Around Oz the First Time - Chapter 43 - Halls Creek Day 4

With the slowness of the time here in Halls Creek we have had time to clean a little more thoroughly than we have been doing. Not just a sweep of the floor, which is necessary almost every day, but a mop and dry. I have been getting into “Dutch” for tracking in dirt, especially under my thongs and yesterday with the floor being mopped was no different, in fact more so as the footprints were much more pronounced. To this end then, I thought leaving my footwear on the bottom step might be the go, but this presents another problem, getting them on again, in a confined space, with either door shut, meaning there is not enough room to put them on or with the door open, which if for any extended period allows in those annoying flies.

It also presents another problem, balance, and this morning, trying the open-door option, I fall out and onto the Cruiser which is parked close to the door. I laugh at my clumsiness, the head to the toilet. Well at least the putting on the thongs on the step has stopped me hitting my head on the bulkhead, small happiness.

Today is Sunday and that means it’s the end of another week of the trip, the fifth in fact and I start writing my review which was to talk about the breakdown and how it has forced us into a reassessment of how we perceive towns, but it has fallen into an all too familiar bitch at the government inter alia (“among other things” for the Latin speaking challenged out there), relating what a business owner would do with a bad review rather than let it fester into what is now real prejudice against towns like Kununurra, Halls Creek and the Indigenous issue. 

Can’t help myself really ?. But all jokes aside, we have not seen any of the madness we had been warned of, yes there are people wandering around, but they seem to be going somewhere, yes we have seen the local hotel refuse entry to some young Indigenous girls because they had already been drinking and the commotion that created (that certainly wasn’t violent or disruptive) and we heard the publicans view, tied by the laws of responsible service of alcohol, but mindful of the effects of marauding intoxicated youth has after the hotel is closed.

But we haven’t seen it, in fact everyone and everywhere we have been, has been at our leisure, wandering the countryside and the town and feeling safe. Perhaps we are naïve but our stay here has been pleasant enough, with the only stressor being, getting to Broome in time to catch our flight to the upside down falls on the 20th.

The jerky I finished off yesterday has come back to haunt me. I was very tempted to go and buy some more from the surly butcher tomorrow before we leave but that might be a question better answered when my bum stops burning. I must admit though, it was very tasty, and he did warn me it was chilly infused and the name should have given it away – Scorpion – but if you don’t exceed your limits you will never know what you can achieve.

What to do today? Robyn is keen to get the TV out and see if we can get it working. I see that as somewhat defeatist. Here we have been able to not even think of it for five weeks, almost half our holiday, and she wants to goggle the square box. You can drive the entire town in under half an hour and the temperature is already over 30 degrees, so walking may end up with falling in the pub gate and not emerging, and that’s just at the first corner. Have to keep those fluids up ?

The five-week review essay is in the can, I could create a video of the trip so far, yes that sounds like an idea. I can stay in the cool of the air-conditioning, make dashes to the ablution block as required and reminisce over what we have seen. I have already archived much of the first two weeks of shots and videos, around 3,000 of them, it should take long to rest the last three weeks from my phone to the external hard drives I am backing up to.

It takes some time to transfer the pictures and videos from the phone to an external hard drive and then back up to another. In this time, we finally get out the TV and set it up. Technology and me – yeah – it takes some time to finally get a picture, it’s amazing what you can get once you plug in the antenna into the unit. Its mid-afternoon and the final semi-final of the first week of finals is on and Brisbane is being handed their rectal areas by Parramatta.

The game finishes and Forbsy pops his head in the door, he has seen enough of the inside of his caravan long enough today and is ready for the pub. We agree and will join him once we shut computers down and the TV is turned off. With the time difference, the football which finished in the dark in the east, finishes here in mid-afternoon. Whilst we were contemplating an early dinner, its way too early to dig out the barbeque just yet. It also doesn’t help that the hotel is a very short walk away.

Silver Leader and Rosalie join us, heading off to find Forbsy. We walk in and find him, well positioned, adjacent the bar and outside in a shady spot taking advantage of a little breeze. Drinks all round and the afternoon libationary session is underway. We notice the bouncer who was working on Friday night again breath testing locals as they arrive, and all of a sudden there is a commotion as he refuses entry to an older potential patron.

Later, we get onto a discussion with him, he is more than friendly, about his job and his actions, as this incident was not his first incident we had noticed. He talks about the responsibility of the hotel in a program not dissimilar to that at Purnululu, but more local Council induced, to try and limit alcohol consumption. He was more than happy to sit with us and discuss the ideal, and his responsibility to use his judgement to induce a breath test, if in his opinion someone “might” already be intoxicated.

There is a sign at the front gate adjacent to the car park which suggests “No humbugging allowed”. We are intrigued, only ever having heard something similar in A Christmas Carole, but here, the Indigenous meaning is more around the unreasonable or excessive demands from family, which if you Google it refers to things like street begging or sexual importuning. The exploitation of those already in the hotel to assist in others to get in, we feel.

We haven’t seen anything in our stay in Halls Creek that would even suggest this is not a normal quiet country town. This is shattered a little during dinner at the Silver Leader Beer Garden a little later during dinner, as in the distance we can hear the sound of burn outs and general hooning of a big engine vehicle, leaving us with the sounds of screeching tyres that seem to go on for an eternity. We suspect the police have dealt with them but not before the sounds of the merriment circle the town.

The dinner consumed, we retire to the van, watch a little of a movie and turn in, hopefully we are on the move tomorrow.