Borroloola
The most important job arriving back into Borroloola was a
visit to the toilet dump point in the middle of the local park.
It’s generally a pretty quiet spot, but we pulled in just at the opening
of the NAIDOC celebrations with the whole town turning out for the
festivities. We patiently waited
for the hordes to walk past us to the flag pole for the raising of the flag so
they didn’t have to endure the experience of watching us empty our toilet.
Some of the festivities
There's no prejudice in Borroloola
Alan and I helping to support NAIDOC
Borroloola is an Aboriginal town on the edge of the Gulf of
Carpentaria, and is on the way to or from everywhere up here, so it’s a pretty
busy little place. The local people
are the friendliest around, so it’s easy to spend a few days here.
The new Malandari Store had just opened on our visit last
year, and now almost 12 months later they had enough dignitaries milling around
for NAIDOC to warrant an official opening .
Lots of speeches were made, but the biggest cheer was for the very pretty
young Sergeant of Police when she spoke.
She was talked about keeping the town safe, the kids behaviour and also
encouraged the monitoring of alcohol consumption.
The crowd watching the speeches for the
opening of the Malandari Store
There are 2 grocery stores but Malandari is the only place
you can buy your grog, and the purchase is strictly monitored and recorded on
your beer card and you are breath tested before you can purchase any. The only alcohol
available is mid strength beer and if you live within 80 km of town, you’re
allowed 18 cans a day. If you live
beyond that it’s a very generous 30 cans a day.
As the shop assistant told us, nobody seems to have a fixed address, so
it’s pretty easy to get your hands on 30 cans a day. This seems a ridiculous
amount of alcohol to consume every day and we’d be off our faces well before we
got to 18 beers.
A couple of the favourite spots to relax with friends after a hard day
We’ve really been caught off guard as we’re down to our
last bottle of wine, which has to last us 2 weeks until we arrive in Katherine.
We bought 4 bottles in Mt Isa, 900 kms away.
Alan has a decent supply of Carlton Ice mid strength which he bought
after signing his life away at Malandari Store.
He’s he’s relatively happy, although the limes in the fridge won’t last
until we get a new box of Coronas in Katherine.
Last night we walked up to the pub – the only place where you can enjoy a mixed drink, full strength beer or a glass of wine, but even then you have to provide proof of age, have a full meal and wear one of these:
We decided to extend our stay until today, because the food
truck comes at 2:00 pm and we can stock up on fresh fruit and veggies.
We were lucky enough to get
our hands on some goodies we take for granted
at Woolies or Coles.
Tomorrow we’re off into the wilderness again, to the very
beautiful Lorella Springs Station.
We may try and tackle the 80 km track which takes you out to the Gulf to camp
and do some fishing there. If if not we’ll stay behind and have a dip in one of
the many croc-free swimming holes and waterfalls within their 1 million acres.
Then it’s on to Limmen National Park to try our luck at some more
fishing. We’re learning fishing
tricks from everyone we meet, but we’re still absolute novices.
We won’t have any phone or internet service for a couple of
weeks, so the next blog will be a big one!