Macassan Beach

Life just can’t get any better. In 1989, when Kyran was two, we travelled from Sydney to Perth around the top. It was an amazing six months but I always wanted to do it again and take more time. I keep pinching myself to check that this is real, this is our life, spending several months here in Nhulunbuy. We didn’t plan to stay for so long; we didn’t really have a set plan at all which is what I’ve loved. Its so freeing. Friends keep asking if we are going to stay on and live here – and we could. There is plenty work and housesitting available. But no, we are not. We are coming back to Western Australia later in the year. We miss the family there but they are all very happy to see us doing this trip.

On Sunday we finished housesitting for Angela’s family, looking after Red, Bomber and Cat. We had a lovely stay and enjoyed playing with the dogs and taking them to the beach. (Cat preferred to stay in the wardrobe!)

The next day we moved into Lindsay’s house to look after her two poodles. She is a Remote Nurse with Angel Flight. Sadly, Lindsay’s home in Queensland, and that of her parents were both impacted by the recent floods and it appears they have lost everything. Poor girl has only been in Nhulunbuy for four weeks. She has gone back home to help with the clean up. In the meantime we are taking care of Digby and Louie, her two beautiful pets.

Louie and Digby with their basket of toys

Aside from looking after dogs and houses, I am working lots at the school still and John plays golf at least twice a week. Rarely a weekend passes though without us having some kind of adventure.

One such adventure was another trip to Macassan Beach with some new teacher friends. We took fishing rods, drinks and pickies to share. One teacher, Jane, brought along a friend Linda who is also new to East Arnhem. She is an Early Childhood Teacher who has decided to retire next year. As it’s her last year of work, she wanted to do something different so left her husband and family behind in Victoria and took a job here for twelve months as a Remote Teacher. She is based in Yirkala (a local Aboriginal community) and flies out daily to other remote communties to teach the young indigenous children. I found her fascinating to talk to and we’ve organised to catch up again.

We left for Macassan around 3pm in a convoy of three cars. The track in was very wet and muddy from earlier rain and we drove through lots of water. Luckily none was terribly deep. Our car drives really well on these off road and four wheel drive tracks and it’s something we are used to now. When we first left Dongara, we were definitely inexperienced off road drivers but don’t even give it much thought now. It had been quite a windy day and we thought it might be a quick trip but it turned out to be a perfect evening. No-one caught any fish but we had a lovely time with lovely people.

Another evening we were invited to Middle Beach by Drew and Sam who had recently caught lots of fish and decided to make beer battered fish and chips for their friends. There was quite a group of us gathered with our camp chairs and eskies. Of course they had the traditional camp fire going as well as all their cooking equipment. This was a windy evening but it made no difference to the lovely sunset and our enjoyment. The fish and chips were fabulous – as were the beer battered onion rings, brie and prawns. Lucky us.

Kylie, a friend of Vanessa and Kyran’s, had her birthday recently and invited us all to spend the day out on the boats. We had another spectacular day cruising up Giddies River then anchoring at Granite Island. John didn’t come with us that day, preferring to have a quiet day at home. He missed a terrific day out.

You may have noticed some people missing in these photos! With the borders now open, Vanessa took the opportunity to take the children back to Melbourne to see her family. Tommy was just three when they left Victoria and, of course, Vanessa’s family hadn’t met Joey. Unfortunately, all of them contracted covid within a few days of arriving and they were sick and isolated for a week. Happily they are all well now and having a lovely holiday. We miss them and look forward to seeing them soon.

Joey will have grown so much by the time we see him

Who knows what the next weeks will bring? We never tire of the amazing beaches and bush here. They are rugged and beautiful. And the people we have met are great. We have about six weeks left in Nhulunbuy. We will be so sad to leave the family and the town but look forward to seeing more of this amazing country.

At the time of writing its pouring with rain. Well it is the Wet Season but we have really had very little rain. Recently we had our second cyclone warning (the first being on Christmas Day). We had to batten down the hatches and prepare a cyclone emergency pack. At the same time our friends in Dunsborough in Western Australia had to evacuate because of a bushfire; friends in the east of the country were battling floods. As it turned out, once again the cyclone moved away and we were spared. We had one day of good rain and that was it. I haven’t gone through a Wet Season before but I’m liking it. It’s hot and humid but not unbearably so. I love the rolling thunder that comes with the storm clouds which often don’t produce much rain.

The weather isn’t affecting how much we are enjoying ourselves here. The two caravan parks are closed, so are some of the beaches and bush camps. The tracks get muddy and impassable. Now that covid has arrived in Nhulunbuy and the surrounding Indigenous communities are exclusion zones, some of the cafes and the amazing Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Art Centre in Yirkala are closed. But there is plenty to keep us occupied. John, Tayler and I have been swimming laps at the pool, we enjoy taking Tommy and Skylar to the beach, we visit the library and toy library often, and have the odd dinner at the Boat Club. And John continues to play golf.

Skylar loves the beach

Tayler, who came to visit for Christmas, is still here, unable to get home. As the covid numbers have increased in the Northern Territory, so the Premier of Western Australia, Mark McGowan, has tightened the border making it almost impossible for WA residents to return home. The initial plan to open the WA border on 5th February was cancelled. However, soon there is going to be a slight broadening of compassionate reasons for residents to get home and Tayler hopes to get an exemption to return to Perth on 8th February. Fingers crossed for her. Every cloud has a silver lining and ours has been spending all this extra time with her, and for her, having all this extra time with her nephews, Tommy and Joey.

As luck would have it, Tayler was offered her own house sit for a couple of weeks. She jumped at the chance mainly because there was a very cute dog to take care of as well as some baby chicks. The house was lovely and had its own pool. Tommy, in particular, loved spending time there with her. She even had use of a car.

Evie, Tommy and I in the pool at Tayler’s housesit

We had another visitor. John’s sister, Maureen, came to stay for a week from Darwin. Despite some businesses being closed, she had a good time and enjoyed being with family. Kyran took us out to Macassan Beach (Garanhan) about 40kms of dirt track from Nhulunbuy township. With the recent rains, the track was very muddy but fun to navigate. As we approached Macassan, Tommy rode his quad bike the rest of the way. He loved the puddles!

Australia Day with Maureen at Latitude 12

driving the muddy track to Macassan Beach

Tommy on his quad bike

Despite being cloudy, it was lovely and we enjoyed fossicking in the rockpools there. We were surprised to see coral, sea urchins and fish in some of the larger pools.

Macassan Beach was named after the annual visits by the Macassan traders from Sulawesi in Indonesia who traded sea cucumbers (trepang) and turtle shells hundreds of years before European settlement. Maureen and I wandered around and found some Aboriginal Rock Art in the form of stone pictures telling the story of the Macassan traders. The arrangements are believed to have been made in the 19th century by the Yolngu elders to teach future generations about the visiting traders. It is amazing to see something like this just there with no fences to protect it. This is one of the things I love most about East Arnhem Land.

We spent a couple of hours looking around before detouring to look at Turtle Beach on the drive home.

So things are changing again. Maureen has gone back home, Tayler has finished at her housesit and has moved in with Kyran and Vanessa, and we have moved back into the caravan. We have three more housesits lined up ending on 5 March. It will depend on the state of the Central Arnhem Road whether we leave Nhulunbuy then or stay longer. I have been asked to go back to the high school to do some relief teaching when school returns next week. Things have worked out really well for us. We are looking forward to what the next few weeks brings.

Flannerys' Footprints

Our photos are our footprints.

And we continue to live the dream in Arnhem Land

It never rains but it pours

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