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Long before the days of white-man Ooldea Water was a refuge in times of severe drought and distress. Yuldi  belonged to Kokata ; southern Mirning  and Wirangu , northern Ngalea  and Pindini , came in for water and barter; pituri , ochre, flint, nulu . Around the Soak lay scatters of stone tool making that speak of trade  and related matters. Of particular interest are the black glassy stones called  nulu            called meteorites            called tektites            called australites            called nulu medicine stones death pointers sacred stones magic stones rain makers charm stones message stones circumcisers punishment stones healing stones barter stones. Droplets of siliceous glass, a mystery. Little enigmas strewn like fossil raindrops over the Nullarbor Plain. Sky-stones fallen from the Sky-world.       Kabbarli : grandmother, Miss Daisy 'These moonless nights when the stars are at their brightest and even Magellan's Clouds take on a warmth and a shimmer from  th

Dorothy Hewett gets it right, the inviting madness of the desert, where we expect to meet a mad old woman dressed in black pushing an English pram a nun with a walking stick a woman with a string of camels mirages floating in heat a foot above the ground visitants lost on the scrubby  horizon where no line marks the possible. Nullarbor is the place we go when there is nowhere else. We came to a fork in the track. Old Eyre Highway or Old Coach Road? Our choice was less travelled. When the hot sun was dipping Wild-life started emerging from their day-time hideaways. A mob of kangaroos bounded across. Then a girl. We hadn't seen anyone in days. But there she was. When the roos caught sight of us, they took off into the scrub. The girl stopped dead, 100 yards in front of us. A curious but hard look on her face. She didn't blink, and for a second, none of us dared to move. Her blond hair moved very slightly in the evening breeze. Suddenly, bare-footed, she darted to the left. We sat

  Somewhere there, just short of Eucla I saw two figures to the left Edward Eyre and 'faithful Wylie' between the highway and the cliffs forward-tilting, sweating on foot slogging it out through the calf-length scrub In their mute, enduring madness 'to accomplish our object  or perish in the attempt' Pressing on, confident that 'this land had never before  been trodden by civilized man  and from its nature is  never likely to be so again' terra nullius:  a terror of emptiness nullius arbor : an absence of verticals tabula rasa : featureless, flat, blank meaning-melting monotony  collapsing precarious  structures of self Yirkala-Mirning  call it Oondiri  the waterless Europeans  call it  No Mans Land. The explorer was young, but not without Knowledge. Ahead of them loomed three fearful pushes westward, desperate stages for five men and their horses. From this first water at the Head of the Bight to the second water beyond the eastern cliffs to the third water bef