| Birding
On My Own - Australia and New Zealand 2002 Emmalee Tarry |
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The Red Center |
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Opals attracted the early miners to Coober Pedy. Opals made them endure scorching temperatures in summer in a land with no water. To escape the relentless sun and heat, they dug their houses out of the rock and lived underground. Hollywood loves Coober Pedy. Today Coober Pedy has electricity for air conditioning so the underground houses are for tourists and the movies. A pipeline from Port Augusta brings water making water a precious commodity.
You know you are approaching Coober Pedy when barren piles of loose dirt line both sides of the highway for as far as you can see. . Signs warn tourists not to walk in the desert and especially not to walk backward for fear of falling into one of the abandoned mines. Men can destroy the desert for opals.
I got to Coober Pedy about 3 PM and registered at the Big Four campground. Water is so expensive the campground does not provide faucets for filling water tanks. The only water available is in the amenities block. Nor do they have trees, flowers or a swimming pool. The. campground is pretty barren and uninteresting. I went off to see the town.
They are still mining opals in Coober Pedy, but I think the biggest industry is mining tourists. The old underground dwellings are now shops, museums or open to tourists for a fee. I visited one shop selling what else but opals. They have a free opal polishing demonstrations and displays about types and quality of opals. Tourists buy anything at any price. Fortunately for my finances after looking at lots of opals one started to look like another and I am able to control desire to own one even for my precious granddaughter. The guidebook says that the prices here are not all that good. What tourist town really has bargains.
The underground dwelling in town that is free is the Catholic Church. Before entering I watched a flock of 20 Black Kites circled over the town. . A sign on the door of the church read
| You are welcome to enter and look
around. Meditate, Pray or light a candle. Please close the door and turn off the lights when you leave |
This is an active parish with notices about church activities on the bulletin board. It looked as though they only have mass once a month. The cross shaped sanctuary holds 50 people with a choir and altar. The interior is painted white. A very loud tourist was taking video of everything and ordering people to do this or that. After he finally left I enjoyed a quiet moment. It didn't seem all that cool to me and I rather think it gets quite hot when filled with 50 warm bodies. Perhaps residents of Coober Pedy are more used to the heat than I am.
There are stores, groceries, and an internet cafe in Coober Pedy. This is the first time I have seen numbers of aboriginal people in town. One man screamed what must have been insults at passersby. I couldn't understand what he was saying and he was ignored. The aboriginal people mostly just sit on the sidewalk waiting for handouts. Their ancestors have been in Australia for 60,000 years or more, but they are lost in today's world.
When I returned to the campground every spot was taken. I was amazed at the number of boats. There were small boats on the top of the cars and large boats towed behind. The Stuart Highway goes from sea to sea.
The next day I did another 485 Km to Erldunda. For 50 km outside of Coober Pedy the road was lined with mounds of the opal diggings. Then desert became beautiful again with brown grass, green spring flowering bushes and trees with blackened trunks. I saw lot of Wedge-tailed Eagles and Little Crows on kangaroo carcases.
After I crossed the state line into the Northern Territory, I noticed an improvement in the road signs. The shoulders of the road have been mowed uncovering a round desert gourd. Flocks of Little Corella and Gallah seem attracted to the seeds wherever the gourds have been crushed by a truck. Two Emu run across the road one behind the other. Later three Red Kangaroos hop across the road and out over the desert.
From now on the highway stops will be at roadhouses. The typical roadhouse offers: petrol, minor car servicing, limited groceries, restaurant, bar, campground with cabins. I rented a site in the campground and got there early enough to park under one of the only trees. It was shady for about an hour until 4 PM when I went to the lovely shaded swimming pool. The pool was small and very cold. I spent the rest of the afternoon sitting in the shade at the pool. When night falls its get so cold I need flannel pajamas and the quilt.
Ayres Rock (Uluru) and The Olgas (Kata Tjuta)
The Lasseter Highway is a 250 km side trip to world famous Ayres Rock. As partial settlement of aboriginal claims the entire area containing Ayres Rock has been deeded to the aboriginal tribes so that they can live traditionally. The national park has leased back the area that contains Ayres Rock and adopted the aboriginal name of Uluru for the park. Twenty percent of gate receipts for the park goes to the tribes (AU$15 for three day pass). Yulara, the tourist town outside the park contains shops, gas stations, hotels, and the campground. The use of the aboriginal names makes everything hard to remember.
As usual I drove the Lasserter Highway slowly stopping frequently to look for birds. At a picnic area along the way I had 200 Zebra Finch. You can see Ayres Rock from several spots along the road.
Around noon I arrived at the campground and obtained a site. The campground is quite nice and even has a few trees. There are plenty of powered sites for caravans and campervans and unpowered tent sites. . In one small tree in the campground I had: Yellow-throated Miner, Striped Honeyeater, Crested Pigeon, Singing Honeyeater. Outside in the park were several Black-breasted Buzzards.
