by David Mason
Not far from Steep Point.
I was not running or hiding from anything. Instead, I wanted to create, through my own doing, the beginning and end of a journey. I understood that there was only one way I could undertake this journey. By myself. Like my time in French Foreign Legion this trip taught me about life and the inevitability of death. Acknowledging my own death meant that in the final moment before the end I could say to myself, je ne regrette rien.
I had also learned something else. I thought back on the words of Heriot in Randolph Stow’s To the Islands: ‘my soul is a strange country.’ I had learned that my soul is not a strange, alien or lonely place, it is my country. And then, when I stopped, how could I explain what I felt to other people? There was no need for parades, cameras or banners. How to explain something that was worth risking my life, my relationship, my job, my credibility and my own self-worth that had no reward other than its own doing? Just a beating heart, a catch in the throat and the definition in my shadow.
At Shark Bay not far from Steep Point.
I was part of the landscape now. I was part of my country and a small part of it was me. We had a shared history of places and times that perhaps no other person would know or perhaps even care about. But ours was a history that was common to us alone and I held it close to me. So my story, this story, became a series of stories, of meetings and thoughts and reflections across the landscape of Australia, superimposed on the stories and songlines of the Aboriginal people who had been there before me.
I had learnt that being alone is at once a kiss and the point of a knife. By choosing to be solitary you can touch the best and worst of yourself. The taste of salt on my tongue and the sun setting over the sea were enough for me then. After a short time on my own, as a tear coursed down my face to my chin and dropped two metres into the Indian Ocean, I looked to the horizon and the adventures that waited there. Then I went to talk with the fishermen.
Postscript
When I finished the trip my immediate concern was for the future of my friends. Kabul, Chloe and Kashgar found a home on Cable Beach outside Broome. I could not leave them on a station, even though the offer from the Wades had been so generous. The cannery at Carnarvon was too close. Nor could I afford to have them freighted home. I was broke. And little Dalhousie? He disappeared from Hamelin Station. Most likely Kabul forced him away from the females. I like to think that he has found his way to camel heaven along the Zuytdorp Cliffs where others like him still move along the coast.
And my relationship with Amber? It was like the late evening desert fire of mulga. Its embers still hot, the flames flickering, spluttering and, finally, sighing. We parted ways with tears and a profound misunderstanding of what the other expected. My brother Brett was preselected and duly elected to the Senate.
When I arrived home some people congratulated me on conquering the continent, as if I had fought the land and won. As if, like the explorers of the nineteenth century, I had set out to conquer or die, and had cheated the land of my death. Nothing could be further from the truth. The land had won me. And not only the land, the people had too.
When I arrived at the rise overlooking the sea, I saw the light. In many ways it marked the close of a journey. In my solo Walk Across Australia there were times when I did not see a fellow human for many days, when I felt the warmth and the darkness of Australia’s interior, and a silence that can be heard.
But I did meet Australians, men and women, white and black, who took time to share their stories with me. They shared their ideas, and their understanding of the land that moves me now. Meeting people, talking with them and having them share their thinking with me gave my trip context and meaning. It gave meaning to my journey and the journey that is my life.
People give meaning and understanding to land. We learn to live with the land, move on it, survive and thrive, if we learn from people who know the land. Without the magic of the people my journey could have easily become nothing more than a brutal marathon.
Australia is my country, my home, my land. I have fought for it, lived with it, bled on it and told stories about it. In walking across its skin I wanted to learn more about myself and my country; its colours, its moods and its stories. Especially its stories, told by people who believed they were Australians too.
In the course of my trip I met people I will never forget. To one of them I wrote the following words:
‘On our travels we had adventures with trucks, trains, snakes, scorpions and feral camels. We were at times very hot or very cold. Sometimes we were short of water and on other occasions flooded in. I don’t know about the camels but at times I was so sore and tired I cried. But the tough things, the things that hurt were always outweighed by the magic of the country and the warmth, generosity and quiet dignity of Australians like you.
‘Thank you.’
From self-approval seek applause: What ken not men thou kennest, thou! Spurn ev’ry idol others raise: Before thine own Ideal bow: Be thine own Deus: Make self free, liberal as the circling air: Thy Thought to thee an Empire be; break every prison’ing lock and bar.
