Barindji Country

Our North-South run down the eastern side of the Darling River was in the Barindji speaking country. The tribal groups of Barkandji/Paakantyi, Mutthi Mutthi and Ngiyampaa people are custodians, with some significant responsibility for the care of World Heritage, Mungo. Home of the remains of Mungo Lady and Mungo Man who died on the Eastern side of the 5 connected Willandra Lakes some 40,000 years ago. Mungo Man was 6 feet tall when he died at 58 years old. It’s amazing to think that Aboriginal people were living here, 10,000 years before the first human beings left Africa for Europe. Imagine the quality of Mungo man’s diet for an ancient person to have such a physical status and long life. Imagine also the changes that their descendants have seen in this area during continuous habitation including the drying of the lakes from about 18,000 years ago. Indigenous habitation was effectively ended after just 100 years of European habitation, with over-grazing making the environment uninhabitable, and policies that favoured the pastoralists and excluded and dispossessed the original inhabitants.
It is a surreal and beautiful desert landscape.
The Mungo Main Camp campground emptied in a hell of a hurry when a huge electrical thunderstorm moved in during the early hours because the roads here close when it rains as they get so chopped up it makes them impassable. Fines starting at $2,500 make compliance easy.
Further south the rivers of the Murray-Darling Basin are all running near capacity so camping on the banks is very pleasant. Unless of course it rains again like it did while we were free camping near Coomealla, down one of those clay mud roads encouraging a quick midnight relocation to avoid an enforced, extended stay.
The amenity of the Murray area is demonstrated by the high number of villages in close proximity along the banks. The hub is Mildura and a nice town it is, with lots of bars and restaurants. Must be the Mediterranean influence of some of the early settlers.
We have an appointment with an auto-electrician before we head of, so some time available to see some of the local sites.Читать далее