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 before the western cliffs
to the fourth water at the termination of the Bight.
The water spoken of by the natives at Yearkumban-waure
Places where the natives had dug their wells
Between steep, high sand-drifts, pure white
Fresh water, not salt.
'On the fifth day of our sufferings
having passed over one hundred and
thirty-five miles of desert country
When the poor and needy seek water
and their tongue faileth for thirst
I will hear them.
'On the sixth day of our distress
having travelled one hundred and
sixty miles since the last water
I will make the wilderness
a pool of water and the
dry land springs of water.
'On the seventh day of our drouth
having crossed one hundred and
fifty miles of barren tableland
I will even make a way
in the wilderness and
rivers in the desert.'
The explorer was young, but not without Knowledge.
He believed that for each dry stage there was an end.
Scripture for show.
Wylie knows.
In this oceanic scrub
What seems a far off dot
Fills the windscreen Suddenly
Like a stone flicked from road-train tires
Or a splattered insect.
To lay down on this old
Sea-bed is to become
Insignificant, unnecessary.
You could sleepwalk in any direction
And never be found.
behind us the stone houses
of the abandoned Telegraph Station
are disappearing under the sand
there is no other sound
but the pull of the surf
on the other side of the dunes
all day, all night, the sounders clicked
Morse Code from Adelaide, passed through
the pigeon-hole to Western Australia
all night, all day, the 8-guage pulsed
between jarrah poles in a single
line from Perth to South Australia
The Establishment Of The
East-West Telegraph Service
In December 1877
Linked Western Australia
And The Eastern States
And Through The
North-South Telegraph Line
Between Adelaide & Darwin
With Great Britain
And The Rest Of The World
Eucla/Yirkala recites the
first appearance of the morning
star over sand dunes by the sea.
Mirning traditional lands stretch
along the Great Australian Bight
from Eyre's Sand Patch to Fowlers Bay.
Southern Right Whales regularly
return to calve along this same
'high energy coastline' of cliffs.
The two nations are close, keeping
company in music, calling
to each other in Whale Dreaming.
Mirning people use gong stones, their
musical stones from local caves,
striking them together to sing.
Stalactite and Stalagmite ring,
ancient speleo-forms resonating,
translating the Deep to the Deep.
In song ceremonies and dance
corroborees, complete when both
the people and the whales take part.
Poems 'borrowed':
'Nullarbor', Geoff Page, The Secret.
'Nullarbor at Night', Faith de Savigne
'Nullarbor Tea Party', Dorothy Hewett, Halfway up the mountain
Other sources:
Julie Raffaelle, 2007, 'Tide Weavers Project', PhD thesis, Murdoch University
Edward John Eyre,1845, Journals of Expeditions and Discoveries...,Vols 1 & 2
Old Telegraph Station Plaque, Eucla Roadhouse, 1950
Jay Griffiths, 2006, Wild: An Elementary Journey
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