Muirhead’s Take on The NT

Muirhead’s Take on The NT

Swallowing flies, waiting for emus to move from behind reversing cars, and eating camel burgers at roadhouses in the middle of nowhere (that is what made it a somewhere I will never forget). 

This trio of actual events reflects our family trip to The Northern Territory.  What a country we have that almost beggars belief when it comes to its extreme beauty.  I love our sunburnt country so much and if Sydney is the jewel in our crown, then surely Uluru is the beating heart of our glorious nation. 

On our road trip, we met Lola the bitsa dog who lived at King’s Creek Cattle Station which is 260 kilometres south east of Uluṟu.  Lola was just like a dog out of a movie with her red bandana around her neck and her laconic shuffle around  the pub tables as she looked humans up and down with the look of a soul  who was wise and tough as the outback.  Dirt runs everywhere you look like a huge magic red carpet made of soil that wraps around the base of ghost gum trees and slides down orange canyons before rolling up and over breathtaking amber rock formations. 

Paddy melons lay dormant in giant empty and cracked creek beds and the bluest sky stretched for miles and miles.  It is country side summed up in that iconic song of James Reyne and James Blundell that proclaims ‘’Way out west where the rain don’t fall, got a job with the company drilling for oil, just to make some change, Living and a working on the land.” But back to Lola the dog who had a huge chunk of flesh missing from her floppy honey-coloured ear.  We asked what happened to the country canine and the reply from a weathered old bushie was “She got picked up and dropped by a wedge tailed eagle.” Our shocked faces were met with laughter from the bushie as he told us with a straight face: “Just joking youse all as Lola’s eat got torn up real good by a Dingo when she was a pup,” he finished. Our jaws fell even further towards the red earth. 

We also met a First Nations person called Tania who gave us the kind advice for free that whenever in life we swim in a watering hole or creek just throw a stone in it first and say out loud “I mean no harm to you and I just hope to cool off for a while”. I found it to be such soothing advice.  My kids looked at Tania like she was some exotic goddess talking about skipping stones and babbling streams.  Finally we drove into Alice Springs where The Todd river wraps it’s way around the town.  It is totally dry and looks more like an unsealed highway than a river. 

The locals took much glee in telling the story of how every August the Todd River Race is held where locals run boats through the hot sand in the only dry regatta held in the entire world.  Only in our great country.