Richard Francis Burton, The Kasidah
Index
Aboriginal wells in the Simpson Desert, 132
Adavale, 64, 70, 72, 76–82
Amby, 60
Anderson and Gates, 118, 121, 123, 128, 140
Approdinna Attora Knolls, 128
Arklow Station, 53
Aronui feedlot, 21, 22, 38–40
Australian Broadcasting Commission, 41, 118, 160
Australian National University, 11
Beadell, Len, 188, 190
Bedourie, 14
Belele Station, 206
Big Red (Nappanerica), 111–15, 118, 124
Birdsville, 40, 68, 85, 87, 90, 92, 97, 99, 105, 106, 107–11, 119, 121, 123, 124
Blythdale, 57
Boles, Walter, 92
Brigalow, 43–44
Brisbane, 32, 36, 50, 62, 71, 107, 150, 160
Brook, David, 112
Brunswick Heads, 26, 30
Brunswick Hotel, 27, 28
Bulloo River, 78
Burke, Robert O’Hara, and Wills, William, 108–11
Burton, Sir Richard, 4, 9, 222
Bushman’s Templars, 52
Byron Bay, 8, 9, 22, 24, 25, 26, 29, 31, 41, 48, 59, 78
Camel Destruction Act 1925, 151
Camels
Cable Beach, 221
Catching, 12
History in Australia, 115–16, 151
Horses’ fear of camels, 49, 56
Nose pegging, 11
Training, including water consumption, 14, 92
Cane toad, 47
Canterbury, 95–96
Carnegie Station, 187, 192, 194–96, 198, 200, 205
Carnegie, David, 195–96
Carrarang Station, 215–16
Chalet Motel, 27
Charleville, 42, 64, 68–74, 77–79, 215
Charlotte Waters, 148, 150
Charlton, 37
Chinchilla, 44–46
Clapin, Phil, 157–59
Cobb & Co., 55, 66, 71, 76, 79, 82, 103
Cocker, Mark, 8
Colson Track, 134
Colson, T., and Ains, P., 112–13
Combidiban Creek, 54–55
Cook, James, 24
Cooper Creek, 86–87, 109–10
Corones Hotel, 70–71
Creevey, Ronnie, 59–60
Cunningham, Allan, 20–21, 36, 38
Curtin Springs, 162, 163, 164, 166, 169, 172, 181
Dajarra, 12–14
Dalby, 20, 21, 22, 23, 38, 39, 41, 42
Dalhousie Springs, 111, 118, 121, 141–45
Darling Downs, 20, 36, 38, 46, 68, 96
Davidson, Robyn, 58–59, 158, 173
Deadman Bridge, 86–87
Dickenson, Paul and Pam, 211, 217
Djibouti, 7, 105
Docker River, 161, 167, 168, 169, 174, 176–77
Dreamtime, 155, 17
3, 176
Drillham, 51, 52
Dulacca, 52–54
Dulbydilla, 66
Durack, 84
Ethiopia, 7–8,
Eyre Creek, 112, 114, 118, 119, 121, 123, 152
Finke, 113, 129, 148, 159
Forest Hill, 35
Forrest, John, 211
Fred Hollows Foundation, 10, 17
French Foreign Legion, 8, 9, 10, 11, 27, 32, 41, 48, 50, 81, 89, 93, 94, 116, 124, 159, 166, 176, 190
French Line, 100, 123, 126, 129–30, 134, 137, 139
Friends of the Simpson Desert, 141
Gary Highway, 191
Gatton, 35
Geiger, Merv, 89, 91, 95
Geoff, Rhyna and Sam, 72, 76–79
Ghan railway, 151, 153
Gibbo, Mary-Anne, Meg and Drew, 21–22, 39, 60
Gibson Desert, 8, 143, 187–94, 203
Gibson, Alfred, 178–79
Glengarry Stables, 47
Glenormiston Station, 14
Gobbert Siding, 64–65
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, 18
Goondiwindi, 20
Graham, Dave, 101–3
Grandchester, 33
Grantham, 35
Great Artesian Basin, 34, 35, 62, 144
Great Dividing Range, 8, 20
Green, Jim, 13–14
Greenbank Military Training Area, 31
Grey Range, 80–82
Gunbarrel Highway, 182, 187–94
Hamelin Station, 211, 213–14
Hastings Point, 29
Heather Highway, 188
Helidon, 35
Horrocks, J., 115–16
Ipswich, 32
Jack in the Rocks Hotel, 81–82
Jackson, 54
Jimmy, 143, 172–74, 185
Jondaryan, 37
Kata Tjuta, 161, 164, 166, 168, 169, 170
