher from school, is caring for Rango after he was orphaned. This weekend we have had the duties. He has made a race track of our long passageway. He is bottle feed three times a day and he loves sweet potato. He can also be found staring out the low louved windows listening to the call of the wild.

There seems to be a close attachment to the last person to give him a bottle.

I started having a shower and was quickly joined by Rango.

As I mentioned in the first blog, we have purchased a didge from local artist Frankie Tango Lane. I haven't heard the history of the nickname yet but he tells us he was a nippy rover back in his football days. Perhaps he danced around the opposition. A chance meeting on Saturday morning had an expedition planned for the afternoon. We wanted to find the elusive top track into the waterfalls and Frankie wanted some transport to bring home the next load of tree trunks for his didge production line. Deb W was visiting for the weekend , and neighbours Gerose and Tony joined in. We spent the afternoon learning all sorts of local knowledge and listened to Tango's stories of childhood - particularly his Mother's quick thinking allowing him to escape becoming a part of the stolen generation.

Prue 4WD Noble drove the paj up and down rocky outcrops with the ease of seasoned Mike or Mal Leyland!

Within a minute of stepping out of the car and walking to the closest tree, Tango had stripped a section of bark off the trunk and tapped the exposed wood with his finger. The tell tale hollow resonations had us chopping down our first tree. Over the next half an an hour and 300 metres of walking we had carried back tree trucks that would be the basis for 6 -7 new didges.

Hopefully we will be able to repeat the experience in the near future. Tango is quite a character and has a great sense of humour. His enthusiastic willingness to share his culture with younger community members or anyone willing to listen, will ensue Jawoyn knowledge will be passed on to future generations.

Collingwood fans may wish to zoom in on the rear window.

The past week has been filled with saddness in the community with three people passing away. Sorry Days allow for the due respect to be given to the deceased and all activities in the town, including school, are stopped allowing families to be together. Smoking ceremonies are also a key element of the grieving.

On a happier note our local community store has just started to make a profit (nothing to do with Prue Ian coming to town) and this Friday it will celebrate by holding a store party. The community will come together for an afternoon and evening of festivities.

Riley is coming up to visit for the Easter break. He will arrive in time for the Girls' Football Grand Final. We will share Wugularr together for a few days and then explore some National Parks before returning to Darwin for a night or two.

The end of Week 3 in our new jobs and community.

Our Saturday morning yesterday (18/2/2012) was very much a well-practiced habit. Whose turn to create breakfast in bed? Local ABC Gardening talkback on the radio with lots of discussion about unwanted vines and a non-existent wet season. All that was missing was The Age newspaper and Axel whimpering for a morning walk. (Yes, The Age is online but the older eyesight struggles with the i-phone. i-pads arrive during the next week, so a subscription may be purchased! And Axel? We have a feeling he may be whimpering for a morning walk down south in Clifton Hill. )

Is the Age weekend quiz available on-line? The competitive side to Saturday mornings is missing.

Perhaps we should skype the kids for the family quiz. I would trust one of them not to be looking at the answers but I'm not sure about the one with the beard!

Our transport hasn't been delivered yet. (Our green credo has taken a dive with the purchase of the dimpled Paj - the turbo diesel 4WD machine. Dimpled? Three days after delivery we experienced the Christmas day hail storm at Eltham. It works for golf balls so we'll see what effect it has on our fuel economy.) Fortunately our other gear arrived during the week so the afternoon was spent putting our bikes together. We unpacked our other bits and pieces, and 15 Balander Street is starting to feel more like a home. A walk around town late morning was also a step in "feeling more at home" direction with many locals now knowing us. Any kid under 15 who we didn't know was asked if they were coming to school next week. The reply...."Maybe Monday"

Now Sunday. The bikes were given a workout this morning with a ride back towards the Barunga Community. Prue's running has certainly given her added bike fitness. Whereas her riding partner's lack of running or riding left him a bit slow on the hills. A quick dip in the Waterhouse River just near home was refreshing but cautious as saltwater crocs do venture this far up during the wet. The wet actually hasn't been very wet since we arrived - not a drop. Consequently the Waterhouse River is 30 cm deep with a clear sandy bottom. Ideal for two nervous, new whitefellas in Wugularr.

Our journey to the Northern territory was inspired by the many southerners we know who have led the way for work or adventures. My father’s black and white snaps of the area from WW2 had sown a seed of traveling up here but it has taken until now to actually venture higher than Alice Springs. Our time teaching in Leh, Ladakh in 2010 was the main catalyst for a change in our teaching back home. We have been fortunate that both our Wangaratta schools allowed us 12 months leave to make decisions about the length of our stay.

A chance encounter with Jess Brown – Alice’s mate from La Trobe Uni, Bendigo, led us to contact her father’s partner, Lynette English. Lynette’s role is Principal of the Katherine Group school – a cluster of 13 campuses stretching across a NT Schools region as big as Victoria. Her enthusiasm for teaching in remote NT was enough encouragement for us to gain Teacher Registration in NT and apply for our Ocha Card to work with children here. The process occurred late in the year and the final security of “Yes – you have a job” was finalised in mid January. Two weeks later we were flying north to a three day Orientation Program in Darwin and Katherine.

