Going Places with Ernie
Dingo – my current favourite TV series on SBS. Ernie Dingo explores Australia's iconic
destinations from the Kakadu National Park to the Great Barrier Reef. He
introduces the people who live there in a symbiotic relationship with nature.
Ernie is a native Australian who is very attached to his country. He meets
people who share his passion with the land. He visits natural treasures and has
conservation with locals and explains the tradition of aboriginal people. It is
very well done, never over the top, informative and beautiful. Ernie knows a
lot of stuff, especially about wildlife, history and plants and he actually
connects with people. It is a gentle programme and I thoroughly enjoy
the views, conversations and learning about the Aboriginal People and their culture.
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| The Gully |
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| View of the valley |
A couple of week’s ago
he was in the Blue Mountains and that was even better as some of the places are
familiar. He went to a place called The Gully (to give it it’s Aboriginal name)
and this was a place we had not visited. So next week inspired by that
programme we found out exactly where it was and made tracks. It is just on the
edge of Katoomba. It is called Catalina Park. The traditional owners of this
area as the Gundungurra and Darug peoples and they used this area as summer
place. It has a water source with wild life and plants for food and medicine –
an ideal place to spend hot summers. After white settlement they were forced to
settle permanently here. The history states even some white people settled here
but it was hard life specially in winter. Houses were made of flattened tins
and any thing else they could find. Winter time they used newspaper to keep warm.
I have immense respect for them as I would never have survived such conditions.
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| The Gully Walk |
Then, in 1957 some local
business men decided to make a race course there to attract tourists and forcibly
removed the people. The trauma caused to the land and to the community of
people who were living in and around the Gully was profound and still
reverberates. The construction of the race course which actually failed to generate
the expected tourism devastated the area.
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| Lake |
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| Duckling |
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| Mother keeping an Eye |
On 18 May 2002 it was
declared an Aboriginal Place. Today the racecourse track still exists but
nature is slowly claiming back the land. There is a lake in a big depression with
a path around it and a creek flowing along one side. The creek area is also
swampy and the vegetation is low and covers the water to keep it from
evaporating in the heat. There is a grassy area with a few benches for sitting
and enjoying the peace. A perfect place for a picnic. Now there are plaques in
place along ‘The Gully Walk’ around this special place depicting the tragic story
of life and times of the people who lived there both Aboriginal and the white.
Some of those people and their descendants are still about locally. The traditional
owners along with the local council are to look after this place and conserve
the area.
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| Flowering Grass along the race track |
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| Flowers on the grasses |
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| Buds on the grasses |
That was the background
of the place. The visit was a surprise sprung by my husband. Instead of the
usual Saturday morning shopping trip I was expecting he said let’s go see The
Gully. We packed some ginger beer and water in the cool bag and stopped to buy
sushi for the picnic lunch. We went around the back way, that is to say not by
the motorway but via Old Windsor road to Windsor, then Richmond, Kurrajong,
Bilpin up Mount Tomah and then Mount Victoria, Blackheath and Katoomba. On the way
we stopped to buy some fruit from the shops around the orchards in Bilpin. Some
lovely apples and pears were got as well as some local honey.
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We found The Gully
pretty easily and parked. Seemed there were only one or two other people there
as ours was the third car there. There was quiet and the silence only
pleasantly disturbed by the birds chirping in the trees. The feeling was pretty
peaceful but reading the plaques about the sad history was poignant. One can
almost feel the emotions due to hardships faced by those long gone. And yet
there seemed hope as those people were resilient. The walk was a fairly good
path with bushed and trees. I saw many which were new to us, so of course photos
were taken. The lake in the middle has a pair of ducks with 6 little ducklings
floating about enjoying the warm air. After a walk we sat down on the bench
beside the lake to have the sushi. But by the time we had eaten one we realised
there were small clouds of tiny black flies everywhere and so we decided to
move to the car so as not to get added protein in the meal.
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| Wild strawberries |
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| Wild Strawberries |
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| Flowers along the creek |
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| Pretty blue flowers |
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| These look a lot like honeysuckle but of course they are not |
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| Fern in the swamp |
Finished lunch and had
another little wander outside and looked at the tall trees. Then started our
way back.
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| Beautiful Flowers |
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| A closer look |
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| Three shades of of green with yellow in between |
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| Colours contrasting |
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| Close up of flowers |
