Chapter 14

“The Father of All Spirits was pleased with the Sun Mother’s work.

“She called all her creatures to her and instructed them to enjoy the wealth of the earth and to live peacefully with one another. Then she rose into the sky and became the sun.” Sam concluded his teaching.

“That was interesting,” Tessa said. She had begun attending the ‘teachings’ so that the twins would be exposed.

“Yet more interesting, I heard this morning that Gabbaitch has been taken under the aegis of the CLC.”

“CLC?”

“Central Land Council of the Territory. Around 60% of NT is their domain. It will make things even tougher for that Ministry bloke who was here several months ago.”

“Are they making a fuss?”

“Not yet. But precautions are important. I’ll need to call my dad about it.”

“What for?”

“If I’m right, The Aboriginal Land Rights Amendment Act of the NT enables private housing on Indigenous lands.”

Tessa laughed. “So WA and the NT can fight over who has jurisdiction over this settlement?”

“Exactly. Really pointless, but it will keep the bureaucrats busy. Nietzsche said: ‘The snake which cannot cast its skin has to die. As well the minds which are prevented from changing their opinions; they cease to be mind’.” Tessa laughed again.

Sam mentioned the CLC to Patrick a few days later.

“Brilliant!” his father said. “Now, the trick is to get Boobook involved. As I recall, the NNTT [National Native Title Tribunal] assigned the area between the lake and the NT border to the Miriwoong. Boobook of the Mirima can assert dominion over Gabbaitch, too. Who was the nungungi of Timber Creek?”

“Short-eared rock wallaby.”

“Excellent! Owl and Wallaby. And Owl will recall his father’s story. He told me that the land of the Miriwoong people covered a large tract of country straddling the Western Australian and Northern Territory border. I haven’t mauled the NNTT since before you were born.” [The Miriuwung Gajerrong native title claim covers 7095 sq km and includes the township of Kununurra in the east Kimberley, Lake Argyle, the Keep River and the Ord River irrigation area.]

“I’m always happy to keep you amused.”

Patrick told Sam that Boobook should tell the story of Pundu.

The next day, Sam and Tessa drove to Mirima and spoke to Boobook. He stroked his beard and said he would file ownership with the judge, if it was thought necessary. A woman brought them tea. Boobook told the tale.

Old Pundu, the Cod, was given duty to drag and create the river we know as the Darling River today. And Cod came out with Mudlark, his mate, and they set off from the north and they created the big river. That water flows right through our country, right into the sea. That was done by Guthi-guthi, the spirit of our ancestral being, he lived up in the sky but he came down because he wanted to create the special land for people and animals and birds to live in.

All this country was also created, the first two tribes to be put in our country were Eagle-hawk and Crow. And from these two tribes came many tribal people, many tribes, today’s sub-groups. The Ngiyaampaa people and the Barkandji further down are all sub-groups of Eagle-hawk and Crow. Even the Kullila in Queensland.

“You are Bunjil and Wodang. Many tribes come from you. The two you carry, Wodang, will be of no tribe and of every tribe. Bunjil carries Europe and Asia. Wodang is Australia. You carry the future.”

They thanked him and drove back to Gabbaitch. But Jos told them that he had seen a bunyip that afternoon. That had to be bad. [The bunyip lives in swamps, billabongs, creeks, riverbeds and waterholes. In the Wemba-Wemba language it means “devil” or “Evil spirit”.]

Several days later, the meaning became clear. Olympic Dam was in trouble. Two of its ponds had been destroyed.

Seismic activity in Australia is categorised as low to moderate. However, the rate of the deformation of the Australian continent is faster than other stable intraplate regions, such as Eastern North America and Africa. Adelaide region is the most seismically active zone in the Australian continent. Therefore, seismic hazard analysis of the Adelaide region is needed to improve the accuracy of seismic hazard predictions.