Happy birthday, Debbie!
We’re back to cold nights here in Mount Isa. It took us a bit by surprise, and everyone was a little cold during the night – so sleep wasn’t the greatest. But we still tired to make time this morning to shower birthday love on Debbie. We have a notebook that we write each other’s birthday messages in (in place of cards), and so the kids and I had written in that in the last couple of weeks so Debbie could read our birthday messages to her. As for her birthday present – in the spirit of everyone getting experiences for their birthday present, Debbie too is getting an experience! She was thinking that our Great Barrier Reef tour was her birthday present (because that’s something she’s wanted to do for a long time) – and while we’re still doing that, she’s got something extra special to look forward to when we get to Cairns. It’s a surprise for her, and for the kids – so you’ll just have to wait until Day 70 to find out what that is!
You can’t have a birthday without cake though. And so this afternoon we did all enjoy some special birthday cupcakes for Debbie!
We’d decided the sunroof was ok for short drives around town – and thankfully our first stop today was only 5 minutes down the road. We headed to the Outback at Isa centre, which is Mt Isa’s visitor centre – we’d booked a Bush Tucker Experience tour there. We were met by Matthew, whose birth name is Woorie. He told us his lands are up near the Gulf, centred around Garawa – but that his family totem has connections across many lands in that area. He took us on an incredible show and tell tour around the beautiful bush tucker garden out the back of the Outback at Isa centre, and talked to us about seemingly every tree there! Every tree and plant had a purpose and a use. Throughout the tour, he talked a lot about his upbringing, about how his father taught him so much, and how proud he is to see his father’s picture as a part of one of the exhibits in the Centre.
We had a chance to try some amazing food from the trees – saltbush berries, native passionfruit, lemon myrtle, native hibiscus petals (which taste like mint!), native fig… it was awesome! And learnt so much about how many of the plants were used in medicines, housing, and so much more.
He talked us through their uses of paperbark, which we’d heard a few times before during other experiences. He took a chunk of paperbark of the tree and talked to us about how he used it for bedding and a few other uses. Alexander held the piece and curled up the ends, and asked Woorie whether it was used as a water bowl (which is what Manuel shared with us back in Katherine). Alexander held onto that bit of paperbark for the rest of the tour, and when we finished, Woorie kindly helped Alexander tie it up into a bowl with some bark string that he had in his office! It was a wonderful experience for Alexander.
I think the tour was only meant to be an hour and a half, but as we rolled up to nearly two hours, one of the managers at the centre had to come and get him and remind him he had another tour starting shortly. We’d just been enjoying chatting with him and hearing his stories – and he was clearly feeling comfortable to share them. We learnt so much from Woorie – he seems a softly spoken man, but he was so overjoyed to see how our kids engaged and really wanted to learn more (and to hear us say how important it was for us for them to learn from Aboriginal people themselves, rather than just books and second- and third-hand accounts). He said that it warmed his heart to see our kids want to learn about all this and take it back and tell their friends.
Over lunch time, I got my Macgyver on and got to work getting the roof of the car somewhat more secure. Debbie helped me carefully clean out all the glass, and the caravan park manager had an old plastic sign that turned out to be the perfect sign. So after a whole heap of automotive masking tape (so that there’s hopefully no paintwork damage), I think we’ve got a decent seal – at least for around here.
I’m not super confident on that fix at 110km/h though. Luckily enough, I ran into a guy who works at the local auto glass place in Repco this afternoon – and he said they have some “crash wrap”, which is like super strong clear contact, but for cars. And he said he’d be happy to get me some of that on Monday morning which will seal it really well. That would then make me feel a lot more confident about continuing on through Hughenden and Undarra before we get to Cairns. It’s still very much in the air how long the repair will take, or when the VW Service Centre would be able to do it, along with getting the windscreen replaced (as the crack has now gotten quite a bit bigger) – but those are Monday problems for the moment.
This afternoon we headed to the Underground Hospital for a visit and tour. This place is the first and only underground hospital in Australia! We were taken on a guided tour down into the hospital, the entrance through one of the three tunnels. It has been restored close to what it would’ve looked like in 1942 when it was completed. It was constructed in response to the Japanese air raids on Darwin, and it served as an emergency evacuation hospital in case air raids were detected near Mount Isa. Apparently it was a town-led initiative, not a government one – which I guess is why this is the only underground hospital in Australia. It never ended up being used – but the tour guide did tell us that the nurses would often walk the 100 yards over here from the main hospital on their breaks to have a nap, because it was cooler underground than in the main hospital! It was a great experience, and something so unique.
On the property is also a Tent House – the last remaining tent house in Mount Isa. In the early days of mining, housing was in short supply, but the population was growing hugely. And so tents were initially used for housing. These then expanded to contain raised wooden floors, then a fibro cement roof (separated from the tent), and some even contained lower walls. These were all over Mount Isa during the 1930s and 40s – and most were demolished, but this one still remained. And it still contains all the furnishings and appliances that would’ve been used in it during the 1950s! (Obvious exception being the fire extinguisher in the picture below!)
Not quite sure what tomorrow holds yet! Plans are a little more fluid than I’d like at the moment…
