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August 19, 2001
Overland Australia - Update 23
August 19th, 2001
Hey everyone, its Rebecca, from Minneapolis - the photo / video exchange coordinator. Now that I’ve hi-jacked the expedition and locked them all in the truck, I have complete control over all updates.
JUST KIDDING, I just popped in to say hi after completing my work with Yirara College in Alice Springs. For the past three weeks, the students at Yirara have been using cameras during their after-school activities to record their world. Yirara is a boarding school for Aboriginal kids from tribes across the Northern Territory. They have captured such events as roasting kangaroo tails; using swags for camping; and life in the dorms. Stay tuned to the photo / video program web page later this year for their work.
I arrived in Mt.Isa on Wednesday to meet up with the bike team before I headed back to America. Since they didn’t arrive until late Friday afternoon, I needed to keep myself occupied. I started on Thursday with a bush-walking tour of the Kalkadoon aboriginal tribe’s rock-art sites. I learned about the foods they eat (bush-tucker) and medicinal and artistic uses for plants. On Friday I checked out the iron, copper and lead mine, and the underground museum, which simulates the underground mines. Then met up with everyone for pizza.
Saturday while the team ran their errands, I discovered the fossil museum and lab. The fossils come from Riversleigh, a large nearby deposit of fossils dated between 25 million to 1 thousand years old. In the lab you see the process of using acid to dissolve the limestone and recover the fossils.
I met up with the team later on Saturday at their latest campsite- the home of Marge and Greg just outside of town. Today I’m hanging out with the camels and dogs on the property taking photos, while the crew is organizing the truck and having meetings. This afternoon we’re having a barbeque before I say goodbye and hop on a greyhound bus to Cairns.
Posted on August 19, 2001 11:20 AM