Jabiru 28 – 29 August 2006

Stayed 2 nights in the local caravan park as it had a great pool and made a good base whilst we were with Laura. Jabiru is smaller than we expected - like Woomera but more alive. It is there for the tourists but also for the uranium mine nearby. It has a few essential shops and services. We had a drink in the Sports Club overlooking the lagoon. Laura tried to contact the HR manager of the local resort over two days but the manager was hopeless and it all came to nothing. They had advertised and Laura had emailed but you could sense some problem. One girl offered that 20 staff left last week and there is a real sense of no guests! As Laura was looking for a job for a few months before heading O/S, we stopped into a resort on the way in, to see what was available. There is no shortage of work up here and Laura was offered a number of jobs straight away. She decided to take one at the Aurora Resort, 40km west of Jabiru and maybe do some childcare work on her days off. We think this must be the end of the season. You hear conversations about when the build up will start. Seems to be like the big boogie man’s shadow hanging over everyone! Some locals are not that concerned but none say it’s an easy time, as the humidity before the monsoon is terrible. Tourists are scared off by it and leave a bit soon. From Jabiru we went on a late afternoon excursion to Ubirr to view the Aboriginal rock paintings. They were better than we expected and were a real art gallery. The lightning spirit was particularly fascinating with hammers on his knees to make the sound. Another wall was covered with all the foods and was virtually a menu! This area also has lots of creatures drawn in X-Ray style including bones and organs. Another art style here was contact art from their first encounters with white man. These showed guns, axes and men with their hands in their pockets which was fascinating to unclothed Aboriginals. We climbed up to a great lookout at the same site to watch a spectacular sunset over the flood plains. It is a timeless land with nothing changed and is lush green as all the water has been draining away over the dry and confined to smaller lagoons and creeks. It is impossible to see in the wet as it is all cut off. It would be a job to be done by plane. Whilst based in Jabiru we also went to another art site that was also very impressive called Nourlangie. One wall depicted a group of people dancing. One huge rock shelter was very impressive for art and as a place to be it was wonderful. It caught the most wonderful breeze and on a 32 deg day it was like air-conditioning. The art we have seen around here depicts the stories more clearly and increases appreciation of the Aboriginal culture.