Yes - we're back here again.

It was strange to be heading the 350 km north to Darwin knowing that we’d be returning to Katherine a few days later, and especially as we’d been to Darwin during an earlier visit to Oz.  However, it turned out to be a really excellent trip.  Darwin is a small city, but it’s very spread out (not surprising given there’s no shortage of land around here) and our caravan park, Shady Glen, was about 10 km from the CBD.  Although they’d taken credit card details when we booked ahead we were very firmly told that we had to arrive by 1pm or we would lose the site!  Consequently, when we arrived at about 12.30 loads of others were checking in at the same time.  It was pretty chaotic and the owner was getting exceedingly ratty and impatient.  She got even more impatient with us when we hinted we might want to stay an extra night, and kept saying ‘You can’t, you can’t’ without telling us why we couldn’t!  We paid up for our 4 nights and in the end it wasn’t that bad a site albeit a wee bit cramped and in a noisy position (opposite a scrap metal yard, adjacent to the airport, and on the main Stuart Highway route into the city – which on the up side did provide us with a good bus/taxi service).   As with Katherine, Darwin looked decidedly unfamiliar although as we wandered we began to recognise places we’d been before. The city certainly seems to have boomed and is being developed considerably while retaining its charms. Not surprisingly it has a very tropical feel to it and has a very natural multi cultural society – a real blend and mix of nationalities.  The Asian influence is very significant and at times we felt we could have been back in Asia.   First stop was Mindil Beach where there is a Sunday evening market and because it was the tail end of the Darwin Show there were extra events on the beach. It was a lively affair with loads of food stalls (mainly Asian, seafood etc) and some selling good quality jewellery and tattoos which M couldn’t resist (see Top End photo album).    But with the arrangements we’d made previously to do the research on Uncle Bill, it felt like being back at work – it was up early on Monday morning, breakfast on the hoof and a mad dash along the road to catch the bus into town.. Eric set off to an out of town shopping centre where our new supply of contact lenses (ordered when we were in Broome) were waiting for us.  In the meantime, Margaret confirmed her appointment with the NT Archives Service on Tuesday before setting off to the NT Library, in the very fine new Parliament Building which overlooks the Timor Sea (the escalating cost of the building has apparently been a bit of a scandal – hmm, why does that sound so familiar to us Scots? .  This was a wholly different experience from the small local public library in Katherine.  Newspaper archives are much more extensive and fully indexed.  As it’s a reference library they are also more used to this type of research and the assistance M received from John Richards, one of the librarians, immediately got results.  While M was looking through the old newspapers on microfilm (thankfully with better equipment, although still a tedious task), John did a bit of digging himself.  Within a few minutes he’d come up with a list of possible Bill Murray’s.  One of those on the list stuck out because his middle name was also a known family name and the age and date of death seemed to be about right.  A little while later John even came up with a 1930 photograph of the Darwin Gun Club with a Bill Murray in – could this be him?  This gave M a bit more to go on and so she couldn’t wait for her appointment on Tuesday with the Archives Service. Tuesday morning, another day at the ‘office’ – up early, breakfast on the hoof, mad dash for the bus to be in town for a quick coffee before M’s appointment.  The NT Archives Service, which is free, holds extensive records and the staff were really interested and keen to help.  They took details of the pretty scant information M was able to give them and said that at the very least they should be able to find the will and probate papers – come back tomorrow.  However, they warned that there might not be much more than a page and there may be no way of telling if this was the Bill Murray M was looking for.  Next stop was the Genealogy Society, a voluntary organisation which very conveniently was located just downstairs in the same building.  For a small fee, they were able to dig out all sorts of other information on this Bill Murray e.g. about being on the electoral roll, his occupation and, possibly, the ship in which he’d come to Australia.  All very interesting stuff but was it M’s Bill Murray?  Next task of the day was to the General Register Office to see if it was possible to get a copy of the death certificate – if this turned out to be Uncle Bill.  At last there was some free time for E and M to meet up, have some lunch and wander around Darwin.  Then M headed back to the Archives again.  Would they have found anything useful or even at all, and what would it tell – or would this all just have been a wild goose chase?  M was greeted with big smiles when she walked in the door - ‘Oh we have found quite a lot of papers relating to this Bill Murray, but it is for you to decide whether or not this is your uncle.’ – and there, sitting on the table, were five thick files.  FIVE - help ma Boab!!  It took a bit of time reading through the papers, but to M’s delight the information confirmed that it was indeed her Uncle Bill.  There was even a copy of a letter to M’s mother so there was absolutely no doubt about it!  The following morning, Wednesday, M was back at the Archives reading through some more material before spending the day, at last, doing some sightseeing in Darwin.  The Uncle Bill (William Marshall Murray) story so far, as far as M can be sure from the records read.  He came out from Scotland in 1911 on the Kaipara, along with a bunch of other people from Britain to work on the railways.  Within four years, aged 24, he’d had a claim on a piece of land in Daly River (about 200 km south of Darwin) where he had claimed to be one of the first 26 settlers and therefore was entitled to land.  However, it appears that he should have registered interest at the outset and his claim was turned down.  