Adventure to the Northern Territory

Hi Everyone,

This is my first blog post. I will tell you of my many adventures conserving wildlife, but I thought I’ll start with my current one. In December last year on my birthday I was offered the position of Northern Tanami Indigenous Protected Area (IPA) Coordinator with the Central Land Council, Australia working for the Australian government. At 25 years of age, I was to be the head of a national park which was on private land belonging to the Warlpiri tribe hence the term Indigenous Protected Area. At the time I was a Research Assistant at Deakin University, Melbourne working on a bird behaviour project. I gladly jumped on the first flight in February out of Melbourne to Alice Springs and there begins my adventure.

I ventured on this journey with the attitude I was on going on an adventure and that is exactly what I got on my journey to Alice Springs. I got into the Qantas lounge and there was a failure on some of the Kiosk machines including the one I used. Once I had tagged my bag and went to drop it off at the bag drop machine there was failure there too. Fortunately, the airline staff had the systems back in order within 5 minutes.

Boarded the flight on time, but the flight was halted for 15 minutes due to technical issues. Left Melbourne and had a lovely flight with very good service on Qantas, except that they ran out of food. So we were given cereal instead which was the only food remaining on flight. Then while landing the Captain landed the flight too hard and lost control of the flight for a second. The flight started to swerve on the runway till he got it under control. The airport was so small with only small aircraft parked. Next the ladder they brought for us to exit the flight didn’t fit the back door of the plan so we all had to exit via the front of the plane where fortunately the ladder did fit.

I was met at the airport by my boss, Sam Rando, who drove me to my temporary government owned flat in my government issued jeep (I named her Alice, how original). It was raining when I got into Alice and it was so funny to see everyone at the Todd river having fun since it was flowing. There was also traffic on the road (there is no traffic in Alice). I was told this was not the norm as the river was dry most of the time and the fact that it was flowing had brought everyone out. The water was muddy, yet people were swimming in the river. The public say that if you see the Todd River flow on three separate occasions you are considered a local. So I am 1/3 local now. It hasn’t rained since the day I landed and the river is bone dry now.

My boss and the office staff are lovely and all very helpful. However, the downside of being in charge of a national park which is over 400,000km2 in area is that I need to be aware of so many procedures and having to fill out so many forms. But it’s the government, it comes with the territory.

Alice is so small that you could walk anywhere if you within the town in 10 minutes. On the recommendation of my boss I went to the Desert Park (mini zoo). It was a lovely 10-minute drive on superb roads with absolutely no traffic. The speed limit on unsealed and sealed roads is 110kmph and 130kmph respectively. I enjoyed the drive. It was a small place, but really nice. Loved the nocturnal animals section. Got to see so many cute and cuddly mammals too including Bilby’s and Wallabies which I need to conserve in the national park.

The drawback in Alice is that most of the stores close so early and there isn’t much to do in town so I am pacing out activities each weekend. I walked into the museum here which is so small, though very comprehensive that I was in and out within 10 minutes.

I was on a 4WD training course last week and had a ball driving in some of the best locations around town in Alice driving through sand, gravel, bitumen and mud. Finally saw my first camels here on a camel farm. They are absolutely lovely creatures. Too bad my job is to get rid of them in the national park.

I worship at the Anglican parish (Church of the Ascension) while I am based in Alice. They too have two congregations but the traditional service here is at 8am. They haven’t had a musician for ages so much so that I have already been appointed the organist here. I played for the 8am service today on their Rodgers Organ which bigger than the one at St. Tom’s. It is so powerful that due to the superb acoustics inside the church building that I have to tone down the volume so much to avoid drowning out the congregation who all sing quite well. However, the organ decided to be uncooperative as the lower keyboard did not work so I had to manage with the top one only, but it played well. The fact that the organ has hardly been used and needs repairs was evident in today’s organ mishap which is a shame for such an amazing instrument. This parish is looking for a permanent vicar at the moment. The locum is a retired priest originally from South Africa named John Simons who has worked in Cairns and Mackay prior to his move here. He was in South Africa during apartheid and when Nelson Mandela was released from prison and elected as president. The curate, Hiley Diweula, is originally from PNG and works a lot with the youths in the community. The parish is very diverse comprising of at least a dozen nationalities including quite a few members from the different aboriginal tribes based out of Alice Springs. We had the Bishop of South Sudan visit us last Sunday and the Bishop of the Northern Territory is due to visit us on the first Sunday in March.

I have been informed that my house in Lajamanu is not a tent (lucky me) and that it quite luxurious and has a garden too. Unfortunately, the roads to get to my house in the field are flooded meaning I can’t get up there till about mid-March till the monsoonal rains stop so I am stuck in Alice till then.

I have been reading a lot on Lajamanu and the Warlpiri tribe and getting to know more about their culture, dances, songs and conservation practices. Absolutely fascinating and complicated culture. Apparently I will be given a skin name which helps them to place me in the tribe, but I think they going to be a little confused on coming up with a skin name for me since I am not white. It looks like I am the youngest and the first non-white person to hold this position. Visitors are always welcome in Lajamanu and I even have permission to take family and friends out in the bush with me so if anyone heads in the vicinity of Lajamanu you are always welcome.