OZtralia.tv Blog

Respecting Australia’s Oldest Communities

By: Phoenix Arrien

Travelling to Australia is a lot like many Western countries and you can pretty much get around without too many gaffs and goofs.

However there are also other cultures within Australia. We have a multi-cultural society and you will find different restaurants, places of worship, festivals and places where you need to be aware of different customs.

The indigenous Australian culture requires some thought before you go visit an aboriginal community, festival or accommodation.

You can make the most of the contact with local Australian communities by:

- Learning about Australian history and customs before you go

- Be sensitive to local Australian, eating, drinking and even toileting practices

- Ask permission to take pictures

- Try to learn some of the indigenous Australian language, even if only hello and goodbye

- Treat everyone as equals, but don’t assume that you can talk to everyone

The rewards that you get in return are priceless.

The Australian Outback’s Crown Jewel

By: Phoenix Arrien

A four hour bus trip takes me from Alice Springs to the largest stone monolith on earth. Riding high on anticipation I keep my eyes on the horizon as the bus trundles on, kicking up red dust.

Then out of the flat plains rise a shadow - there it is!

Oh.

It is just a large rock.

I feel disappointed…it just doesn’t…well…impress.

Then the driver informs us it is actually ‘some hill or other’. The entire bus contingent chuckles self-consciously as if to pretend that we all knew that all along, of course.

Uluru was named ‘Ayres Rock’ by explorer William Grosse in 1875. It is an important place for Aboriginal peoples of the Central Desert, contains many sacred sites and doubles as a well-known Australian tourist symbol. When in 1985 Uluru was returned to Indigenous owners, it became an important symbol in the often turbulent relations between governments and Aboriginal people.

Then I see it and what a strange and incredible sight it is. A great squat monolith rises from the desert like a gigantic red cocoon or a very still creature from a Dreamtime creation story. Looking like the top is going to crack open and a fantastical butterfly from some Dreamtime legend is going to heave out and shadow the entire desert with its wings, the experience of  being at the Rock is disconcerting and entirely mesmerising.

It is a hauntingly beautiful red iceberg in a hot sea of sand and scrub and it plays with my imagination and senses. The rock is smooth, except for strange dark abrasions and holes. Ledges and caves pock the surface. People are crawling up the side of the Rock to test their body’s heart attack capacity, however this is discouraged by the indigenous owners who feel responsible for them.

I am spending the night here to watch the sunset and sunrise colour the rock brilliant reds and blues. It changes colour and the enormous dome of sky changes behind it. This is awesome.

A Visit To Alice Springs, Australia

By: Phoenix Arrien

Back on the hop-on-hop-off bus around Alice Springs.

First up is ANZAC Hill for great views of the township. The Anzac Hill lookout shows how Alice Springs kinda’ snuggles into a bit of a valley bordered by the MacDonnell Ranges. It looked relaxed and sleepy as it spreads out among green trees and bakes in the sun.

Each stop sees me wandering into unique places like the Royal Flying Doctor Service and School of the Air, both with enormous distances for their personnel to cover: oh, about the size of Britain.

The Docs look after the scattered population in need of medical attention, the School makes sure the local (read - within several thousand kilometres or so) kids didn’t have any excuse not to do their schoolwork, even though they are at home rather than in a classroom. The doctors and nurses buzz around in small planes that land in paddocks about the size of London, while the teachers sit in the best spot they can: thousands of kilometres away from their students and use radio and internet to scold Johnny into doing his 2 X table.

The Alice Springs Reptile Centre. Here you get to learn about wildlife, have a python wrap itself around your neck and learn how to kiss a lizard. The Reptile Centre has goannas, frill- necked lizards, thorny devils (met a few of those in my travels) and some of this country’s (and the world’s) seventeen most venomous snakes (met even more of these travelling the world too).

I become a kulcha vulture at the Cultural Precinct. To wander around here takes a few hours if you really want to check out desert life. There are eight buildings to explore as well as seven Aboriginal sacred sites and two ‘women dreaming tracks’. There is also desert art in the art galleries, bones in the Museum of Central Australia and aboriginal artefacts, found in the 1930’s, at the Strehlow Research Centre.

You can get into the insides of a giant caterpillar - the ‘dreaming animal’ of the local aboriginal tribe, via their metal outdoor sculpture. The Central Australian Aviation Museum has early planes including a restored DC3 dominating the hangar and other bits and pieces that once flew the sunny skies. More than a few planes crashed as they propelled across the desert skies during the first half of the last century, certainly a risky business being a desert pilot.

The Road Transport museum contains the Old Ghan train still perched on its railway tracks and ready to roll out and stream across the deserts of Central and Southern Australia. It used to go from Adelaide on the south coast to Alice, but the route often became flooded, so a new track was laid and a modern train now zooms along it in style, stopping in Alice but then going further north to Darwin on the north coast. So in fact you can travel across Australia in 48 hours and see much of the desert along the way.

Inbetween touring with the Wanderer, I munch on ‘roo and emu at the Overlander Steakhouse, heave around on camels on the dry Todd Riverbed and zip around town on the back of a Harley Davidson. Outsides of Alice the attractions include Kings Canyon, Palm Valley and tomorrow, my friends, I visit one of the great icons of Australia.

I am making my first pilgrimage out to Uluru, a red rock of mystery and legend.

The Australian Outback’s Alice Springs

By: Phonix Arrien

So anyway, having survived crocodiles in the north of Australia, then watched the Logies on TV in a pub in a tiny speck of a town called Humpty Doo (seriously), I turned south towards the centre of this vast continent.

There is a town sitting in the very centre of Australia and to visit is to appreciate the resilience and ability of people, animals and plants to adapt to harsh, desert conditions. This town is called Alice Springs - even though the woman it was named after never visited the place and there is no springs anywhere nearby.

You can get to Alice by coach - takes a long time from anywhere; travel on the train, a great trip on the Ghan, named after the Afghans who supplied the great stations with supplies before the railway was built; or you can fly. Or of course you can drive.

Once there the best ways to see the sights is on a ‘get-on-get-off’ bus and my first stop is theTelegraph Station, built in 1872 as a relay for the single telegraph wire that crossed the continent from Adelaide to Darwin. The restored building contains rustic gizmos and gadgets: the ancestors of wireless internet, blackberries and strawberry coloured mobiles.

The town is actually three kilometres south of the Telegraph Station which is next to a waterhole (though hardly a ‘spring’). Alice used to be called Stuart but in 1933 was officially named the more popular title everyone had been calling it anyway: Alice Springs.

Time to tuck into a motel for the night, yawn. More tomorrow.

Australia Needs To Curb Plastic Shopping Bags

By: Phoenix Arrien

I am told that there is a stew of plastic bags the size of a continent whirling in the Pacific Ocean. I haven’t seen it myself but sources are numerous and reliable.

Australia is not quite taking its cue from China (usually not a country known for its eco-initiatives) which is banning thin plastic bags, but more and more people in Australia are taking woven bags to the shop, supermarket or farmers’ market.

Intense discussion at governmental level about charging a small fee for plastic bags at the checkout, so once it hits the wallet, the use of such bags should drop.

Travellers to Australia are in a great position to shop using their travel bags, daypacks or whatever else we use to carry things. And by the way, it is ok to say no to plastic bags at the Australian checkout. You would not be rude and the ‘checkout chic’ is standing there hoping you will do just that!