Stone Country - Kakadu NP
CuriousOyster
Steve & Trish Brown
Sun 17 Jul 2011 23:08
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We saw quite a lot of the coastal areas of the
Kakadu NP as we sailed along the northern coast across the top of Arnhem Land
and Cape Croker. The journey south into the park gave us the opportunity to see
the Tropical rainforest and Savanna Woodlands so we concentrated our limited
time in the Stone Country and Wetlands
The Stone Country escarpments rise 300m above the
surrounding plains and provide shelter for both wildlife and the local
aboriginal clans during the extreme monsoon rains that create the wet season.
These escarpments are the remnants of the harder sandstone that have withstood
the erosion over time. Even so they are weathering at about 1m per 1,000
years.
 The aboriginal clans use the overhangs and caves to
provide shelter during the build up season when lightening storms are a daily
occurance and also the wet season when the plains below are
flooded.
 They use this time to pass on their history to
their children, play string games that also have an educational value and paint
the rock walls, for pleasure and to illustrate their oral history.
 Many of these paintings recount the dream time when
the land and people were created.
 Their culture consider many of these stories to be
secrets although they have now begun to share some of these with visiting
tourists.
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