Sorely missing fruit and vegetables and
running out of many basics, we headed to Kalumbaru and the very northern coast of
Australia. We had made sure we had enough fuel to make it the couple of hundred
bumpy kms from Mitchell Falls NP to the little mission settlement of Kalumbaru
but our mouths dropped open when we arrived, a little hot and bothered, to
discover that unleaded was a whopping $3.10 per litre. Understandable
considering how remote the town is, but still hard to stomach paying over $170
for 55 litres! We purchased a few groceries from the mission café before
learning that the town had a larger store which even had fresh fruit and
veggies brought in from Darwin via a 40-hour barge journey. However we spent an
insane amount of money on a few bits of fruit and veg ($2 per apple and orange!)
and wondered how the local community survive when employment opportunities
would be severely limited and they have to spend that much money on basics.
Kate asked one of the women in the store and she just rolled her eyes
resignedly and told me they had no choice – the road in is ok but not good
enough for trucks and so they pay through the nose for goods brought in by
barge or plane. Kalumbaru was a mission until the 1970s when the fed govt
handed back management of the area to the Aboriginal Land Corporation. The town
has between 350-500 people at any time. The locals were friendly and Sash’s
slightly upset stomach had us using various toilets throughout the town which
gave us the opportunity to chat to some of the locals. We visited the clinic
toilet and chatted to a woman there with her grandson Michael who had a nasty
ear infection. Then we visited the police station cum community centre to use
the toilet there and chatted to the local Department of Child Protection
worker who gave us an interesting although somewhat bitter version of the
challenges of working with the local community and for the government. She
mentioned that a whole generation of people who had been bought up by the
mission without any parental role models were now struggling with being parents
themselves. She said that the community is screaming out for parenting programs
but the government refused to fund any up here. Then she kindly gave the kids a
massive coloured lolly ring each (much to our dismay as they had just had an
ice-cream from the store).
We finally made it out to the coast – to
the very top of Australia looking out on the Timor Sea. We stayed at Honeymoon
Bay – a beachside property owned by a local family who allow people to camp on
the beach. On our way into Kalumbaru we had passed a friendly fellow in a road
grader who had asked us where we were headed. When we told him we were headed
for Honeymoon Bay, he promptly told us he owned the place and to make sure we
asked George to take us fishing. Naturally this got Bill’s attention and he
started gazing eagerly into the distance. We drove into the campsite, quickly
checked in with George to arrange a fishing trip, set up camp and then got
bitten by hundreds of tiny flying insects…
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