Central Australia April 2018
It’s mid trip with 2 weeks to go.
I’m sitting at the NT Writers seminar listening to Kim Mahood.
She is a successful writer whose most recent book “ Position doubtful” has done three print runs already. The seminar is about doing creative, non fiction that is enjoyable for writer and reader, learning the processes and techniques which can facilitate this type of writing. We all wrote some short pieces, and critiqued them being especially interested in identifying repetition, pesky adverbs, and not getting preachy. Basically, Let the story unfold, by using observation, then insight then reflection. In short, show, don’t tell.
As I said, it’s been two weeks and Jennifer and I have been apart except for the weekends. My first week was spent working at Papunya. I could not go out much at lunch or after work because it’s not only hot but the flies are very annoying. Those creepy little ones that crawl up under my glasses. Eeeech. At Papunya, I stay at a unit. If I turn left, I can quickly reach the airfield road. I enjoy going for a run in the morning, it’s 3.5 km of good bitumen. I’ve gone beyond it, but the road gets difficult to run on. The bush tracks are very corrugated, throwing me off balance and the sand makes it hard to push off, difficult to get traction. At my age, I don’t want a repeat of my previous Achilles strain so Im happy to accept shorter distances.
As I run south, I see the vast span of ranges start to glow from the crests down to their flanks, a coating of morning light. What could a light beam see as it passes over this sparsely treed plain? It would see the dilapidated houses of Papunya, some blue, some green, rusty cars perched on blocks, dusty bush tracks circling the town then radiating like spokes for hundreds of kilometres to Kintore or Glen Helen and if it paused right above the community, there are roads with deep craters in the bitumen.
My metaphorical light beam would see nobody standing outside but me. My run starts before dawn, before the flies and the heat. There is only the sound of dogs barking on the far side of town. Otherwise the air is very still, with a soft warmth, it’s the gentlest time of day. A few donkeys lift their heads up as I jog slowly past.
In this first week I worked with three nurses, I’d driven to Papunya on Monday morning with the clinic manager as passenger. We chatted about all sorts of things, stopping at Glen Helen for coffee. She told me about a camping trip she had done with a few friends. They drove along the Tanami Road to you-have-to-know it turn off then carried on to the old, the original Glen Helen Homestead. It’s a ruin. She obtained permission for the visit from the owners, now based at the new resort. On the way, they crossed a beautiful, wooded valley. She described how they assembled tents, and settled in for the night. Early in the morning dingos walked warily amongst the tents, emitted a few brief barks, and then vanished into the forest.
This last week has been at Epenarra. It’s not far from Canteen Creek, and about two hours from Wauchope. It’s pronounced Walk Up. The roads are particularly rough right now, no grader has gone over them for months. I flew in early Monday morning. I left Alice before dawn. Soon I could see this pink ball of light to the east, long before it lit up the ground. As time passed, the rays of sunlight cast long shadows, the real trees and hills were dwarfed by these silhouettes. I waited at the airstrip for the ambulance to collect me, then headed back the short distance to the clinic. Sue is the nurse and manager and cleaner and receptionist. The clinic normally has two nurses . There are two very reliable, aboriginal drivers, who look after the clinic with Sue. Another nurse soon arrived to help.
These clinics run on minimum staff, a lot of them are agency staff. Agency nurses keep the remote clinics open in vast parts of NT. Typically they are very experienced, usually older and work for a few weeks to a few months depending on need and availability. It is always fun to talk to the staff here, both the nurses and indigenous personnel. Sue is a keen, widely published landscape photographer so it was great to talk cameras and technique on our breaks. Works was quiet. Sadly a young man had died on the Sandover, and because many locals in Epenarra were family, most of the population took the long, dusty drive to the funeral at Ampilitwaja ( pronounced Ambladderwatch). Sorry business can be necessary activity for weeks, visitor numbers considerably expanding one community by depleting others. Other community members will be out of town this current week, including our drivers because of a big meeting about mining royalties.
I could not go for a run at all due to cheeky dogs situated in houses all around me. I’ve been bitten before and I’m nervous about any repeat performance. The other thing that sapped enthusiasm for walks or photo sessions in the surrounding country, were the flies. Everyone who lives here has said that this is an unusually bad fly infestation. Even the local Aborigines are seen sporting fly nets. As I said earlier, they are the tiny black flies, that crawl under your glasses, or climb into my ear canals. Yeeech!
I returned on Thursday afternoon to Alice Springs, dropped off the weeks pathology then crossed the road for an early dinner at Montes. I ordered Mexican chicken Parma and indulged in a kit Kat brownie. Gosh it was big but yummy. I did not see anybody I knew around me so I read some medical articles for a talk I planned to give on Fridays regular clinical meeting. I’d spent my downtime at Epenarra scouring the online NT health library for definitive information about bronchiectasis. While I was at Papunya I had had to evacuate a five year old boy for an exacerbation of his condition. Presenting case studies with references to the medical literature is a great way to learn. It makes it real and not theoretical when it resides in a textbook. When I think of that medical problem, I will remember him. All the time at Montes I was sipping a Tar and Roses Pinot Grigio, so the clinical details in my case were getting progressively more fuzzy at the edges. Luckily I’d finished writing it on the plane earlier.
Jennifer arrived back from lake Nash after five, so I was already home. I’d booked dinner at Humuyans. It’s the principal dining venue at Doubletree Hotel. It’s easily the best restaurant in Alice Springs. It was A soft, warm evening, and spent the time at table telling each other about our week away.
I’ve already described the writing seminar I went too so I won’t go over that. The high point of the week, was a concert at Araluen. An evening dedicated to Fred Astaire. Three performers produced a wonderful evening of dance, of song and stories about this amazing man. Top Hat, Fascinating rhythm, Puttin on the Ritz were some of the many musical numbers. Great night. Afterwards we met some of the performers. We left the theatre, walking to the car park. We all noticed how delightfully warm it was. My mind wandered back to Launceston and reflexly shivered with the recalled cold of Tasmanian April.
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