The Settling In

Quickly my days began to take on a rhythm. I began rising early making a coffee and sitting outside my kitchen door just looking at the mist rising from the waters of the Billabong. Pelicans gently glided over the water occasionally fishing for their breakfast. As the sun rose the distant ancient escarpment turned from dark brown to brilliant reds and oranges before the full sun turned them back to sun baked browns.

Out on the flood plains wild horses – progeny of the stock horses from the days Oenpelli was a cattle station – grazed.

OENPELLI

Gunbalanya (also spelt Kunbarlanja, and historically referred to as Oenpelli) is an Aboriginal Australian town in west Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia, about 300 kilometres (190 mi) east of Darwin. The main language spoken in the community is Kunwinjku (a dialect of Bininj Kunwok). At the 2021 Australian census, Gunbalanya had a population of 1,177.^[2]

Only accessible by air during the wet season, Gunbalanya is known for its Aboriginal art, in particular rock art and bark painting. It has a range of services, including a police station, school and community arts Centre, Injalak Arts.

ETYMOLOGY AND HISTORY

The area now known as Gunbalanya was originally called “Uwunbarlany” by Erre-speaking people, who were its original inhabitants. Oenpelli was the way Paddy Cahill (c. 1863–1923),^[4] the founder of the original cattle station in the area, pronounced the local word. The present toponym is an anglisation of the word Kunbarlanjacurrent in Kunwinjku, the language of the people who now live there, who began moving into the area from the east following the Cahill’s establishment of his cattle station there in 1909.

Oenpelli, as it was known then, was established by the Rev. Alfred Dyer as a mission in 1925 by the Church of England’s Church Missionary Society, on the former cattle station. Dyer and his wife Mary established a typical mission station, with church, school, dispensary, garden and store, to which they added pastoral work with feral cattle and horses.

ONTO DAILY LIFE

My little house became my world for a few days. It needed a good clean out and scrubbing from front door to back door.  There were many broken louvers in the main room which also had no curtains. The garden was covered in dead leaves and I was advised to rake and burn them as snakes loved to live in them. Although we were more likely to get pythons from the Billabong a lot of poisonous snakes live around that area. That first weekend I spent raking and burning leaves.  Soon I had a wonderful little 2 bedroom cowshed cottage on the banks of one of Australia’s most beautiful Billabongs.

KIDS AND HORSES

On the third day I was sitting on my veradah enjoying the quiet of the afternoon when I noticed a large cloud of dust rising from the flood plains. I could see a lot of movement in the dust, so walked down to the billabong to see.  It was a big herd of horses milling around and amongst them I could see small people.  The children from the Community were out on the plains trying to catch themselves a horse. There were kids and horses going in all directions not to mention the occasional camp dog joining in.

Suddenly the horses made a break and headed out bush.  When the dust had cleared the kids had isolated a mare and her foal. The standoff began. After a few tense minutes the children began bringing their circle together, the mare was protecting her foal. Suddenly she took on all the kids. She ran them around and around and then raced off across the flood plains. Kids, dogs, dust and horses went in all directions. It was complete chaos, when it all cleared it became very evident the horse had won. I was to discover this was a favorite past time for the children after school trying to catch themselves a horse. Never once did the children catch a horse In all the time I lived there.