Macca's Meanderings

 Hello from a wet and soggy Darwin We have enjoyed Christmas in Darwin with Jayson, Dean and Kristy. An active monsoon trough has resulted in heavy overcast skies with quite a bit of rain. Thankfully the temperatures have been lower - making conditions quite pleasant. Recently the Garngi rangers did a boat patrol in combination with the Mardbalk rangers who are based at nearby Goulburn Island. We patrolled towards the mainland - southeast of Croker Island where some large tamarind trees are the only reminders of a former Macassan camp. These camps are dotted along the north coast of the Northern Territory and the Kimberleys. These fishermen from modern day Indonesian used to visit these shores each year until 1908 when they were warned not to return. Below the rangers erected a sign at Darch Island, an island to the east of Croker Island. Previously I have mentioned the large amount of marine litter that washes up on the beaches around here. This is a huge problem all around our pl...

Please accompany the Garngi Rangers on a day's work to Cape Croker?  Charlie Wadaga and Bryan are going to travel via our new buggy. Our job for the day was some ongoing mimosa weed spraying. The other rangers had to erect a sign on Darch island before doing a patrol around Croker Island. We planned to meet them for lunch at the mouth of a little creek at Cape Croker. We will catch up with them later. The first 12 kms of our drive was over some old tracks that are not maintained (more about them later). At Miming the track ends, so we have to drive along the beach. There was a very low tide around 2pm so we had plenty of wet, firm sand to drive on making for easy driving. We are currently in the 'build up' season - building up to the monsoons or wet season. Typically this means light winds, around 35 degree temperatures with high humidity.  Drive with Charlie and I along a beach to Cape Croker. The buggy has no windshield so the wind blowing in our faces was greatly appreci...

 Hi again As we live on an island there are no roads that connect us with Darwin - our supply centre. In fact, even the roads on the adjacent mainland are impassable for many months each year due to the wet season. When I say roads, they are all unsealed and some are more tracks than roads. The main tracks may only see a grader once a year. Consequently, most of our supplies come to us via a coastal barge service like the one below.  The video below shows the Arnhem Trader coming across Mission Bay to the Minjilang barge landing/boat ramp. Some communities do not even have a concrete ramp so the landing barge unloads onto a beach or a river bank. The barge service offers three types of service - dry goods, chiller and freezer.  The barges are shallow draft, flat bottom vessel which allows them to come into quite shallow water. It is not uncommon for them to dry out - leaving them sitting on the bottom until the tide comes back in. Once the barge bow is on the landing the ...

Hi again    Not long after arriving at Croker Island local people told me of a B24 bomber wreckage from WW2 in the northern part of the island. No one had been to this part of the island for many years due to there being no tracks, access from the sea is tricky due to the reefs and also due to numerous culturally sensitive sites nearby. The US airforce B24 bomber named 'Foil Proof Mary' was returning from a mission to the north where they had encountered anti-aircraft fire which resulted in two of the four engines being taken out of action. Approaching Croker Island the two good engines were running hot and they were low on fuel. The captain  decided to force land on a clear area near Cape Croker. He order the non-flying crew to parachute. Only six of the nine crew jumped. It is not know why the last three failed to jump however that turned out to be a bad decision as they all died in the post impact fire. The captain died the following day from his injurie...

Hello from a hot and humid Croker Island. Nance is still in Queensland spending time with her elderly mother and other family.  It has been quite a while since my last post. An aunt and an uncle have passed away during the last 6 months - the last of mum and dad's generation. And there has been a tricky and at times stressful HR issue at work all making for a challenging period. Getting out of town helps to clear the mind and regain perspective. The drone photo below is of some wind shaped sand dunes in the northern part of Croker Island.  Picking up fishing nets that wash up on the beach is a constant part of the Garngi Ranger's work. This small section of net unfortunately had a small dead turtle caught in it. These nets cause so much environmental harm. During a recent Biosecurity survey to Cape Croker we came across this sea snake on the beach - still alive - only just though. The larger than usual waves had washed it up onto the beach. Once out of the water they very clum...

 Hi  We have been out and about enjoying the great weather at this time of the year in northern Australia.  This week Darwin and Alice Springs have been in a Covid lockdown. Whilst we have not been locked down, travel to and from Croker Island has been restricted to essential people only.  The  rangers did a couple of patrols to the northern tip of Croker Island, Cape Croker or Wunwu. The photo below shows the small lighthouse there.  The marine currents and winds bring a lot of marine litter to the beaches in this area.  Time for a spell - pulling partly buried nets and other marine debris can be heavy work. We burn what will burn and the rest is carried back to the community dump. If you double click on the photo below, you will notice some dead trees in the top centre of the picture. These were mimosa which we treated just before the wet season in December 2020. If left untreated the mimosa will take over this whole area and choking out all other ve...

Hello from Croker Island The last month we have had quite a lot of days with strong wind warnings in place. The last week however has seen a break from the strong winds so we have taken advantage of this to get a few boat patrols done.  Charlie Wadaga's sharp eyes scan the sea looking for anything unusual or suspicious.  On one boat patrol we came across a pole floating almost vertically in the water just off the east coast of Croker Island. A closer examination revealed an eight metre bamboo pole.  Charlie brings the pole onto the boat revealing some mussels on the submerged parts of the pole. We suspected that the bamboo pole and mussels had drifted from Indonesia which immediately raised biosecurity concerns. We took photos, recorded details and sent them off to Biosecurity Australia.  Some may recall earlier this year a couple of nets we retrieved and deposited in a calm corner of a bay. Due to the wet season and the boggy tracks we were unable to access this are...