BROTHER LEO TRAVELS AUSTRALIA'S VAST TERRITORY; VIEWS ABORIGINAL ART EXHIBIT IN CITY MUSEUM

By Leo V. Ryan, C.S.V.
From Cairns, the Ocean Explorer 1 traveled North along the Australian Queensland coast. Our destinations were Cape York, the Torres Straits and Darwin. Cape York is the "tip" of Australia, the northern most point, wild and underpopulated. Torres Straits is like our Panama Canal, a passage linking the Pacific and the Indian Oceans. Darwin is the capital of the Northern Territories.
Before the town was established, the Port of Darwin was discovered. Port Darwin was named after the famous Charles Darwin of "Origin of the Species" fame. The deep inlet that forms the harbor was founded in 1839 by John Stokes, who was a surveyor aboard Darwin's famous ship, the HMS Beagle. The site was not settled until 1869. The main purpose for an early settlement by the British was to prevent Dutch or French claim to the area. The settlement was originally Palmerston, named after a British Parliamentarian. In 1911, the settlement became Darwin.
Cairns, recalling from the previous article, is located at the mid-point of the Great Barrier Reef. We followed the route of Captain James Cook. Cook did not have the benefit of a GBR Captain like John Foley. Cook ran his ship, "The Endeavor," aground at what is today called Cooktown. There he repaired the ship and then sailed around Lizard Island, avoiding the reefs. Today Lizard Island is the northernmost resort island along the GBR.
In 1789, Captain Bligh of Bounty fame skirted the GBR and later, in 1890 when he commanded another ship, the "Pandora," he also avoided the GBR and headed directly for the Torres Straits. These narrow straits offer passage between the coasts of Australia and Papua, New Guinea, at a distance of about 150 km.
At the tip of Australia (Cape York) we encountered six islands. Thursday Island, one of those named by Captain Cook, is the administrative island even though it covers only three miles square. The locals refer to it as "T.I." At one time it was famous for pearl diving. Today lobster fishing supports the economy. The island has a famous cemetery with nearly 1000 Japanese and Australian graves. They are not war graves, but the final resting-place of so many victims of pearl diving before the days of sophisticated diving equipment.
Possession Island lies nearby and it was here that Cook took possession of Australia for Great Britain." Cook also named Horn Island, which today contains "T.I.'s" airport. Three other very small islands are mere dots in the Straits: Babu, Daru, and Saibai. So close are they to the other side that one can see Paupa, New Guinea.
What about the Torres Straits? Between 12,000 and 8,000 years ago the Straits were a solid landmass. About 8,000 years ago, the landmass shifted, creating the Straits. Torres, a Portuguese explorer, discovered them in 1606. That same year Captains Cook, Bligh and William Jenns all came upon this passageway. The Straits, like the Panama Canal, is narrow, being 150 miles long and only 80 miles wide. The Straits lead to the Arafura Sea, which in turn leads to the Timor Sea and the Araura Sea, both of which are inlets to the Indian Ocean. Over 1,600 ships each year use this channel. Captain Foley even wrote a book about the straits, which I duly ordered from the Torres Straits Historical Society. Three months later I am still expecting it!
There are seventy small islands in the narrows. Seventeen are inhabited and 14 of these are restricted to original islanders and their descendents. The islanders are Polynesian, Melanesian and Paupa peoples who to this day retain their local customs and tribal traditions. They are not like most early Northern Territory settlers who were Aborigine.
At the Torres Straits we were one day from Darwin, N. T. The North Territory has 20% of the Australian landmass (1.3 million sq. miles) and only 1% of the population (170,000 people). Here we were to be introduced to the Aboriginal culture. Darwin is the capital of N.T. Darwin is the newest (1958), the smallest (75,000 people) and the most modern capital. A cyclone on Christmas Day in 1974 wiped out the city, necessitating its rebuilding, so Darwin is new as of 26 years ago. Darwin Bay makes Darwin a major port. The city is also a center for mining, exports, and Far North tourism.
The N.T. has two centers: Darwin is the tropical "top end" and "The Center" is around Alice Springs and Ayres Rock. The distance between is 1,500 km. and is the land of the "bush folk". Some of our group took a land excursion to Alice Springs to visit Ayers Rock and see the gigantic termite mounds and the tracts of scrub country seemingly populated only by careening kangaroos. Since it was monsoon season, our colleagues had rain day and night with the sky turning into a steaming sponge with mud everywhere. They were happy to rejoin us in Darwin, where, despite warnings about heavy rains, we had absolutely none.
The locals call this Territory "never, never land". The expression refers to a saying of the Maluka people, that because they who have lived it and loved it, they will "never, never voluntarily leave it". One of the great Australian classics is a book by Mrs. Aeneas Gunn is called "We of the Never Never." It is the story of one-year (1902) in the lives of the bush folk of the N.T. It was first published in 1908 and is still available.
Darwin is now a service center for a developing pastoral and mining hinterland (out back). The economy of the N.T. is dependent on government business, tile and brick making, fruit canning, meatpacking, saw milling and the export of cattle, rice, uranium and still some pearl shell.
The continent of Australia was free from large mammal predators. This fact allowed the survival and evolution of smaller marsupials like the kangaroo, koala, possum and the wallaby. The same freedom from mammal predators allowed the survival and evolution of monotremes like the echidna (anteaters). This situation also saved the emu and the cassowary. Both are flightless forms of the ostrich, which also survived. A species of dog, called dingoes, is also unique to Australia.
