THE GOLD OF THE TANAMI - Rings of Gold

[Maureen K Clifford]

Here we go again – another night time flight.

Seven days on and five days off. Catch up time with family and friends on the coast. Leaving the Granites and the red Tanami desert sands, burning heat and min min lights in exchange for the silver sands, stifling humidity and bright lights. Civilization as we know it - wears a bit thin though after a few days - start to miss this place, the openness, the far horizons.

Our airport here once had open access. No baggage checks, no gateway metal detectors, no sniffer dogs – just a tin shed, a wind sock and a red dirt strip – and roos. Lots of roos, and old Bandit – the airstrips resident four legged blue roo shooer. Bit different at the other end, people everywhere, all rushing about like swarming ants, like there is no tomorrow. Made the bull ants here look positively lazy they did.

But these days the old Cessna has been replaced with Metro Liners – turbo prop jobbies that carry up to twenty people at a time. The airport is a bit more upmarket as well – Pearl Aviation logos everywhere you turn these days. Paspalley Pearls are running the show now. Smart staff in uniforms, check in procedures and vending machines. Coffee is not too shabby either. Even has air-conditioning - how good is that?

But look up. Isn’t that heavenly? Eyes in the cities never see this. The Southern Cross in all her glory against a midnight sky. A thin sliver of moon – delicate as a baby’s fingernail. Tiny pin prick of light - a satellite, traversing the sky, moving slowly east to west, and shooting stars – hold your gaze you will spot them. See, told you – never see that in the cities do you? To many bright lights there - and you know city folks never seem to look at the night skies - to busy watching TV or using the Internet. Stars mean nothing to them. The only stars city kids know are the ones on the screens in front of them - but not the Aboriginal kids, they know the stars, the spirits of their ancestors, and the legends of their Dreamtime. Who is the richer person - eh? Bloody good hunters our Aboriginal brothers even in darkness, the only things our kids can hunt are McDonalds - they'd starve to death out here with food all around them.

Oh well time to go – the planes here. Just another day in the fly in fly out lifestyle. ‘ G'day Fred - good trip? Yeah Mate heading home to my other life. Bright lights and the city. You know how it goes – Mine the gold, earn the gold, spend the gold, then do it all again. A mans gotta be mad Mate. One day I'll give it away - gotta make a quid while the going is good though - plan for the retirement - not getting any younger are we?’

All my life’s a circle – the years keep rolling by.

Maureen Clifford © 02/11

[Bob Pacey]

Did not know what to expect with the heading Maureen. But that's just my sense of humour . my son flies over to Port Headland for a three week stint and then home for four weeks. As you say the moneys good but his boys miss him so much when He's away.


A very good read and so true.

Bob

[Jasper Brush]

Good piece, Maureen.


You can't beat nature and the wide open spaces.


Nature beats productivity all the time.


John

[r.magnay]

G'day Maureen, I haven't spotted this before but when I saw the 'Tanami' I thought I had better have a look, I did quite a bit of work out there about 16 years ago. You have given a great description of the night sky but I am afraid the rest is pretty much poetic licence! Makes a good yarn though. I actually still look after the electrical work for the charter mob that fly the blokes in and out of the Alice, (I don't know if they do the Darwin end as well.) They would be a bit upset if they heard you referring to their planes as Cessnas I reckon! I can't remember the name of the planes they fly mostly, but they are about 30 or 40 seaters, and they do more than one trip a day! It is a pretty big show out there, was even back when I was out there, the strip and 'terminal' probably come up a bit better than your description as well ...as I say, makes a good yarn though!

[Maureen K Clifford]

Oh well I am happy with that Ross - I have never been there but had a nephew worked as a Diesel fitter out there and he used to talk about it a bit and it just appealed to me. He has never seen this so it purely came out of my head. The dog chasing the stock of the strip I pinched from an ex in law who keeps an outback strip open for the very infrequent planes that call. His old dog gets to chase the roos away and I think John slashes it occasionally so the pilot can see where the actual strip is.

As for the night sky -that is the night sky I saw most nights from the front verandah at Springdale. We often used to take an old airbed out and just lie and watch the satellites and shooting stars...the littlies used to love doing that. City folks never get to see the beauty - too many artificial lights around as you know

Thanks all for taking the time to read and comment - I appreciate the input.

Cheers

Maureen

[Neville Briggs]

That was enjoyable to read Maureen.
I mean, for me, you were clear and didn't waffle. You used the right plain words for the descriptions but with a touch of really good imagery like the baby's fingernail moon and the ants nest people.

The romance of the outback depends on your point of view perhaps, I used to work with a bloke who absolutely loathed the bush, he had to travel there occasionally but couldn't wait to get back to the city.
I have enjoyed the solitude of the open spaces but the open spaces can become a sort of terrible loneliness. We are complex creatures aren't we ?

[Nerelie Teese]

Loved the night sky description Maureen. Standing on the Heathcote hills is pretty much like that. The sky seems so close and is velvet behind the brightest diamonds that were never in Liz Taylor's jewellry.

We sit in the spa at night in Echuca (in summer) and count satellites and see shooting stars. We Aussies are blessed with our southern night skies.

Cheers Nerelie

[r.magnay]

Hey Maureen, the planes that fly to the 'Granites' which is the mine site on the Tanami, are mainly metro liners, quite large turbo prop planes , actually I got a call from Pearl Aviation yesterday, I am going out there today to test and tag the hanger/terminal equipment, part of the OH&S BS that goes on these days....it is a job I hate but it gets me one day closer to that sea change! The charter company is owned by Paspalley Pearls, hence the name.

[Maureen K Clifford]

Thanks Ross for the info...in the interest of factuality I have amended the yarn somewhat and included that info - what do you reckon???

Cheers

Maureen

[r.magnay]

'morning Maureen,
Seems I was using some poetic licence myself........or just poor estimation.. ...I spoke to the chief engineer yesterday and asked how many passengers they carry at a time, 19 plus 2 crew, if they go over that they have to have a hostess! However, they do not fly the blokes out of Darwin, Air North do that! They did offer a bid to fly larger planes from that end but so far they have been unsuccessful. I think he said there are something like 700 people on site out there nowdays, as I said, a bit bigger show than your first story would indicate. I wouldn't get too bent out of shape over the accuracy of your yarn, it is after all just that, and as an excercise in descriptive writing accuracy is not that important..........is it?