Chapter 10

“Let’s take ten days or a fortnight and visit our parents!” Tessa said. “We deserve a real holiday after five terms and summers!”

“Sure. But you’ve got to do some of the driving. Even by the shortest route, it’s 20 hours to Iga Warta.”

“Not in one stretch, we’ll drive down to Sydney, then to Iga Warta ... and maybe a big adventure.”

“Like what?”

“Like Marree and William Creek and Coober ... sort of the reverse of before we met.”

“You’ve got something cooking, I see the smoke.”

“We-ell. I’ve never been to the Alice and then the map seems to show a highway running northwest through the desert to Sturt Creek and Halls Creek. And we could then drive north to Kununurra.”

“We’d need water and grub. What’ll we do? Junk all this?”

“We’ll take books and clothing and some stuff. One posting’ll sell everything. We sure haven’t any furniture nor art like your folks or Gordy.”

“And?...”

“Oh, you had big plans, eh?”

“That’s not too crazy. But we’d need to plan.”

“I know where both swags are!”

“Not dumb.”

“And I’m not even blonde.”

By noon, Tessa had called her parents. They were thrilled at the prospect. Sam called home and got his mother. He told her of their tentative plan to visit. Rachel was thrilled. Sam didn’t tell her that they might drive via the Central Desert.

The trip to Western Australia had Patrick thinking of his time at the law center at UNSW. One of the cases he had read about was the Wik decision of the High Court (23 December 1996). The Wik decision “balanced the rights of the pastoralists and the rights of Aboriginals,” but placed the primacy of pastoral title over native title. Philip Hunter pointed out that where native title clashed with pastoral interests, pastoral interests would always override native title. Frank Brennan described the approach of the court as taking into account an “incomplete reading of the history.” An Aboriginal elder had asked: “What is this Native Title? Our native titles were given us. Who are they to give us titles? I am a native. Our law is to protect the land. This land was given us to protect. We want to protect it. Your law is to take and kill.”

For the whites, cattle came before culture, Patrick mused. But that was tough. His grandfather had raised cattle in Queensland and was always on good terms with the local band. His father had gone to school with Aborigines and his best friend, Jimmy, was a member of the band. Weena had been at school with Aborigines in Western Australia. And Charlie and Maddy had raised cattle in the Territory. There could easily be coexistence without conflict.

Over 20 years ago, in 1999, Lesley Head wrote about the Ord River Project in Australian Geographer that: “Despite a context in which consideration of both Aboriginal and environmental issues is now integrated into the development process, three colonial themes persist in the rhetoric of Stage Two. These are the empty landscape, the invisible Aborigine, and the idealisation of agricultural land use.”

At the same time, Sam was reading the 2011 Planning document online:

The geography of the Ord River has significantly changed since the damming of the Ord in the 1970s. The Dam splits the river into the upper and lower Ord River systems. Whereas the river used to flow only seasonally, the dam has created a year-round flow of water suitable for irrigation purposes...

Successive determinations of native title in 2003 and again in 2006 demonstrate the continuing strength of cultural connections to country among traditional owners in the Ord valley and catchment despite impositions associated with European settlement, pastoralism, and the extensive irrigation scheme. Aboriginal residents comprise about half the total population of the Ord Irrigation Area (ORIA). Aboriginal population growth is largely due to natural increase rather than in-migration. This means that, on a regional level, the Aboriginal population is younger, more permanent, stable, and fairly evenly comprised of males and females. The non-Indigenous population on the other hand is more influenced by in-migration and seasonal employment and disproportionately comprised of working-aged males. Whereas the non-Indigenous population is concentrated in the Kununurra townsite, the Aboriginal population is more dispersed, with many living in smaller settlements such as Wijilawarrim.

Indeed!

He’d phone Patrick and see what his opinion was.

It wasn’t what Sam nor Tessa had expected.

“That was a used car when you got it nearly four years ago,” Patrick had said. “Driving it over a thousand klicks across the desert would be tempting fate. In fact, driving it here, to Iga Warta, to Kununurra must be six thousand on decent roads. How much food, water and fuel would you take along when you leave the Alice? Think about it.”

Sam reported it to Tessa. “He’s right. I’ve an idea. Let’s go visit Sydney, then Iga Warta, and then drive to Adelaide. There’s a lot of dealerships there and we can trade-in our 4x4 Toyota and get something newer. We don’t spend what we get. We’ve got the dosh in the bank.”

“Look and see what’s really in Adelaide. Then I’ll call dad again.”

“There’s a Jeep and a Toyota dealership. We could get a Wrangler or a Hi-Lux. They both have demonstrators with under 10K on them. Oh, by the way, I’ve posted a ‘for sale’ notice on the UNE students site,” reported Tessa.

“Who knows the area between the lake’s shore and the NT border best?” Jos asked boobook.

“Why?”

“I want to look over possible sites.”

“You need to be near water.” He called out: “Are Fred and Andy around?”

“They gone to the Arts Center. Back after lunch.”

“OK.” He turned to Jos. “Talk to ‘em later. Take ‘em for a ride. You fellas oughta go on Thompson Springs Road, then south to where the lake was.”