Ngalumara Beach Tour

On Sunday I spent about 4 hours with Gandhuwuy (the traditional owner and clan leader of Dhambala - the homeland I am living in). He is keen to offer cultural immersion experiences for visitors to Elcho Island, here at Dhambala. He and his family would like to welcome visitors to their camp for a few hours where they will learn about Yolngu culture, language and lifestyle and try their hand at hunting, fishing, bush foods and making traditional art and craft.

I suggested he test-drive one of his 'tours' on me with the idea that I would take photos and write up the experience to be used for promotional purposes and education. Gandhuwuy was very excited, as was I and we had 4 magnificent hours exploring Ngalumara Beach, which is the next beach along from Dhambala.

On our tour Gandhuwuy took me to the remnant site of the Macassan Camp (the Macassan's visited Elcho Island from Indonesia a few hundred years ago and traded with the Yolngu), we took a tour of the Ngalumara Rock Beach (which has the most amazing display of coloured rocks you could possibly imagine) and then we went digging for bush food and found some natural ochres for painting.

I am pasting together the stories from our 'tour' with the pics, and this will become study notes for visitors as well as form the basis of a brochure.

By some amazing stroke of luck, I had a call today from a woman who helps remote communities set up and run tourism enterprises and she is wanting to bring a cruise ship to Elcho for a unquie cutlural experience in May, focusing on re-tracing the travels of the Macassans.

I said to her, 'Well, I think I might just know the perfect person to take your visitors on a tour of a remnant Macassan camp site', and she was over the moon. She was even more excited when I told her Gandhuwuy and I are putting together the story and pics from the tour on the weekend . So we have to get the job done asap...

Anyway, I thought I'd post some of the pics here to give a glimpse of what's on offer. The pics below show where the Macassan's set up camp and where they collected shells. Gandhuwuy is a very knowledgeable and enthusiastic guide.