Yanchep

One of the great things about living in Perth is all of the public land that’s around. Virtually the entire coast is public, and they have all kinds of bushland reserves and national parks scattered everywhere. Here national parks are very different to the ones in the US. They are smaller than the ones in the US, there are a lot more of them, and they're more like our state parks in terms of size and the types of resources they offer.

One of the national parks I’ve visited is Yanchep, about 45 minutes north of Perth. We checked out a cave which had some nice flowstone and other formations, but had really been beaten up by intensive tourist traffic over the years. We also saw some koalas that weren’t quite wild, but nearly so. I was amazed to learn that a big tourist attraction in Australia is “koala cuddling” which is pretty much just what it sounds like: people paying to pick up, hug, and generally antagonize koalas. They are nuts-I have seen the claws on those animals and there is no way I’ll be cuddling any koalas.

The best part of Yanchep by far is the presentation on Aboriginal life. Our teacher was a member of the Noongar people, which is the primary aboriginal group in the Perth area. First we learned how the dot paintings that aborigines make are actually like our books, in that they tell stories. Then we watched an aborigine make a special glue out of tree sap, ashes from a fire, and kangaroo poo (no kidding). It looks like tar but it dries hard in about twenty minutes. They use this stuff to bind just about any kind of natural material together. The best part about it is it's strong enough to hold tools like axes together, but if the tool gets worn or dull you can heat up the glue and it gets pliable again, so you can reuse it over and over. After going through some of the traditional tools he showed us how to make fire, but I need to go to remedial fire making class because all I could get was a little smoke. I don't feel bad though because at least I tried. The only other guy who tried didn't even get that far.

After the fire making failure it was time for music and dancing. He showed us how to play the digeridu, which involves breathing out into the cheeks, then forcing the air out of the cheeks while breathing in through the nose. Using this technique a digeridu player can play continuously without pausing for a breath. He explained that authentic digeridus are not manufactured by people, but are created from trees that are naturally hollowed out by termites. After the digeridu lesson he taught us traditional party song and the accompanying dance, and finished the session by performing the traditional fishing dance, which is basically a ritualized version of the movements one would use to stalk and spear fish in shallow water. It was all great fun and I learned very much.





Photos:

1. Flowstone, stalactites, and stalagmites in Yanchep cave.
2. Me failing to make fire.
3. Playing the digeridu.
4. The fishing dance.