He then must have moved to Darwin where he lived with a family called Widdup.  The electoral roll shows that he lived in Smith Street in the centre of Darwin.  Margaret Widdup’s story suggests that he’d run away for home in Scotland and that the Widdup’s had taken him in.  She herself looked after him after she married his friend, Wilfred Widdup (Bill had bought her wedding shoes for her and also a large cane linen basket).  Bill worked for the railways for many years and also managed the Bond Store.  He was also a member of the Darwin Gun Club (yes, the photo John Richards found was indeed him).  After Darwin was bombed in 1942 he was evacuated to Katherine.  His health was deteriorating and he died on 25 March 1946, aged 55, height 5 foot 8 inches, weight 14 stone.  He is buried in the Garden Cemetery, Darwin which happens to be just over the road from Mindil Beach, where we’d been a few days previously, and adjacent to the wonderful Darwin Botanic Gardens that we’d visited ten years ago.  The cemetery is also next to the golf course and the sports oval, overlooked by the Ted Brennan stand.  Someone had suggested that the grave may have been taken over by the development of the oval, but it was good to find that it was still intact and the headstone still legible. As for the story that M had been told, Uncle Bill certainly had come to Australia, he had a connection with Katherine, it is possible that he had or intended to set up a mango farm on land in Daly River (interestingly that’s where the very first mango farm in Australia was established).  However, whether he hunted crocodiles and was killed by one is questionable.  But as a member of the gun club in an area where crocs were prevalent and hunted (as a result of over hunting they are now protected – thought it was us that needed protecting from them!) – it is very likely that gun club members did hunt wild animals, including crocodiles.  But as far as being killed by a croc, this part of the yarn seems to have been ruled out.  However a number of lines of enquiry have opened and will be pursued.  Any further revelations, if any, will be revealed in due course. R.I.P. Uncle Bill. We spent the rest of Wednesday finding and visiting Uncle Bill’s grave, wandering round the interesting NT Museum and Art Gallery, and Fannie Bay Gaol.  This was Darwin’s prison until the late 1970s and where Margaret Widdup’s husband, Wilfredd, and her father had both been gaolers (some interesting stories about time at the gaol in the Widdup archives).  We had intended going to a horserace meeting that afternoon but time had expired.  We therefore headed back along Vestey Beach and stopped to enjoy a beer at the Darwin Ski Club open air bar overlooking the sea.  Darwin turned out to be a real gem, not only because of the success in finding Uncle Bill but also the time spent relaxing and eating in really good bars and restaurants.  The city has a good, lively buzz about it and it’s the sort of place we wish we could have spent more time. As we couldn’t possibly take in all the very many delights of the Top End and had experienced the famous Kakadu National Park on a previous visit, we decided that this time we’d stop at the lesser known and newer Litchfield National Park.  And what another good decision.  The Wangi Falls were just gorgeous and it was great to swim in the crystal clear fresh water of the swimming hole. Generally, the park is really interesting with loads of bird life and lovely walks on the camping ground’s doorstep.  Then it was off slightly further south to Edith Falls in the Nitmiluk (Katherine Gorge) National Park. Yet another stoater!  The upper pools especially were particularly lovely.  The climb up to them takes you through a different climate area.  At the lower pool it is very tropical whereas as the upper reaches are more temperate and the flora more akin to that in the south west of Australia – though it’s still hot and sunny mind.  Although we loved Darwin it was great to be back in the bush with no power or water on tap (excuse the pun) and under the huge night skies – we’ve never seen so many stars, apart from Sunday Night at the London Palladium of course!   Then it was further south again for our second stopover in Katherine to catch up on some things such as collecting a parcel that had been chasing us across Australia and Annie getting her 135,000 km service, albeit a wee bit early, which she passed with flying colours. Thank goodness that it wasn’t like the fiasco in Melbourne – this time our caravan park was just across the road.  It was also had a back gate leading down to the Katherine Hot Springs that are so lovely to dip into after a long hot Top End day.  Next morning it was off to spend the day in Nitmiluk National Park.  Although we’d been to Katherine Gorge before we didn’t think it would be right to miss it this time round.  And it was certainly well worth seeing again – it’s just beautiful.  We had a short walk up to a lookout point then went up the first three (of the thirteen) gorges by boat.  We enjoyed it so much that we decided to stay an extra day to go back to do a longer walk and possibly hire canoes on the river.  It’s pretty safe cos’ we only saw five crocodiles!   Although we’re loving Australia some bits have really stood out and the Top End is certainly in the Top Five.

 

As planned, we did the Windolph 3 hour walk to Pat’s Look Out.  As we’ve already mentioned it’s lovely and warm here during the day and it certainly got hot up on the escarpment – but we were forewarned by a sign saying that the maximum temperature on the escarpment was expected to reach 50°C!    Pat’s Look Out gives a great view over the first gorge (didn’t see any crocs this time).  About half a km further on takes you down to the riverbank and M took the opportunity to have a quick dip to cool down.  Back at the caravan park we had a last dip in Katherine Hot Springs before settling in for our last evening in Katherine. Turned out our next door neighbours were from Tasmania and we’d actually met the guy when we’d played golf in Strahan – he was working on the new BBQ area at the clubhouse!  We really did enjoy our one more day in Katherine and will be sorry to say goodbye to the Top End.