Day 20 (June 18th, 2015): The Aboriginal Rock Art at Ubirr

Today we left early to go check out The township of Jabiru and the aboriginal rock art site at Ubirr. 

Firstly into Jabiru and grabbed a few groceries at the Jabiru supermarket. Not getting too much here as it's pretty expensive and the fresh fruit and veg don't look so great either. 

We checked out he Mercure Hotel that is built in the shape of a crocodile. I have seen aerial photos of this - but it's pretty hard to make out the shape and get a decent photo from our level. So I have only tried to photograph the head.

The Bowali Visitor Centre, just out of town, was terrific - with great visual displays, an information centre, a great coffee shop and very interesting movie educating people about the work they do researching and managing the park.  

Throughout the year Kakadu's landscapes undergo spectacular changes and this art work painted on rock (pictured below) sits at the main entrance foyer to the information centre. It depicts the Six seasons of Kakadu as described by the traditional owners.

The video showed the constant battle they have with poachers in the park - commercial fishing and catching crocs is not allowed. They also have the 'cool burns' that are done at the beginning of each dry season - these are fires lit by the park rangers to burn off the spear grass that grows so rampantly after the wet. By doing this they minimise they risk of 'wildfires' in the park that can cause much damage to plant, bird and animal life.

It also gave an insight into the research they do and the Croc surveys that rangers carry out at the beginning of the dry - which is also the tourist season. The rangers survey the popular areas looking for crocs and setting traps to catch any Salties before the area is deemed safe for tourists.

At Jim Jim Falls they even have to helicopter in the access walkways that float on the water - seems they are chopper the walkway out section by section at the start of the "wet season" and then back in again for the "dry".

So after seeing all this movie I could not begrudge the $25 per adult that they charge for entry to Kakadu NP (the pass lasts for 14 days - but I did note that Territorian residents get free entry year round). Kakadu covers nearly 20000 sq km and must cost quite a large sum to manage and maintain.

Today Kakadu is aboriginal owned and is a jointly managed Commonwealth Reserve. The traditional owners have leased their land to the Director of National Parks - with overall direction provided by the Kakadu Board of Management which has an Aboriginal majority representing the traditional owners.

   

After the visitor centre we headed out to Ubirr - with a stop off at Cahills Crossing. This is where a road, via the causeway, goes over the East Alligator River into Arnhem Land.

There were quite a few aboriginals fishing here on the causeway when we first passed through. 

When we stopped again on the way back from Ubirr the tide had come up a bit more and they had gone - it would be a dangerous pastime fishing off this causeway as the crocs get here at high tide we are told waiting for fish coming over the causeway on the rising tide. We were not lucky enough to see this. 

There was a woman - with a couple of kids - though fishing off the riverbank with a hand line- a bit too close for my comfort to the waters edge.

Well Ubirr was to be another highlight of our journey through NT. 

Ubirr is a collection of aboriginal rock art galleries. It is definitely on a par with Carnarvon Gorge (in QLD) - but the art works here are more about hunting and fishing - where from memory I think at Carnarvon they are more representative of people and ceremonial events.

The dates of the rock art here range from 15,000 years old to as recent as 150 yrs ago.

We spent a good couple of hours wandering round the rock art sites here - and chatting with some other travellers as I am want to do.

For Aboriginal rock art the act of painting is said to be more important than the painting itself - so many older paintings are covered by newer ones.

This one was on a rock overhang quite high up above us and the ground level.

At the end of the trail was another prize. You climb up onto an escarpment and the view across the Nardab floodplain of the Kakadu wetlands is fantastic. Atop this escarpment you have a 360 degree vista of the stunning green wetlands and more escarpments out beyond this to the start of Arnhem Land. It took my breath away and no photo I could take could ever do it justice. It will be a site I will remember for a long time - as I stood there trying to imagine what it must have been like for the indigenous people wandering these lands to spend time here sheltering on higher ground and under the cover of the large rock overhangs doing the art works found here.

I loved this quote from an aboriginal elder regarding Kakadu:

"People need to come here and relax, sit on the country, feel the spirits of this country, and go home and feel the same way"