Oondiri the Waterless
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