TIME TRAVEL
Visitors step back into an ancient land as they walk side by side with Aboriginal guides in the footsteps of the pakana people on the wukalina walk
Step back into ancient time on the wukalina walk with Aboriginal guides
Experiencing the four-day, 33km wukalina walk from wukalina/Mt William to larapuna/Eddystone Point lighthouse was, for me, a life-changing experience. By the end of my four days of learning the stories that shape the land of the North-East coast, being shown how to find bush tucker and follow animal tracks on the beach, I felt an unshakeable connection with the landscape of the wukalina/Mt William National Park area.
I can’t say definitively if there was any one moment that clinched it for me. Certainly the long stretches of brilliantly white quartzite sand and the enormous sky set against the clear water helped. So, too, did the feeling of peace that comes with being on a remote and rugged coastline. There were also plenty of memorable lessons: discovering why smoke ceremonies are performed, then experiencing one for ourselves; how to catch and cook mutton birds; which plant to chew to quench thirst and which one to use to remove warts (a pair of hakea needles); and the multitude of ways that smoke can be manipulated to produce different signals. Also unforgettable is how incredibly fun it is to play “heads, shoulders, knees and toes” in palawa kani, the constructed language of today’s pakana people.
Maybe it was on the first night, when we stood on the beach listening to the waves and marvelling at the seemingly infinite number of stars above, when a green meteorite fell into the ocean near us, its arc across the sky so long that even those of us with our backs to it had time to turn and watch as it met the sea.
Clyde Mansell, chairman of the Aboriginal Land Council of Tasmania, the parent body that owns and operates the walk says: “For me it’s about a journey between Aboriginal and nonAboriginal people. We want people to experience two different footprints on the country.
“The walk is an opportunity for our community to express its cultural connections. The aspirations are that we can get everyday people out on country. Get them to enjoy the country and go on a journey with us.”
For our walking group of seven – three Hobartians, a couple from Cobram, Victoria, a Sydneysider and a New Yorker – our journey starts at the Aboriginal Elders Council of Tasmania at
Launceston where we borrow backpacks, gaiters and jackets for the trek. The trip is all-inclusive, with the first two nights spent at a purpose-built Standing Camp behind the dunes at Cobler Rocks and the last night at the beautifully refurbished Lighthouse Keeper’s Cottage at larapuna/Eddystone Point, so there’s not a ration pack or tent pole in sight. All we’re required to carry are our clothes and personal belongings.
At the elders council, 14,000 years of pakana history is told through a large mural as well as the framed quilts that hang behind the stage. Mansell explains what each stitched image represents: life before European settlement; the unbroken tradition of harvesting mutton bird chicks from the windswept islands of the Bass Strait; the clan chief Manalagenna, who most pakana people can trace ancestry to, depicted with missionary George Augustus Robinson at the time of the attempted genocide; a reference to Aboriginal service in World War II; and the cultural practice of stringing shell necklaces, which is “women’s business”, we’re told.
We meet Sharon, one of the Elders who we later learn has prepared most of the exceptional meals we enjoy over the walk, including her wallaby pies and coveted corn relish dip. We also meet Jacob, Sharon’s grandson and one of our three guides, who is part of the stolen generation.
On the bus trip to wukalina/Mt William our lead indigenous guide Ben and our group’s Aboriginal Elder, Audrey, give us the traditional names of landmarks, talk about the dual-naming policy that came into effect in 2012 and point out important first-nation boundary markers.
It’s a gentle climb to the summit of wukalina/Mt William. And from that granite vantage point the entire North-East tip of Tasmania opens up to us. To the north we can clearly see the larger of the offshore islands – Cape Barren and Flinders. To the south, just a dot on the coast, is our final destination, larapuna/Eddystone Point and directly east is our day’s destination, the Standing Camp. It seems like a lot of ground to cover. We start our march to camp, at times spreading out among the scrub to hide our footprints and other times following the trail through coastal heathland, grass-tree plains, waist-high mallee scrub and fern forests.
The walking quickly becomes rhythmic, done at a mild pace and on dusk we finally reach camp. Although I’d seen photos of the krakani lumi camp, they don’t capture the beauty and simplicity of the main building and the seven scattered sleeping pods, which sit gently on the landscape, almost hovering, joined by raised wooden walkways that zigzag through the bush.
Inside, it’s all Tasmanian oak from the large communal dining table in the long kitchen to the amenities at the far end. But the highlight is the half-domed living area where overlapping layers of blackwood culminate in the rounded roof that references the traditional bark shelters the pakana have built for centuries.
The sleeping pods follow style, with rectangular black exteriors hiding timber domes within. Each pod sleeps two cosily in a raised circular space fitted with a thick mattress. It feels much like glamping with a cleverly placed timber step for your boots and zippered mesh doors and windows opening to the outside.
But the real beauty of the place is the fact that it is designed, built and owned by the pakana, in a style that is in keeping with their cultural beliefs.
The next day is spent exploring the camp’s surroundings. We stroll along the beach to an ancient shell midden and on the way stop to forage for marriners and warriners, edible molluscs that Ben later cooks up for dinner. We also collect bull kelp, which back at camp us womenfolk transform into traditional water carriers and baskets.
I’d never seen a shell midden before and I wasn’t prepared for the impact it would have on me. A midden is effectively a large site of discarded shells and bones from thousands upon thousands of meals. This particular one was partially destroyed. At some stage this site, as large as half a cricket oval and measuring a few metres deep had broken its banks among the dunes, and waves have washed the shell deposits out to sea. In one spot, a thick layer of coal is seen, the result of compressed shells decomposing over centuries. Also visible is the fossilised remains of grass trees. Ben estimates it is 20,000 years old, which is staggering to think.
“This shell midden is as significant to us as Aboriginals as Port Arthur is to us as Tasmanians,” says Ben. “The sheer scale of it is mind-blowing when you think that the first meal of shellfish would have been ‘this big’,” he says, shaping his hands to form a circle the size of a dinner plate.
Back at camp that night we tuck into bush tucker for dinner – a feast of wallaby, mutton bird and crayfish – then around the fire afterwards we’re told creation stories while guzzling our doughboy desserts.
Our last day is a pleasant 16km walk along the beach to the lighthouse, which sits on returned Aboriginal lands. It’s an easy walk, made more pleasant by our group’s happy chatter. We stop a few times for supplied snacks and for a lesson on the rock formations of the area by our third guide, Danny.
At larapuna/Eddystone Point we are given a traditional welcome to country before fanning out to explore the lighthouse, keeper’s cottage and promontory, and at night we go spotlighting for wombats and Bennetts wallabies. The next day, our last, we visit the on-site quarry from where the granite blocks for the cluster of cottages and the lighthouse were hauled. We climb the spiral staircase to the top to admire the sweeping view across the Bay of Fires and survey the immense distance we’ve travelled from the peak of wukalina/Mt William.
It feels satisfying to know that we’re standing on land returned to the Aboriginal community, albeit on a rolling lease. To date, less than 1 per cent of Crown land has been returned, which makes the wukalina walk enterprise even more prized. As well as a way for the pakana to share their unique cultural heritage with the world, the walk also allows them a vehicle to take control of their own future.
The wukalina walk runs from October to April, from $2495 per person twin share. Resident Tasmanians receive a 25 per cent discount on direct bookings. For more, go to wukalinawalk.com.au