A mere step out the door almost, to our next camp. A free camp at 4 Mile reserve, on the Barwon/Darling river, 4 miles (of course) out of Brewarrina, a town of some 1200 people.   Total distance of 107km.   I didn't even bother opening my iPad to update my blog!

The camp is extensive with great spots to set up.   It is a bowl of fine grey dust, with many river Red Gums, some of them mere skeletons, but huge!   They are an amazing tree in form, whether alive or dead, with a twisted trunk tht occurs when they shed their thick bark, the trunk often twists revealing a clean and varied colour from cream, through tan, browns and grey.   During drought they drop their limbs to conserve water, hence them being known as "widow makers".

We find a spot and set up, Bill sets his yabby pots in place for bait, and we chill out here doing nothing much at all, on our first day.

We head into town the next day to go to the grocery store, and have a look around.   Brewarrina has a strong connection with its Aboriginal ancestors, dating back over 40,000 years.

We went to the Aboriginal Culture Museum which included a tour of the Aboriginal Fish Traps, laid out in the Barwon River in front of the Museum.   The fish traps, are amazing structures, heritage-listed, created over 40,000 years ago and said to be one of the oldest man-made structures on earth.   They are a network of rock weirs and pools which stretch around 500 metres along the Barwon riverbed, built by ancient tribes, to catch fish as they swam upstream.   The river no longer flows constantly, but when it does, these traps still work.

Bradley, our Aboriginal guide, was a really nice young guy, about 6' 3” and well fed and locally born and bred!   He took us to the fish traps and told us the stories behind the structure.

He then took us into the Aboriginal Culture Museum, which was excellent and we heard of the fight for survival of the Aborigine here, from back in the 1800’s.   There are always two sides to every story and although I won’t air my personal views here, it is interesting to note that all those years ago, when religious missions were set up to Europeanise the Aborigine, the impact is still felt.   I observed in jungle villages along the Kokoda track, in PNG, a similar (maybe negative) impact.

'Nuf said!

This is a sad place, I feel.   Mostly Aboriginal population here with few shops, all of which are boarded up or have grills over all entry points, for security purposes.    It is so much like PNG.    A older Aboriginal woman bought a packet of cigarettes in the grocery shop, in front of us, paying about $27.    As she walked out the shop door, she kissed the packet of smokes.   I wonder how long it took to get that $27.