Kenji, 132–33
Kennedy, Edmund, 71
Kingscliff, 29–30
Kirstenfelder, Selwyn, 111–12
Kulgera, 156–59
Laidley, 33–34
Lambert’s midway point, 154
Langlo Crossing, 74, 78, 87
Lasseter, Harold, 175–76
Lasseter’s cave, 174–75
Lawrence, T.E., 7, 9, 85
Lin Wah Chinese restaurant, 50
Lindsay, David, 128–29
Macalister, 39, 41
MacDonald, Alan, 70
Madigan, Cecil, 108
Maillart, Ella, 213
Manefield and Tinson, Camels, 92
Maranoa River, 57, 61
McHugh, Paddy, 12–14
McNicoll, Lee, Megan, Douglas, Kate and Rebecca, 52–53
Meekatharra, 204–6, 210
Men’s Business, 162, 173, 180, 181
Miles, 47, 49–50
Mileura Station, 206, 207–10
Millar, Tony and Lorraine, Eadie and Winnie, 216
Mitchell, 60–62, 64, 66
Mitchell, Sir Thomas, 57, 61
Moore, Richard, Liz, Julie and Rosemary, 73–74
Moorhouse, Geoffrey, 81
Morney Plains, 96–101
Morven, 66–67
Mount Conner, 145, 160, 161–64
Mount Dare Station, 147
Mount Warning, 22, 28
Muckadilla, 60
Mulga Park Station, 159, 160–62
Mungallala, 64, 66
Munkilli Claypan, 193
Murchison River, 210–11
Nicol, Shane and Alissa, 160–62
Notabilis Hill, 190
Oakey, 37
Ocean Shores, 28
Orana Bridge, 28
Paroo River, 57
Paterson, Banjo, 39, 53, 86, 87
Petermann Range, 170, 177
Petermann, Sir Augustus, 170
Poeppel Corner, 113, 116, 118, 119, 122, 124–28, 140
Point of Aries, 81
Purnie Bore, 113, 124, 132, 138–41
QAA Line, 116, 123
Quilpie, 51, 64, 78, 79, 83, 85
Rabbits, fence, plague, 46, 47, 52, 122, 134
Rae, Colin, Annie and Colleen, 82–84
Rambrae, 47
Remienko, Simon, 102–3
Rosewood, 33
Royal Flying Doctor Service, 71
School of Distance Education, 71
Schwerin Mural Crescent, 177, 178
Scott, Bruce, Maureen and Carly, 85–86
Scott, Sir Robert Falcon, 8
Service, Robert, 70
Severin, Peter and Ash, 164–66
Shark Bay, 217–18
Simpson Desert, 8, 9, 12, 14, 23, 79, 81, 87, 100, 105, 107–42, 152, 158, 172, 196, 203
Simpson, Ian and Marilyn, 89–90
Smail, Nick, 164–69
Smith, Dick, 16–17
Smith, Ian and Faye, 195–96, 199
Smith, Sir Ross and Sir Keith, 70
Snell, Spencer and Gloria, 197–98, 207
Spinifex, 85, 120, 167, 182, 185, 191–92, 196
Sprigg, Dr Reg, 124
Steep Point, 8, 9, 24, 143, 144, 179, 206, 211, 215–20
Stow, Randolph, 219
Stuart, John McDouall, 9, 152, 156
Sturt, Charles, 9, 86, 107, 108, 114, 118, 119, 152, 161
Surfers Paradise, 29, 30
Swag design, 75
Swindells, Mark, 166, 181
Tamala Station, 215
Thesiger, Wilfred, 9
Thompson, John, 130
Thryptomene Hill, 188
Todd Ranges, 187
Toowoomba, 36
Toowoomba Chronicle, 58
Ulandilla, 64
Uluru, 8, 9, 160–61, 164–72, 175–76
Uncle Tom’s Pie Shop, 25–26, 29
Useless Loop, 211, 214–16
Wake, Paul and Mary, Thomas and Christopher, 213–15
Walloon, 32, 33
Wallumbilla, 54, 56
Walsh, Patrick, 207–9
Warakurna, 158, 170, 179–82
Warburton, 144, 158, 167, 179, 180, 182, 183–86, 187, 192
Warburton, Peter E., 9
Warra, 42–43, 46
Warrego Highway, 36, 37, 42, 43, 44, 47, 54, 66
Warrego Stock Route, 22, 42, 51, 55, 56, 60
White, Patrick, 9
Williams family, 141–42
Wiluna, 198, 199, 201, 202–4
Windorah, 76, 79, 82, 85, 87–91, 102
Womallilla Creek, 63
Wongawol Station, 196–98, 207
Woodleigh Station, 212
Woods, Gracie, 77
Yatala Pie Shop, 31
Yuleba, 54–55
Zuytdorp Cliffs, 215, 221
