Leaving beautiful Balgo

WET SEASON FUN

In the second last week of school the Wet season decided to come calling. It bucketed down both in Balgo and the Tanami Rd. The locals love the rain as it fills the waterholes and brings out the animals.

On our way out to check out the waterfall and waterhole we came across Shane and 15 odd children returning from the waterhole. It is lucky there is no glass in the windows otherwise there would be nowhere for the kids to sit!!

There was a chorus of frogs down at the waterhole and this little fellow didn't mind a cuddle

This is the waterhole which is fed by a waterfall when it rains.  Unfortunately the creek had stopped running when we got there so the waterfall was only a trickle.

Such a lovely place to go in the desert.

CHURCH IN BALGO FOR THE LAST TIME

A little out of focus but you can hopefully see the gum leaves being dripped into the coolamon that I am holding.  This is the water blessing that happens at the beginning of each church service.  It is nice to have the leaves waved over your head as water is splashed on you.  There are no air conditioners in the church so it is a welcome splash!!  

Our last church service for the year was both sad and funny.  Jeff, who had been to church only about 4 times, was given the plate to take around.  It was funny because one of the locals just handed it to him to continue - it was a setup!.  Jeff was not really sure what to do with the plate after the collection.!!

Helicopter, one of the locals and a famous indigenous artist, plays the clapsticks at church each week.  He gives the beats to all of the songs we sing and during the Eucharist.

At the end of the service, the leaving staff were given a blessing by the local church elders.  It is a beautiful and moving tradition where a song is sung and the ladies bless us. It is especially meaningful as both of us have come to know the ladies (from left; Marie, Magda, Cathy, Angie and Gracie) well during our stay.  

CHECKING FOR GERMS!

Nurse Mary came into the classroom to show the children how germs stay on their hands even after they think they have washed them.  What was also interesting is that when the children washed their hands the torch also saw some of the 'germs' on their faces, legs, arms etc.  The children then understood how germs can be moved so easily to themselves and others.

CHRISTMAS IS THE TIME OF GIVING

My class decided that to show the real meaning of Christmas they would do something for others. We baked some yummy cupcakes and delivered them to the Women's Centre. Usually boys over 5 years old are not allowed at the Women's Centre, but they made an exception for the boys in my class.  All of the children had a relative at the centre at the time which was such a lovely surprise to them.  

The Women's Centre is a refuge centre for women in times of family violence.  On this particular day there were ladies from Mulan and Billiluna here to 'sing' back the young boy who had gone missing. (He is still missing sadly)

Ainsley and Geneva were happy to pose with their family member.

WAY TOO MUCH ART

BUT WE COULDN'T RESIST

The local artists have been making scarves and this one was a representation of bush tucker.  The artist Tossy is a lovely artist and a real character of Balgo.  We had to take something of hers away with us.

This painting is one I have wanted since the first time I came to the art centre.  It is painted by a young local artist, Lucinda Gibson, with a lovely style.

PACKING UP MY CLASSROOM 😢

The time finally came to pack up my classroom for the next teacher.  This was really hard after 2 years. I had a least 4 resident geckos in my room that peep out and say hello each day.  This one was not happy that I had disturbed his safe hideout behind my file.  I will miss jumping each time one of the geckos ran out of its hideout.  The funniest one was in my storeroom where I had no idea where he was each day. I am sure I scared the poor little things as much as they scared me. I certainly wont miss the gecko poo that I found around the room each day!!

Josh, my teachers aid, helped Ainsley reach those hard to get at places .The kids enjoyed taking the pictures down and making huge blue tac balls.

Well goodbye classroom 😢😢😢

TIME TO LEAVE OUR WONDERFUL HOME OF BALGO

SO MANY GOODBYES 😢

Each term we said thankyou to the elders who helped us for the term with our culture program.  We cook tea for them and show them pictures of their grand and great grand children.

Magda was one of the first ladies I got to know in Balgo and she became one of our dear friends.  She painted a parting gift for me that tells her birth story.  This story is hard to believe but I have heard it several times now.  Magda was born beside the creek at the Old Balgo Mission.  She was placed in a hole with soft leaves and left for some time.  When a nun heard crying at the creek she came down and scared a pack of dingo's away from the newborn baby who was covered in ants.  Magda was taken to the mission clinic and it was on the day of The Feast of Mary Magdalene, so this was her new English name.  The painting will take pride of place in our home.

Jeff here with the nurses and doctor at the Balgo clinic.  Clinic work has been such a good thing for Jeff to get to know the community.  I know he will miss his ladies!!

Zander, one of the office staff that Jeff worked with, came around the night before we left to say another goodbye to us.

We headed out to the community to find some of our special people to say goodbye to.

At one of the houses the kids brought out a corella that was being looked after.  There are sooo many corellas in the community.

We found some of our favourite ladies playing cards. Lizzie, looking at the camera at the bottom left of the photo, is one of my favorite artists. 

I gave the students a pack of UNO cards for Christmas, they were so excited as they loved to play this game in the classroom.

We went to find little Timothy who is a Bombers supporter.  Jeff gave him a Bombers hat and drink bottle and you couldn't get the smile from his face. Timothy and his grandmother (Cathy) gave Jeff a Bombers painting.

This is the painting that Cathy (Timothy's grandma or Ja Ja) had arranged for Jeff.  Howard was very proud of his work.  Cathy has enjoyed the banter this year as she is also a diehard Bombers supporter.

Just some more gorgeous Balgo children.

