166 Years
In August of 1844 a German explorer named Ludwig Leichhardt departed Sydney to explore the inland section of Australia now known as the Northern Territories.
The expedition party initially numbered 10, but two turned back and another was killed in an attack on their campsite by aboriginals (natives). The remaining 7 completed a 3,000 mile overland journey to reach Port Essington in December of 1845.
During this journey Leichhardt’s party became the first Europeans to encounter the aboriginals of the Kakadu region.
The aboriginals were hunter-gatherers, using stone to make tools and charcoal for fires. They drew pictures of the foods they ate on rocks to serve as a survival guide that lasted many generations. They’d been living this way for more than 50,000 years, surviving an ice age along the way.
A complex kinship system was used to describe how people relate to each other. In the kinship system people identify those around them as mothers, fathers, uncles, aunts, cousins, potential marriage partners, etc, regardless of their blood relationship.
In hindsight, studies have shown that the aboriginal kinship system is the best method ever encountered to avoid incest and keep bloodlines diverse within a small community.
166 years later I’m standing in Kakadu National Park along with a couple of hundred other tourists to watch the sunset. Other than some pictures carved into the rocks there’s no sign of the aboriginals that used to live here. The park ranger mentions another park ranger who has aboriginal blood, but that’s the closest we get.
Clouds are obscuring the sunset so I’ve got my iPhone out and I’m flicking between three different cell networks as I try to check my email. After a couple of minutes the sun slips below the horizon and we’re done.
I drive back to my hotel and get to work programming a website that will almost certainly be obsolete within a decade.