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In the afternoon I drove around the rock stopping at various
places to look for birds. So after you see it, do you climb it? The only path
to the top of Ayres Rock starts at the white sign. Climbing the rock is very
popular. The parks service urges tourists not to climb because it is harder
than it looks and people are frequently injured or suffer heart attacks. The
aboriginal tribes that now own the park consider it a religious site and prefer
that people not climb. There are aboriginal rock carvings on a track to the left of the climbing site. You are asked to visit these only with an aboriginal guide. Unfortunately the guide is only there on certain days and at certain times. I did not visit these carvings and later wished that I had just walked the track on my own. |
| The climb does not look as steep as it actually is. I went up
the rock for a short distance and then decided there were better ways to spend
my time. I saw a woman coming back down sitting down. Sliding down the rock
ruined her pants. I drove all the way around the rock and stopped to look for birds at several places. It was pretty barren. |
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I could not find much to interest me at the aboriginal cultural center. The exhibits and videos focused mostly on the traditional Gods and stories. I was much more interested in how they lived in the desert. The aboriginies were very primitive stone-age people when the Europeans arrived. The dry land did not support agriculture so they were nomadic hunter gathers. People who move all the time do not collect stuff.
Parked in the shade outside the cultural center I noticed a bird moving in the brush. I worked very hard to see this bird and when I finally got a good look I saw scarlet undertail coverts the sure sign of the Mistletoe Bird. The male is unmistakable, but the females can fool you.
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I called this raptor perched in the top of the tree an
immature Black Falcon. There are lots of raptors in the park. I don't
trust my id of this bird so if anyone has another idea, please write.
This was certainly a cooperative bird and sat there a long time. |
I drove from Ulura back to the Stuart Highway and on to Alice Springs. On the way back to Erlunda, an aboriginal man tried to flag down my car. I slowed without stopping. Further on a woman ran into the center of the highway trying to flag me down. Under a bush on one side of the road I could see 2 children. For safety reasons, I felt I could not stop, but I reported the incident at the roadhouse in Erlunda. The attendant at the petrol station scoffed at the idea these people might need help. He said they did that every day trying to get handouts.
A few Aboriginal people hang out in the parking lot of the roadhouse. They do not ask for money, but do accept if it is offered. They are very sad. The adults are grossly overweight. The children including some who look to be school age have running noses due to something called Sandy Blight. As soon as they are given money they go in the roadhouse and buy french fries, soda pop, and candy.
I did not see Aboriginal people working in the Yulara town shops. Even the cultural center seemed to be staffed by Australians of European Ancestry. I am sure that the people you see at the roadhouses are the worst of the society. I certainly hope that others are taking better advantage of the settlement agreements. Americans have no right to point an accusing finger at Australians since we have done a similar thing to our native Americans.
On the road north I crossed a river which had some standing water under the bridge. On the other side there was a picnic area where I stopped for lunch. The picnic area had 3 campers. One had a large caravan with a tent outhouse and was running a generator. Another was camping in a horse trailer with a dog. They looked like they were here for along stay. I watched for birds while eating my lunch. I had my first White-backed Swallow here along with Fairy Martins. I was disappointed not to find more birds drawn here by the standing pools. I blame it on the dog. Perhaps there is more water up or down stream from the bridge.
I saw some other noteworthy camping rigs along the road. One family had made a London style double-decker bus into a campervan called "Double Trouble". My favorite was a truck called the "The Wandering Cockroach".
Alice Springs
If Ayres Rock and surrounding area was somewhat of a disappointment, Alice Spring was the highlight of my trip up the Red Center. There were several choice of campgrounds here. I stayed at the MacDonnell Range Holiday Park for AU$29 for an ensuite. The campground had many facilities including a swimming pool. A photograph in the office showed the entire site underwater during the last flood. The manager told me that the drought is just starting in this area.
The sewage treatment plant is on Commonage Road off of the Stuart Highway just before Heavitree Gap. You will notice garbage trucks using Commonage Road. I intended to scope the ponds from outside the fence. To my surprise a worker drove over to the fence to invite me inside. This is indeed a birder friendly sewage treatment plant. Park outside and walk in through the walk in gate. Check out the guest register inside for notes from previous birders. The most interesting report was of Freckled Duck. The first entry was two weeks old and reported 2 birds. The next writer saw 9 and finally a recent visitor claims to have seen 15.
In the first pond I found a flock of Red-necked Avocets. This was my first and only time to see this beautiful bird. There were good numbers of Pink-eared Ducks. Fairy Martins almost flew into me as I walked the dikes. Also Gray Teal, Black-winged Stilt, Pacific Black Duck, Eurasian Coot, Silver Gull, Wood Duck and of course the Willy Wagtail.
| The sewage ponds do not smell. There are paths for walking,
benches for sitting and a bird blind. I saw many small Grebes most still in
nonbreeding plumage when it is hard to tell the Australasian Grebe
(right) from the Hoary-headed Grebe. This individual shows the
distinctive yellow skin patch on the face of the Australasian Grebe. There was
at least one Hoary-headed Grebe in partial breeding plumage. I spent hours here on two successive days and did not see a Freckle Duck. There are so many ducks here I can believe I missed two, but how could I miss 15. I did not see the Freckle Duck until late in the trip at Denilquin. It is not a spectacular bird and it could be hard to find when resting. |
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I ended my first afternoon at the Alice Spring Cultural Center viewing an exhibit of the watercolor landscapes of Aboriginal artist Albert Namatjira (1902 -1959) who lived here and painted the MacDonnell Range. This was a temporary exhibit of his life works and later in the trip I saw the exhibit again at the National Gallery of Art in Canberra. The next day I drove out the MacDonnell Range to see for myself the land he loved and captured so beautifully.
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