Bullita Homestead
Just awoke to the sound of flocks of screaming sulphur-crested cockatoos flying from their night roosts & several gun shots. Just another day in the bush!
We camped at Bullita Homestead Campground last night inside of Gregory National Park.
Luck was on our side this time & it was open, despite the rest of the park being closed. Like Keep River, they were hit pretty hard by the wet season this year & the roads need some serious grading.
There were a few bush fires on the way in to the camp -- 'tis the season when things are getting dry & crispy.
We made about 6 solanum stops on the ride in to the homestead -- about 45 kilometers on a dirt road. At this point in the trip, some of us have taken to sitting in the truck & waiting for the botanist to do his thing -- jokes about "so-lame-um" are starting to be told. BUT he thinks he stumbled upon an unnamed species!!
This land used to be a cattle station. In the late-1800s, they would drive the cattle from here to the coast to sell at a port (it would take us 6 hours to drive there from here and that's mostly on paved roads with a 4WD). Seems like a heck of a lot of work. D.T. Durack owned the station for several years in the 1880s & carved his name into a boab tree on the property.
(Can you find the monkeys??)
As a cattle station, there were issues on and off with the Traditional Owners of the property. They were not welcomed by the pastoralists & vice versa. Aboriginals were first forced from the area, then were paid in rations to act as ranch hands (tea, rice, tobacco, water). There was not a great deal of trust between them.
Bullita was used as a cattle station up until 1977 when there was a major flood in the area. Happy & Lyn Berlowitz owned the station & Happy was working with the herd 50 kilometers from here when the tidewaters rose. Lyn grabbed her dog & puppies & headed up a tree for safety & wound up hanging on for 3 days before the water subsided. In a letter she'd written to her sister she recounts the entire event including the stench that followed & the utter destruction of their property. The entire family on the next cattle station died in the flood. She also mentioned the outpouring of help they received from neighboring cattle station owners to help return their property back to working condition.
I really can't wrap my head around living that life. You're completely isolated from people, you don't trust the locals, there's crocs in your swimming hole, it rains for 5-6 months straight and your entire livelihood is dependent on raising cattle on an impossible landscape.
Today, all the land is co-managed by an Aboriginal tribe & the Northern Territory Government.
Bullita Homestead Kitchen:
Leftover supplies in an outbuilding:
Coolest find on the shortest hike ever -- a bower bird's "den" built to attract a mate. There were shells, tin foil, & a white plastic bottle cap making up the front walk & a few green fruits by the door. Not a great photo, but the bower and it's collections are an amazing feat for a beaked & winged animal. After seeing the birds & their bowers on nature shows, I've always wanted to see one. 
We were the lone family in the campground last night -- just four Martines & the bush. We lit our first fire and Chris made a ceremony of burning a pair of his field-underwear -- nasty, grayish stretched out things that were headed for the landfill anyway. Jackson thought that was the greatest thing ever & wanted to burn more things...his pj's might actually make the cut, but he's got to get two more nights out of them.
Two rangers stopped by this morning to let us know what the gunshots were. They took down a water buffalo that's grazing too close to the Homestead & the campground. The kids & I actually heard it yesterday while we were walking back from the Homestead, but I couldn't see where the sound was coming from. (Did you just read that?? Re-cap...I heard a water buffalo while I was walking down an open road with my babies and the rangers shot said water buffalo because it was too close to the campground we were sleeping in -- AND at sunrise we heard them do it without knowing who was shooting or who was shot. Bananas!!!).
One of the rangers was a beautiful tanned blonde woman with a croc tooth choker around her neck. She told us that the damage at Keep River is going to cost more than $1 million to repair; that there was a 2 meter deep expanse of road that disappeared that you wouldn't "think it 'til you saw it." The rainy season made a new river where one didn't exist before. She also mentioned that the pastoralists are getting assistance in clean-up before them because the cattle industry is ahead in the economic pecking order. Chris joked that our $7.70 camping fee wouldn't cover much in terms of road repair. They found that pretty funny.
She and her partner exchanged doubtful looks when Chris talked about the potential new bush tomato species & asked if only a botanist would recognize the difference between the two roadside solanum.
In leaving Bullita, Chris found a ton more solanum with fruit & flowers, but it was a race against the road grader. I have video of him measuring & snipping madly with his pruners as the grader bore down on us. Botanical drama!!
Here comes the grader for his first pass...
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