The Sea Country Rangers at Dhimurru

By Balupalu Yunupingu

My name is Balupalu Yunupingu. I am a senior sea ranger at Dhimurru. My job is to look after the sea country in Dhimurru I.P.A. (Indigenous Protected Area) around Nhulunbuy and as far as Mount Alexandria near Buymarr. I am employed by Dhimurru along with Patrick White and our new facilitator Vanessa Walsh who came on aboard on February 11^th 2008 and she’s already doing a fantastic job.

We got the boat on May 20^th last year. We did a lot of training on the boat. All Dhimurru rangers had to train to past their Restricted Coxswains ticket before taking the boat on patrol. The Laynha rangers had to drive our boat and the Dhimurru rangers had go on their boat. The boat measures 7.3 metres and has 2 Johnson 140 H.P. motors and the design is Ocean Master.

On September 10^th 2007 we took the boat to Borroloola for the sea country conference. Patrick White, Bas, Steve Roeger and me launched the boat at the Yirrkala boat ramp about 6am in the morning. The weather was good and the water was very smooth all the way to Alyangula. The boat trip took us about seven hours. We had to drive the boat in turns and we arrived in Alyangula at 12pm. We then tied our boat and unloaded our swags and other stuff. There to meet us was Steve’s sister and his brother in law at the ramp. They then drove us to their house. We had a shower and a bit of cuppa and cookies. After that we then drove ourselves to the ranger quarters because the Anindilyakwa rangers had left a car for us to drive around, which was good.

We stayed overnight and the next morning we left at 6am for Port McArthur and then again the water was in good condition. It took us seven or eight hours and then again we had to drive the boat in turns and we arrived at Black Rock, 40 km inland from the mouth of McArthur River, about 2.30pm. As we were entering the channel we could see all the rangers standing on the top of the cliff with different uniforms waving and cheering to us.

We stayed on for the conference and on the September 13^th 2007 we left Black Rock for North East Island. We took a different route this time. It was a winding creek and only three of us were on the boat this time. When we got to the open sea we heard a coast watch call, “409 stranded vessel” it said. The stranded vessel was located where we were heading. We soon found out that Numbulwar rangers had a problem on their motor on their 5m Quintrex and then we called back to the coast watch saying the boat was alright and no longer required assistance.  So we then left the area and headed for the Island with Numbulwar rangers following behind us. We camped on the island and the next day we didn’t see any sign of the Numbulwar rangers. They must have left earlier that morning.

Well anyway we packed up and left for Alyangula. It took us eight hours and we arrived at 1.30pm. In the afternoon we fuelled up the boat to get it ready for the next day. We had dinner at the Alyangula club. The next day, we left Alyangula and headed for Yirrkala at 6am. The water was bit choppy and we had to slow down a bit .We arrived at Yirrkala about 2pm.We had a good trip going there and back. It was a good experience for all us and we really enjoyed the trip.