Day 55

Day 55 Derby

Another day in paradise. Maureen had a bit of a disaster with her storage in that she kept saying she could smell something off in the van. Me, I could not smell it apart from a bit of a smell like a

Boab Prison Tree

mouldy orange and put it down to her over sensitive nose or imagination and just nodded sagely and wisely like most men do in such circumstances. Maureen was adamant but could not find where it was coming from so we drove to Derby yesterday. Whilst we drove she was going over the options of what it could be and had narrowed it down to a small group of suspects with a chief suspect amongst them – the long life milk, to be more exact, MY long life milk – so it was now my fault. When we got to Derby and we were listening to the Dockers annilate Swans she went through all the storage areas and there it was, a leaky milk container. It had dripped onto the

Termite mound

floor under our sink area and she soon had that all cleaned up but this morning it still smelt. So head back in the cupboard and the old nose put into overdrive! Well the culprit was soon found, the little cupboard near the door was it. The milk had gone under the stove and had collected in this cupboard, I think the slight angle of the caravan towards this way meant it all drained here instead of under the stove – I take credit for this as the driver so I had saved the day! There was a strip of carpet on the floor and this had soaked up the milk so a quick job to remove it to the bin and then Maureen moved in to clean up the mess – problem solved. We are now just waiting for Maureen to have a shower and then we will go into town to do some sight seeing like the old Boab Gaol and the botanical gardens.

Well we did the Gibb River Road today, well maybe not the whole of the Gibb River but the first

125 m Trough

Maureen about to do some laps

50kms. Do not see what all the fuss is about, the road we drove was bitumenised and was fine, although only one lane wide. I suspect that it gets worse the further you go as there are all these signs warning not to take a caravan and all that along it. Did not see one gorge or waterfall or pool, very disappointed, we did however see a lot of really big boabs. After going to the old Boab Prison which was used as a transit stop on the way into town, the tree has a huge girth and is hollow inside. You half expect it to be dead after all the use and abuse over the decades but it is still very healthy and has fruit on it. I had commented to Maureen that you do not see many really old and big Boabs so when we down the Gibb River Road, it was surprising to see quite a few of them.

Ring bolt in floor for chaining Prisoners

Whilst we were there at the Prison Tree we had a look at the nearby bore and water trough, it was built to water hundreds of cattle at a time and is the longest trough in the southern hemisphere. Looks like a 125m lap pool and was built in 1918’s. The bore that feeds it was put down in 1919 and goes down to the artesian system and when it first went down came up under its own pressure and created a huge lake there where they would have picnics and so on but the pressure has dropped and it needs to be

Old prison

Gibb River Road

pumped up by a windmill now. The information board indicated and old gaol in town so we went off to find it. The information centre closes at 1pm so we made it with 5 minutes to spare and were informed the museum in town needed a key to open it and you got the key from them, but they were shutting in 5 minutes! We wandered down the road and found the old prison. Again I find it all so hard to understand the early settlers and their treatment of the locals. They would capture and sell on the young men because they thought it would stop any uprisings if they just left the old guys there and then wondered why

Sites on the Gibb River Road

Boabs

they got all upset. They sold them into labour to the blackbirders who then got the police to transport them to Derby as indentured labour for other farms or pearlers and they were kept in these prisons. They listed crimes for some of the prisoners and had sections of the Native act that said that aboriginals were not allowed to own assets or work for Asiatics or afghans and if they found that they had cloth or beads on their clothes or headdress or adornments, they had stolen goods on them as they were European things and could be classified as assets. Again acts where you could clearly see were written to protect the kids were interpreted as taking all the kids and transporting them away, absolutely shameful stuff.

Big Boabs

Sunset through the Boabs

But having seen that side we drove the Gibb River Road and went past an aboriginal community who were advertising art but we drove past as we felt we would be obliged to buy something. It is not like a gallery where you go in to look at pictures, no one expects you to walk in and buy something, here we thought we were expected to buy something as we had driven all the way out here (on the Gibb River Road, in case you missed this bit) so we must want something.

Girt at rest