marvelous mungo magic

My recent foray into the alluring Australian Outback was superb - dry, windy and dusty - not too many flies – and unpredictable as all adventures are. Touching down in Mildura, Rachel, Mai and I spent our first day along the banks of the mighty Murray river – an area known for citrus, ‘slow food’ cuisine, and lots of water in a dusty land. After a bit of 'seeing the sights' of Mildura, Wentworth and Dareton, we were informed by a friendly enthusiast of the 100 kilometer speed boat race poised to happen over the weekend on the Murray – fortunately our timing was good as we were hitting the road. With three days supply of water and food, we then turned the wheels towards ‘the Dry,’ heading for Mungo National Park.

At Mungo, we essentially spent three days poking around a huge archaeological site and surrounding desert - allowed to wander at will, no one seemingly worried about what we might step on – only in outback Australia! In our meanderings, I happened upon some impressively sized animal teeth that I estimated are 16,000 years old - and a stone spear head of the same era. Just like that – just laying there on the sand – where you can pick them up and roll them around in the hand. And then respectfully set them back down again.

The area is under Aboriginal authority as it is a sacred place for them - so they decide when and where visitors are allowed to go. From an archaeological/paleontologist perspective, it is a treasure trove – at the moment, wind erosion has taken it down to the 16,000 – 20,000 year sedimentary layer. There are bones everywhere that are slowly being uncovered as the wind erodes the dunes. During our guided tour with Graham (an Aboriginal archaeologist, musician, teacher, media spokesperson, and all around inspired man), he pointed out various skeletal remains we were passing including the skull of a Tasmanian Tiger (reminder: Tasmania is an island an hour's flight south of Australia). We were all stepping carefully - I was barefoot, enjoying the idea of 16,000 year old sand between my toes. The shores of Lake Mungo, now dry as a bone, was once populated by animals and Aborigines for thousands of years. This is where 'Mungo Man' and 'Mungo Woman' were found – buried ceremoniously about 60,000 years ago. Ponder that for a moment. Their discoveries rocked existing theories on the origins of homo sapien. And here we had Graham, a descendant of Mungo Man & Woman, leading us around this site where his people had been gathering, eating, hunting, prospering, singing, and procreating for tens of thousands of years. Luv it.

So somehow, by the end of the tour and by a twist of fate, we were befriended by Graham who invited us to camp out with him in the dunes – one of his favorite overnight spots – which has a commanding 360 degree view of the outback horizon. The evening was surreal - guitar and singing late into the night on top of white dunes in the middle of the outback, under a full moon & luminous Milky Way with a descendant of Mungo Man & Woman. And Graham said to us ‘wanna baana bidja' ('welcome to my land’) and laughed. I’m still savoring that one. We saw the sun rise from our sandy sleeping bags on the tallest dune - which began with a long dark red band in the east - redder than you can imagine – blood red. And it was the quietest place i'd ever been - absolute silence at dawn - no wind, no insects, no birds, no nothing. Silent colour spreading across the land.

Thank you, Graham!

check out:
www.abc.net.au/science/slab/mungoman/default.htm
www.abc.net.au/rn/features/walkpark/prog9.htm