Chapter 3

I fell into a sort of routine. After the first few days, I'd stay up late in order to collect crepuscular and nocturnal samples. Then I spent a few days getting up at or just before dawn – which yielded nothing new. Dusk and dawn were the same to the ants. I looked near the creek, where it was damp. Carpenters favor rotting trees, tree stumps, disintegrating tree roots, or any moist areas previously excavated by other insects, such as termites.

After 10 days, I relocated a few klicks west, where the Maiawalli were camped. The young men showed me where the honey ants were. I showed them how to did a trench near the acacias to harvest the termites as they emerged. Trading knowledge was better than trading sugar. I noted the diet of the Camponotus nests I tracked. Carpenters forage for living or dead insects, small invertebrates, and anything sweet such as plant and fruit juices and honeydew, a sweet liquid produced by aphids and scale insects. But the diet seemed to vary with the season. Protein appeared to be prized more than sugars. (On my visit several months later, sugar was harvested assidulously.)

I'd brought Wilson and Wheeler as references; and Connell's The Mystery of Ludwig Leichhardt and White's Voss as reading material. Leichhardt must have come near here, a bit south perhaps, in 1844, four or five years before he disappeared without a trace on his second attempt to cross Australia. [Gordy couldn't know, but over a decade later a relic of Leichhardt's was found in the extreme east of Western Australia – he must have made it two-thirds of the way from Brisbane to Perth.]

At the beginning of his journal, Leichhardt wrote

Oct. 7.--In following the chain of lagoons to the westward, we came, after a few miles travelling, to the Condamine, which flows to the north-west: it has a broad, very irregular bed, and was, at the time, well provided with water--a sluggish stream, of a yellowish muddy colour, occasionally accompanied by reeds. We passed several gullies and a creek from the northward, slightly running.

The forest on the right side of the river was tolerably open, though patches of Myal scrub several times exposed us to great inconvenience; the left bank of the Condamine, as much as we could see of it, was a fine well grassed open forest. Conglomerate and sandstone cropped out in several sections. Mosquitoes and sandflies were very trouble-some. I found a species of snail nearly resembling Succinea, in the fissures of the bark of the Myal, on the Box, and in the moist grass. The mussel-shells are of immense size. The well-known tracks of Blackfellows are everywhere visible; such as trees recently stripped of their bark, the swellings of the apple-tree cut off to make vessels for carrying water, honey cut out, and fresh steps cut in the trees to climb for opossums. Our latitude was 26 degrees 49 minutes. The thermometer was 41 1/2 at sunrise; but in the shade, between 12 and 2 o'clock, it stood at 80 degrees [F], and the heat was very great, though a gentle breeze and passing clouds mitigated the power of the scorching sun.

Condamine is just a bit southeast of Roma: I was nearly reading about home.

I also spent a lot of time thinking. While I could read in the daylight, I couldn't in the twilight nor at night. I wrote reports in my head, I thought about possible jobs, I thought about Winnie. I liked her. I liked being with her. And she was dramatically different from Sandra. But I couldn't imagine spending my life with her. And she'd never mentioned children. I always smiled at the nude one and two year olds that toddled over and stared at me. And I'd give them sweets. The band let me sit near the fire and listen to stories of the Dreamtime. I asked whether they knew the band in Diamantina National Park. They offered to let the others know that I was going to visit.

After three weeks, I had well over a hundred specimens, all social insects. Termites, bees, ants, and a digger wasp, Sphex cognatus. [The nest of this wasp is a burrow in the soil with several chambers. A single larva develops in each chamber feeding on katydid grasshoppers collected by the female. The only native hive bees in Australia are the small, black, stingless species of Trigona andAustroplebia. Nests in dead limbs are often revealed when trees are felled.] I had seen a large tarantula, a bird-eating spider (Selenocosmia crassipes) and several scorpions, too, but hadn't taken them.

I packed up. I handed another bag of sugar to the head man and told him I'd return in a few months, and drove off. The detailed map was a big help, but it wasn't an easy drive: back towards Winton, off on the Winton-Jundah Road, off onto the Cork-Jundah Road to the Diamantina River Road and then into the Park. I filled my tank and my jeep can at a small station on the Winton-Jundah Road, buying a case of liters of water and a handful of chocolate bars, too. I was glad I had four-wheel drive and that the 4x4 rode high. These were unsealed, well-rutted roads. Once I got onto the River Road, I stopped and took a few samples, even though they were ponerines (Leptogenys, probably). I wasn't bitten. I drove into the park, looking at my watch. Nearly eight hours to cover a bit over 250 kilometres. I stopped at a sign that read "Airstrip." There were no visible aircraft, but there were a few folks standing and chatting.

"Day-ee," I waved.

"G'day. You campin'?"

"A bit. I was headin' towards Little Constance."

"Not much water there. Some, though."

"Water at Packsaddle?"

"Yep. Bowira, too. But there's nigs there."

"Thanks." I drove off wondering how long that sort of stupid prejudice would last. I passed no one else and the campground at Little Constance Lake was empty. I continued to Lake Constance, which had ample water in it, and decided to spend the night there.

In Diamantina National Park, the Diamantina River cuts braided channels through gibber flats, sand dunes and red-capped ranges. The park supports a large number of rare and threatened plants and animals, including the greater bilby, kowari, dusky hopping-mouse, kultarr, plains wanderer, peregrine falcon and two rare skinks. Beyond the river flats are vast gibber plains and Mitchell grasslands. Trees at the western limit of their range include mountain yapunyah, Normanton box and red mallee. Some of the lakes are listed as wetlands of national importance, while old station buildings, cemeteries and hotel ruins are reminders of historic pastoral use.

The Kirrenderri people who lived here for thousands of years call Diamantina "Kurrawoolkani" and regard this place as their heartland. The park has a rich Aboriginal history and is also the traditional land of the Maiawali people.