There is no certainty about the origins of the Aborigines. Rock paintings (like our Painted Rock) are found East of Darwin and are estimated to be more than 10,000 years old - even older than the Egyptian pyramids. When European explorers discovered the Aborigines, they found a culture with values so different from their own that it was beyond their comprehension. They hunted and gathered just for the day. They used very basic tools, didn't bother with clothing and had no concept of property or the accumulation of wealth. Westerners assumed that this meant a lack of intelligence and began to treat them accordingly. Rather, they were a highly innovative, philosophical and spiritual people.
The colonists took all the land and by 1930 the Aboriginal population had been reduced from 300,000 to 70,000. Today the number has begun to rise, but they still suffer from poverty and discrimination. Their treatment is a human rights concern in Australia and reclaiming their culture is a national priority.
Many of us heard about Darwin only in the days of World War ll. By 1937, the Australians were aware that war with Japan was inevitable. They began to prepare for future defense. Darwin enjoyed a period of prosperity in a depressed national economy of the late '30's. By 1942 there were nearly 7,000 military personnel in Darwin.
On February 19, 1942, a total of 242 Japanese aircraft in two different air raids literally destroyed Darwin. The object of the raids was not be prepare for an invasion, but to "neutralize" Darwin as a possible base for Allied air raids and counter offensives when Japan moved to invade Java and Timor. The raids succeeded beyond their expectations. The raids wiped out Darwin harbor and waterfront, destroyed its communication systems and airfield and left 243 dead and over 300 injured. Property was extensively destroyed and many people were evacuated. Despite the devastation, Darwin was to rise from the ashes and became a vital center for Allied activities for the rest of the war. Over 250,000 military personnel served in the N.T., leaving behind at the end of the war an infrastructure of roads, communication networks and other facilities that greatly enhanced the area in subsequent peacetime.
Our city tour was "brief" due to the size of the city and lack of unique places to visit. The Chamber of Commerce provided free shuttle service from our ship to town center. There were $2 taxis for anywhere in the city. We explored the shipping and fishing docks, the 34-hector botanical city garden, East Point and adjoining area reserved to protect flora and fauna of N.T., and several WW ll sites with field equipment as monuments.
The most fascinating aspect of our city visit was time spent at the Northwest Territory Museum of Arts and Sciences. While it was also a city museum with exhibits about the air raids and cyclones, the heart of the Museum was the Gallery of Aboriginal Art. Karen Brown, an art historian and owner of a gallery specializing in Aboriginal art, spent 45 minutes with us. Her presentation supplemented three hours of shipboard lectures on Aboriginal art. Karen's gallery specializes in desert and Aboriginal art from just one area of the N. T., Arhem Land. Her clients are world-wide and works in her gallery sell from between $750 to $12,000 per piece.
The Museum collection holds 5,000 Aboriginal paintings, 1,300 natural paintings on bark, 250 desert canvases, 170 watercolors and 366 mid-1950's contemporary paintings. Ms. Brown estimates that there are now some 6,000 Aboriginal artists producing various Aboriginal art forms. In November, 2000, there will be an exhibit of Aboriginal art at the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, Russia. This event is considered to be signal recognition of Aboriginal art by the museum world.
My own venture into the city included acquiring an Aboriginal Mother and Child (secular Madonna) at Indigenous Creations, a folk gallery. I made the required stop at the main post office and its philatelic window, as I began collecting stamps in 1937 when still in grade school. While I have a highly specialize collection today of United States material, I still accumulate stamps while traveling. For many years I have supported a project of establishing stamp clubs at the third and fourth grade levels undertaken by my friend Ken Lucas of Cedar Hill, MO. This trip has been exciting from the viewpoint of securing stamps from out-of-the-way countries. The Australian Post Office also sells packets of cancelled Australian stamps as well as new issues, first day covers and other stamp items. I often select special covers for use as prizes for student stamp competitions.
St. Mary's Roman Catholic Cathedral was not listed in The Lonely Planet guidebook. I asked the post office clerks for direction and surprisingly neither of them could tell me where to locate the cathedral. I approached a professionally dressed man outside the post office. He was not sure and, in fact, sent me the wrong direction. Finally, I stopped at the N.T. Department of Education. I knew that the cathedral had a grade school. The lady in charge took me to the door as she remarked, "You can see it from here," but to her surprise it was not visible from her vantage point. She directed me since it was only two blocks away, but shrouded in trees. Where was it? Six blocks down the street from the post office!
As you can see from the photo, the cathedral is not a small edifice, rather a new, modern, impressively high arched, open and bright facility. The Missionaries of the Sacred Heart here are the same order as the Sacred Heart Fathers who have the missions in Finland. Their U.S. headquarter is at Hales Corner, a Milwaukee suburb. Father Tommy Campbell of Waukon and a priest of the Savannah, GA, diocese studied in their Milwaukee Seminary. Tommy and I were grade school classmates at St. Pat's.
I was counting my last Australian dollars when I bought a bell, spoon and shot glass for three of my collector friends. I said to the lady, "I have just $11 left and I see you have a sweat shirt for $11."      
She asked me where I was from - we discussed Chicago which she knew and Waukon which she did not know. The she said, "I'll sell it to you for $10. You take the extra dollar and go to the corner to that great American institution, McDonalds and treat yourself to an ice cream cone." I thanked her, did so, took the free shuttle to the ship and had an hour before sailing.
Darwin and the N.T. are worthy of another visit. I came home armed with my Aboriginal Madonna, books on Aboriginal art, Darwin history and materials on the never, never land. Several years ago the University of Notre Dame offered me the Presidency of the new University of Notre Dame-Australia at Perth on the West Coast. I was otherwise committed and my superiors declined. However, this visit has stimulated my interest further in Australia. Returning to Darwin, exploring the out back, visiting Perth (and the land between) would be a challenge for a future time. Meanwhile, back on the ship, with fresh rain falling, we sailed on to Indonesia - on toward Bali and Java.