Hi again As mentioned in my previous post, we were heading back to south east Queensland after leaving Croker Island and decided to take the 'less travelled route' via Kintore where my brother and sister in law live and work. Before we could leave Darwin though, we had a very important event to attend - our granddaughter Millie's first birthday. Below some photos of Millie and her brother Noah and parents Kristy and Dean. Being Millie's first birthday, this was all new to her however she enjoyed her special day. We then drove to Alice Springs, refuelled and did some shopping and headed off to Kintore which is located 520 kms west of Alice Springs and only 40 kms from the WA border. We elected to travel via the West MacDonnell Rangers and not via the Tanami Road. This is a drive we really enjoyed while working at Haasts Bluff in 2016/17. I have at times asked people who have never visited this part of Australia and are not interested in doi...
Hi Nancy and I pray that all will know joy and be greatly blessed over this Christmas period. 'And foreigners (non-Jews) who bind themselves to the Lord ......... these I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer ......... for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations'. Isaiah 56:6-7. As I write this I am back in Yarraman enjoying some leave. It has been an especially busy and challenging year. Nancy left Croker Island back in September to attend her family re-union and then has been caring for her sister Heather after her knee joint replacement. The ranger work at Croker this year started normally enough however moved up a level when Siam weed was discovered on Croker Island. This added quite a lot of extra work to our program as Siam is a particularly nasty weed. In May, we welcomed Amelia Gayle to our family - daughter of Dean and Kristy and brother for Noah. Below are a few photos of Amelia. Firstly, not long after...
Hi For a few months now we have been reporting Illegal Foreign Fishing Vessels (IFFVs) in our area. Some may have seen reports of Indigenous rangers in the Kimberley's, WA discovering IFFVs, often hiding in creeks and sometimes actually going ashore and camping. Concerningly, we have had the same issues around here. Apart from the illegal fishing aspect there is also a very real biosecurity risk. Indonesian has many diseases that we do not want in Australia - Foot and Mouth, Rabies etc. Last Monday we observed an IFFV in the area where we were conducting our marine research - but more about that later. Firstly, let's back up a little. Last year we detected an IFFV near McClure Island - see the photo below. The crew were apprehended and the vessel destroyed. A couple of months ago we reported sightings of IFFVs around Croker Island and the adjacent mainland. Around 3 weeks ago we discovered three IFFVs and one canoe hiding in the creek near where we subsequently setup o...
Comments