Report from Minindee.
Although it may seem like a long time ago, Melbourne’s 1860 Burke and Wills expedition is still being talked about along their track especially where this colourful and controversial circus stopped at little towns or properties where little else seems to have happened since.
Take Ron Duryea, a shearer of Balranald for example. Riding up to our colourfully decorated Pajeros on his bicycle stopping at our Burke and Wills signage he blurted out, “My great great grandmother Elsie, was cook at the Wharf Hotel on the river and cooked for Burke when he stopped on his way to the Gulf – and that’s fair dinkum, come, I’ll show you where the pub was”.
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| Ron Duryea |
Right or wrong – and like Ned Kelly’s suit of armour there are many Burke and Wills stories out here on the track – Ron showed us the hotel remains, described the menu on offer and Burkes culinary preferences, all handed down orally Aboriginal style through generations. Hard to document admittedly, but what he lacked in evidence he made up for with passion. For Ron this was clearly the biggest event in the history of the Duryea family and he was glad we stopped to hear the news.
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| The Wharf at Balranald and hotel where Burke wined and dined in 1860 a big event for the town still recalled to this day by descendants like Ron Duryea |
Mind you the visionary Byrnes is an exception because so much has actually happened on her nearby property Wamberra which she now owns, in the last 150 years. For a start she and her husband Ned have de-stocked dramatically from the unsustainable old days when settlers following Burke in the late nineteenth century cleared as much land as they could, put as many sheep into their paddocks as possible then when the soil wore out added fertilizer to maximize returns.
“For some years now we have been regenerating native vegetation by creating stock-free reserves protected by fences erected with indigenous support and the land has responded beautifully returning to its original pristine condition” she said showing us around her showcase property. Byrnes also shelters threatened species including more than 100 Mallee Fowls building mounds in the peace and quiet of her reserves. Although pioneering this sustainable strategy successfully she wants help from the government to combat increasingly large herds of feral goats which were certainly not there when Burke and Wills came through in 1860.
Of course there have been many other changes since Burke and Wills came along this track including more feral pests - rabbits, foxes, pigs, camels (some may have escaped from Burke’s herd) and cane toads – not to mention a host of feral weeds taking over the wide brown land.
Victoria’s Native Fish Strategy Co-ordinator, Fern Hames who visited our camp near Kerang for Department of Sustainability and Environment claimed 90% of fish had disappeared from the rivers since Burke and Wills passed by thanks to dams, weirs, tree clearing and introduced species like Carp.
Visiting environmental consultant Alfred Hupermann blamed salination for declining productivity around Boort but Ngyampaa elder Beryl Carmichael at Menindee blamed mines for damaging land along the Darling River. “It’s terrible what miners have done to our sacred sites digging up traditional land, putting roads everywhere and disturbing the spirits of our ancestors.” Says Carmichael, “ Something has to be done to stop the destruction of our environment”.
And that is why we are mounting this investigative expedition. Patron Jack Thompson says it is “a timely audit of the countryside to see how much the bush has suffered since Burke and Wills described the outback 150 years earlier and how we can repair it”. Thompson who played the role of Burke in the 1985 classic film “Burke and Wills” said Wills wrote a very descriptive diary which can be used as a basis for comparison. “The bush needs friends” said Thompson a former stockman “as we have used it pretty hard in the last 150 years and we have to make sure we can use it productively for another 150 years. It’s time, to replant trees and vegetation to keep the topsoil intact to stop dust storms hitting Sydney like September 2009.”
Our honorary team of four environmentalists – the same number as Burke’s - includes Steve Broomhall, outback operations manager, former stockman on Brunette Downs; Michael Dillon, documentary cameraman for Channel 7 who filmed on Mt. Everest with Sir Edmund Hillary and Ben Beeton Artist in Residence who with Dillon is reporting to Arts Victoria’s Culture Victoria website for schools: http://www.cv.vic.gov.au/
Having converted our Get Around Campers to computerized film and photographic studios, editing suits, editorial offices we are producing reports comparing today’s environment with 1860, interviewing stakeholders to give the outback a timely voice that will help guide the expenditure of the $9.9 billion allocated by the Gillard government for regional Australia.
Jonathan King
Disappointed that there are no comments, however, this will fix that. On my numerous trips up to Innaminka and beyond I have developed a fascination for the Burke and Wills expedition.I have read two slightly different versions (published ) of Will's diary and relived the expedition from the safety of my bed, and dreaming of the self imposed hardships and wondered at the decision making process of Burke.I am sure that Wills would have had serious reservations about the folly of some of those decisions, such as timing, back up parties etc.I think this would have come to a head at the death of Gray,which allegedly was at the hands of Burke.This, in my opinion, typified the whole disaster.I, like yourselves, had found that local information passed down through the years was surprising and needed to be documented as you are doing.Looking forward to your blogs, and to anything new you may find.I understand that the primary function of your trip is an enviromental one comparing the damage of the last 150 years and perhaps not one of faithfully retracing the very footsteps of the ill fated journey.I am sure that there are many undiscovered artifacts and tree blazes that lay out there.I can't help thinking of the campfires out there and the myriad of conversations of the days endeavours.No doubt,reflections of the past heroic deeds will be enhanced by your own undertaking.You are in fact,walking in the boots of past explorers, discovering something that may be far more important than the ability to cross a continent on foot.I can only hope that the environment is as resilent as those intrepid explorers and can recover from any problems that we collectively have caused.Good luck with it all. Charles Mayo
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