Saying goodbye to this little fellow was very hard.  I have taught him and others for the 2 years I was in Balgo.  His name is Kamus, and while a handful, I enjoyed the challenge. These kids are so loveable, I miss them already.

This was our last day.  The last day of school farewells don't get any easier the more you do it...believe me. Unfortunately there were only 5 children at school out of a possible 14!  We had the Christmas party last week, so that was a signal to them that school was finished.....but it wasn't!

I said goodbye to one of the very few Cats supporters.  Terasala was such a cutie, she always ran to give me a cuddle whenever she saw me.💖

On our last night in town we had a revolving door of visitors to say goodbye.  Graeme and Bron are the managers of the pool and have become good friends.

Each class had to award a student of the year.  I choose Timothy (The Bombers Supporter! 2nd from the left)) as he improved his attendance from once a month to every day for 5 weeks.  His reading, letter recognition and word knowledge improved more than any other student.  Each of the winning students were given this little pool and some pool toys.

GOODBYE BALGO 😞😞😢😢

Good bye to our little house with the small amount of grass that we watered profusely. 

The road out of Balgo at 5.30 am.  We headed out with our friends from the neighbouring community of Mulan. They were heading for their home in Bowral in NSW.  It is much safer to travel with another car particularly when we were going 850km of mostly dirt road and possibly water.

This is the Tanami Road travelling to Halls Creek, the opposite direction to what we went.  School finished a couple of days early and everyone was allowed to leave community as soon as they could as there had been a lot of rain in Halls Creek and the Tanami.  The road had been closed that week and everyone was worried that they might get stuck in community.  As it stands now, the road is closed and will be for some time as the creeks are up.

This is the last time I get to stand on the iconic pink car.  This car is at the end of the service road to Balgo.  Behind me the road goes to Alice Springs and in front it goes to Halls Creek.

Balgo is only 70km from the Northern Territory border so we had our first stop there.

Soon after the border sign we came to the border control for Covid.  We had to print out papers to say where we had been, so there was no problem getting through this.  The workers enjoyed the distraction as you can imagine there are not many vehicles going up and down this road.  The poor workers were doing a fortnight at a time out here as it was 700 or so kilometres from Alice Springs.  At night they stayed at a local mine site.

TRAVELLING WITH A DOG 🐶

Rusty had the penthouse in the backseat of the car.  Air conditioning blowing on him and nice views!!

Shame all he did was sleep and snore! Rusty loves the cool of the car and was not keen to get out onto the hot red dirt!! 

Our first stop was in Alice Springs where we found a caravan park that was doggy friendly.  He had his own enclosure which we were thankful for.  The first night we had to make a shelter for him as it rained.

Most places we stayed did not have dog friendly enclosures so we had to have Rusty in our room.  On this night Rusty was corralled on the tiles for two reasons.  The first is that if we didn't do this he would be sleeping (and snoring ) beside our bed.  The other reason was that he was a bit unwell and had some diarrhoea !!!!  Fortunately he made it through the night, accident free.

We thought Rusty would like a nice bath, but by the look on his face we were wrong!

Well, what else do you do on holidays!!

ALICE SPRINGS

We all enjoyed being in the big smoke where we could have a drink, a meal and buy almost anything we liked.  We have obviously been bush too long!!!

I am here with Sue, the teacher from Mulan that we travelled with.

We were treated to some lovely grey sky and rain in the distance.  We didn't really drive through much but we could certainly see it in the distance.  At the moment the centre is getting a lot of rain.  It seems that the rain was just behind us, as everywhere we went is now getting a lot of rain.  I think it may have caught up to us now that we are in Cairns......they say lots of rain is coming!!

Stormy skies make a change from blue skies that we had in Balgo for most of the year.

MOUNT ISA

The mango tries were fully laden here in Mt Isa.  This one was at our hotel and we took advantage of beautifully sweet, free mangoes.!🥭

BARROW CREEK

This very  remote service station, pub and hotel was at Barrow Creek which was made infamous by the Peter Falconio murder.  This is the closest place to where it happened.

WYCLIFFE WELLS    

Apparently Wycliffe Wells is the place that has had many UFO sightings over the years.  Strange lights that follow you down the highway!  🛸 There was a full on theme park here in the 1980's but now it is just a petrol station with a UFO theme still in the middle of nowhere!!👽👽

TENNANT CREEK

We stayed a night in Tennant Creek before crossing into Queensland,  On the way we passed the Devils Marbles.  

Our 3rd state/territory in 2 days!

TOWNSVILLE

We spent 2 nights in Townsville.  It was lovely to get to the coast and see some water.  The red dust on our car seemed out of place here.

The reason we came to Townsville was for me to catch up with my uncle and cousins which was lovely.

CAIRNS

 We made it to Cairns after 3,200km and we think Rusty slept for about 3,000 of them!!  He had a great seat in the back where he could see out, but he was more interested in sleeping even when we pulled over for a break.  

You know you're in Cairns when you see very fat cows that spend their days eating beautiful green grass.  You couldn't find a better contrast from Balgo than this green paddock and tree filled hill.

I was so happy to get to see Daniel, my eldest son.  He is a marine scientist working on trying to eradicate the Crown of Thorns Starfish from the Great Barrier Reef.  I hadn't seen any of my boys for 12 months so it was great to spend some time with Daniel.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE 🎄🎅

We wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

This is the last Balgo Blog - a new one from Kowanyama will be coming in the new year!