Sweet joe..thanks again,. hha!!
yes I do remember that the bush was my playground as a child in batchelor ,darwin
in the Northern territory of australia
I would go into the bush- barefoot and with shorts and singlet .. I was a real tomboy.. I'd find all the pandanus leaves and turn them into brooms..I would make little rooms out of the scrub and then sweep the rooms with my pandanus leaves..I would climb mango trees and hunt for the delicious mangos..often they were green I would still eat them.. and there were cashew trees there and all sorts of lovely tropical fruits.. There were often wild pigs and wild donkeys roaming around the town where I grew up for the first 7 years of my life..it was magic..!!..and when the tropical rains fell..the monsoons..we would swim in the rain and dance around- happy that the rains had finally come after such a build up of tensions and dry dry weather..
there was a small aboriginal mission there near town so it was a greatsmall but close community ..my father asked if some aboriginal men from the local mission would paint a picture on our loungeroom wall he loved the culture and wanted us to be a part of all this australian beauty and magic....they came and we kids sat watching them in awe..as slowely they created all sorts of beautiful images on the wall..kangaroos and lizards and snakes with a lot of dot work as well
it was a great and traditional painting done in plain old texta colours that my father had given them as they didn't have their own paints they were poor men..and humble and talented!!
..when the painting was finished we were so amazed by it's beauty ..dad offered to pay for the masterpeice..but the two men said they only wanted one thing ..and that was the texta colours that dad had given them to use.. amazing ..
The house is still there in batchelor..and now.. we wished that dad had cut that plaster with the painting on itout of the wall and bought it with us all to melbournewhen he was transferred many many moons ago now..
..but It wasn't to be....the wall has been painted over now.. as my sisters went recently to visit the old house.. why anyone would paint over such a wonderful thing I'll never know..but It was a great childhood growing up there..
gigantic crocodiles were sometimes on show for the locals to gaze on in wonder.. their mouths opened wide with huge boards or sticks to show the size of their jaws..enormous were the crocodiles up there in the tropics..
frangipanni flowers (my favourite)..would let off their heady scent and intoxicate the senses.. and hibiscus with glorious colours and then the green...greener than green after the wet season.. .. and the soil orange and red..so the contrasts of the blue skies and the rust red soil would stick in the memory forever..it was so beautiful!! yes I've retained all the most fantastic memories of living there in the bush in the northern territory!
and we learnt to respect mother nature with all her beauty and her dangers as well..I could go on and on ..but that will do.
now I've been stuck in victoria and in the suburbs for close on 35 years..I wonder If I'll ever get back to those fabulous feelings that I experienced when I was young..but there is no going back to childhood..we can't go back ..but a visit to darwin again certainly isn the agenda.
thanks again joe
cathy walker xxxooo