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Published: September 8th 2014
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Replete and ready to continue the day we headed for the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory. It featured a Cyclone Tracy exhibition, which was very graphically portrayed with photos of the areas before and after she struck and some of the twisted metal and building remains. There were also short recordings of people’s experiences of being there. We also stood in a small darkened “cupboard” like space and listened to a recording of the cyclone raging around us that had been taken by someone sheltering in their house. It must have been terrifying hearing that and having no idea what was happening outside or when your house would be torn off its foundation.
The flimsy nature of the houses was also demonstrated well with 4 life-sized corners of houses, showing the inside of a room and the outside of the house, from the 1940s & 50s, with wooden louvres and light construction of the walls; the 1960s with the glass louvres and the post 1974 windows with strong wind-open individual windows that can be locked down and a central core area in the house for shelter from the storm. The 4
th house was the aftermath of
"Rainbow Valley Pot"
This lovely round pot on the right was made and painted by Elaine Kingawarreye Namatjira, Albert's granddaughter. Cyclone Tracy on one of those homes. This showed a fibro asbestos wall with large holes in it and chunks of metal from roofing stuck in it, torn roofing with debris all over it and a corrugated fence with “Keep out – we still live here” painted in red all over it. There was also a large leafy green tree cut-out and next to it another showing it completely naked, like a deciduous tree in winter. We were told that the official death toll was 49 with 16 missing at sea but they know there were many more, itinerants, holiday makers, unofficial immigrants etc. I am so glad I wasn’t there and can understand why Barry is so anxious to get out of the Top End before Cyclone Season.
Another area of the museum was dedicated to Natural History and showed many stuffed animals and birds of the Top End set out in glass cases depicting various habitats and types of climate as they would appear in the wild. These included animals, birds, fish, amphibians, coral, insects and a few plants. One had a range of fish which included sharks and a Giant Grouper. We were surprised at
Natural History Transformations Gallery
This shows the various displays of the habitats an even a full-sized Cathedral Termite Mound in the centre. how large it was compared (217kg and can be up to 270kg and 4 m long) to the shark and with an enormous mouth that looked as if it could swallow anything (but actually eats rock lobsters, rays, small sharks and fish).
They also had a very tall Cathedral Termite Mound, which said they can be up 7 metres tall and 80 years old and are fireproof, floodproof and temperature controlled. These are made by spinifex termites that collect the dry grass and store it in chambers in the mound until needed. They do the same job of cleaning up the savannah and woodlands as mammal grazers do in most other countries. The drastic difference in the wet and dry seasons makes it difficult for large mammals to exist in this region (although the introduced water buffalo seems to manage in areas where there is some water).
One special display was for “Sweetheart” the 5.1m, 780kg Estuarine Crocodile that had been attacking a few aluminium fishing dinghies during the 1970s. By 1979, the attacks were becoming more frequent and the Parks and Wildlife Dept. decided to capture and relocate him to a crocodile farm. Unfortunately, after he was
One of the Habitat Display Cases
This one is during the dry season and shows what birds and animals are around at that time, very effectively. stunned, he got caught on a submerged log as they were trying to haul him onto the boat and he drowned. He was called “Sweetheart” as it happened in the Sweet River. He was very impressive and not even as large as they can be, which is up to 6m. You definitely don’t want to go swimming where they live, but people do and two people have died already this year from croc attacks because they did the wrong thing.
There were also a couple of galleries devoted to Aboriginal and Sth East Asian Art. We were particularly interested in the Albert Namatjira painting (as Barry’s mum had a print of one of his on the wall throughout his childhood) and in finding out that a lot if his family - sons, grand-daughter etc.- had also painted or produced lovely decorated pottery. My favourite was the beautiful round “Rainbow Valley Pot” done by his granddaughter Elaine Namatjira.
Another artist, Dinni Kunoth Kemarre from the remote desert region of Utopia, visited Melbourne and painted a series of highly coloured studies of things he’d seen. They are simplistic but highly recognisable and fun. Unfortunately, we had to rush through
Melbourne
Artist Dinnie Kunoth Kemarre from the remote region of Utopia, visited Melbourne and was inspired to paint this series of pictures. the last part of this gallery as it was closing time.
We finished this packed day by walking on the beach at Fannie Bay where we found lots of different coloured rocks, like sharp edged white quartz, tiny black stones lying on the surface that gleamed in the sun like diamonds and the one Barry fell in love with that was shaped as if it had been deliberately carved with a fat edge to stand on and with white at the bottom, yellow above, and with small red splotches throughout.
After that we drove to Dudley Point on the tip of the East Point Reserve and watched a glorious sunset over the water, uninterrupted by trees, buildings or wires! Then back home for dinner.
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