2.10.09

It’s funny how things are never what you expect and it’s funny how weak our government can be, let me explain.

Last night we stayed at Fitzroys Crossing, a place I always thought would be dry and flat and horrible. Mostly it is but where we stayed was beautiful, green grass and plenty of water and the Fitzroy River had water in it! After crossing about 1000 empty creeks and rivers it was great to see one with water, and you can swim in it. Tonight we are in Derby, a place that we have been anticipating for some time and...well....quite frankly...it’s a dump. I say that on the strength of one small part of an afternoon and open to be proven wrong, it seems however that the place exists for the start of the Gibb River Rd and the horizontal waterfalls. Don’t ask me to explain them; it costs $500 per person to see them so forget about them, I have.

Back to Fitzroy Crossing and our weak Government. This morning we spent an hour on the Fitzroy River taking a cruise up the Geike Gorge and man; what a place, we learnt some amazing things, about the river and the government.

1. The Fitzroy River is in the worlds top five rivers for water volume moved, if you emptied Sydney Harbour and then directed the Fitzroy into it (at peak volume) it would fill it in 5hrs.

2. The Fitzroy is the only river in Australia where Saw Fish and Gouldian Finches breed, it is the only place in the world where Gouldians breed in the wild.

3. There are no cane toads in the Fitzroy, but possibly 1000 fresh water crocodiles. It is expected that the toad will arrive in 3yrs and 70% of the crocodiles will die.
4. There is no threatening algae of any type in the Fitzroy, the only river in Australia still considered pristine. All the other rivers in the country have some non native algae in them.

5. The biggest threat to the Fitzroy is mining, the government is handing out uranium and bauxite leases and intends to dam the river for mining interests despite all the above and traditional ownership.

6. Slightly different – just off Broome in Australian waters is the worlds 2nd largest gas reserves, Australia’s government (presumably under John Howard) sold the lot to the Chinese. Now the Chinese want their gas and intend to get it, it is estimated that the reserve will last 28yrs and after that Broome and the surrounding coastline will be ruined and left to die. If you want to see what that looks like, go to Wydham.

That’s it. I’m not a Greenie or against progress, but in the scratching of the surface that we’ve done in the Kimberly I am against what they are proposing up here. This place is awesome and wild and from what I’ve seen of mines (a fair bit) they just take what they want and destroy whatever in the process and I hope somehow it can be stopped. Done for now, take care everyone.

Oh a couple P.S. Boab trees, we’ve been seeing them now for about three days, they’re awesome and I’m just looking for the right one to photograph for the site. I lost my wallet in Fitzroy Crossing, so annoying and I was really %&^##@$ off about it then we met some motorbike riders whose mate had hit a cow that day and broke his hip. They rode all the way from Moree, NSW in 6 days, now he’s stuck in Broome hospital and his family is in NSW, kind of put the inconvenience of my wallet in perspective. It’s still lost though.