House packing had several deadlines. A part of the NT enticement is a free uplift and flight. The uplift is all your needs in a new home and a car. Prue did a wonderful job to haggle this deadline to be while we were still in Wangaratta. Our other deadline was to be out so Kate and Eddie could move in. Fortunately Kate and Eddie were very patient as we were washing floors as they moved in their belongings. Axel was packed up for a year in Clifton Hill – Riley’s chick magnet has returned. Our chooks have stayed put and Kate has sourced scraps from a new venue. No more Vegemite sandwich crusts from Wangaratta West Primary School lunchboxes – its upmarket left-overs from a Wangaratta restaurant. Eggtraspecial breakfasts from now on.

The Orientation Program was a great introduction to life and work in NT. Three days of information, advice and story-telling inter-mingled with Twitter and Facebook interactions. New friendships and a challenge to make our teaching the most innovative and productive the NT has seen. The leadership team(s) at DET are very, very professional and are setting high expectations for the all employees. (Yes – perhaps some are reading this blog!)

Meeting the team at Katherine Group school (KGS) office was interesting. “Wangaratta – yes I know Wang. “ was common. Those of you who had children at Chisholm Street Primary School may remember Colleen O’Brien who was Principal after David Cummings. Colleen is now a Vice Principal at KGS and David works in leadership for DET in Alice Springs.

Finally we arrived in Wuggularr (also known as Beswick). 120 kilometres south - east of Kathernine.

Our home reminds Prue of her childhood farm house Antara with its wood floors and a long passage.

We established a small vegie garden out the back very quickly, and if the growth of weeds in the upturned patch is any indication, the plants should be very productive. The house has asbestos signs every where so it is of THAT era. Definitely no crawling around in this roof space!

The community population is approximately 500, with over 100 enrolled at school. A “new sub” – new housing subdivision has been built on higher ground after some huge floods in the late 1990’s. A part of the new sub in the well designed and resourced Wulgularr School.

. Consequently the school which was situated in the heart of the old community is now up hill on the far side of town. The school bus (and its new bus driver!) picks up students at their door each morning on an early run – for those wanting a free breakfast before school; a just before school run for those who want to sleep a little longer ; and a later run for those who want to sleep a lot longer and not actually go to school. The last run is conducted by Stanley – our male Teacher Assistant for the Senior classes. School attendance is an issue and the community is taking steps to rectify the problem.

The township has a store which is like a mini Aldi – Fruit & Veg through to TVs, fridges, toys and fishing gear. The store has a bar / club out the back which is open for two hours on two nights a week for restricted alcohol consumption. Wugularr also supports an Age Care facility, a Roper Shire Works depot, Nursery, Health Clinic and Government Administration office.

A highlight of visiting town is the Ghuunmarn Cultural Centre ( www.djilpinarts.org.au ) Follow the links on the website to read about Frankie Tango Lane. Tango recently sold a very special mago (digeridoo) to two new whitefellas in town. One of them has thin lips and will have trouble playing it, the other, Tango tells us, will become pregnant if she even looks at it!

One of the other cultural highlights of the area is the famous Walking with Spirits festival

The Malkgulumbu (Beswick Falls) is a hidden treasure on the south-west corner of Arnhem Land. It is an ancient playground for the Jawoyn people, a sacred site only open to the public once a year for a special night of sharing stories, song, dance and music.

Traditional corroboree meets contemporary arts.

2012’s date is July 28^thVery limited tickets. Australian Shakespeare Company handles ticket sales so get on to their mailing list -f you are interested.

As each school day passes by we are making stronger relationships with students and their families. Prue is the Senior Girls teacher and I provide planning release time for the other 6 teaching staff. This time includes PE, Health, Integrated projects and general support to Literacy/Numeracy learning. The school has had a high turnover of staff from 2011 with 6 out of 8 new staff including a new Principal.

Last week we helped take the Senior Girls footy team into Katherine for Week 1 of a 6 week AFL program. We won a closely contested match against our Barunga neighbours. This week will see us back in Katherine again with all the Senior students for an overnight camp. The key focus will include a SLAM music event that we hope our 2011 rock band will play at. We will also facilitate some goal setting and career pathway planning.

As you can see Katherine isn’t too far away. Two weekends ago we traveled in for the Traveling Sydney Film Festival. Great films including Africa United and a second viewing of The Hunter. Additional shorts included a wonderfully whimsical The Missing Key from Melbourne’s RMIT .

We are fortunate to have re-acquainted ourselves with an old friend, Deb Wasley. Deb lived in the Wangaratta area in the late 70’s and 80’s, and has also made the shift to teach in the Katherine region this year. Deb’s unit in Katherine has been christened the Pink Palace (it has a very pink interior) and she has kindly provided us with accommodation on two occasions already.

Great to hear about the fantastic things happening at home. The fab five have returned from walking in New Zealand. The Huts without Cattle Team have started work on the Wallace's Hut restoration. And John Brown has grown a huge tomato (via The Chronicle online!)