Field season

The field season is on. See you, well... the next time I see you...

Field work photos

I'm allowed to take photos on rare occasions when I'm out in the field. Either the people are too shy or the area is culturally too sensitive.

And even rarer do I have some photos of myself. So feast your eyes on Dorkster, Nooby Dorkster.





I also have a photo of me with dead kangaroos (as the locals were hunting), but I'll leave those out for the sake of digestion-ally challenged (even though it's a completely normal thing here, and a part of everyday life)...

Running the bush

It’s almost nine in the evening and this is the first moment I have to breathe in, relax and chill out a bit.

It’s been long two days, I can tell you that. But as tiring and exhausting they’ve been, they’ve also been very fulfilling, productive and life changing. The two days spent out in the bush were part of a survey – the first one I was in charge of. It was a survey indeed, both of the bush and myself.

All the responsibility lying in it made me a bit tense. And there’s a good reason for it. The proprietor, the liaison officer and my co-worker for starters, and the mining blokes, the whole community and my work to end with. Not an easy task for me, especially with over a dozen people divided into five Land Cruisers roaming the Australian outback.

Gather everyone, drive to the location, stop the whole caravan, call out the location on the radio, determine the distance, the easting and westing, wait for the confirmation, mark it on the GPS, take a note, punch in the next set of destination coordinates, release the hand brake, first gear, go – and do that about a hundred and fifty times.

Spending a day like that made me cherish the rare moments of wonder I get to experience as well. Like listening to the old folk’s stories, visiting special places (that not even all Aborigines are allowed to visit), eating honey from tree branches, sitting in the red Australian soil, learning foreign words, seeing boys tease girls with grasshoppers pinched between their fingers, feeling the smell of the low bushes being driven over, chasing the clouds through the spinnifex-infected, seemingly endless plains…

After buying a hand-made boomerang off a local girl, finishing a spicy and tasty dinner and writing a bit of this, I can finally call it a day. A good day.

A special hill I'm not allowed to name

Out in the Field again

It's early morning, and it's dark outside. I'm not sure if it's today or yesterday, but I know I don't like it. Nevertheless, I have to catch the six-fifteen flight and, being that it's four in the morning, I'm not sure whether I slept at all, or just levitated through the two or three hours of sleep that I got.

The airport is unimaginably busy and probably the last place one would want to be in on a sleepy, cold morning - and with no caffeine in the blood stream. Everyone running around with their luggage, probably going for a meeting or whatever. The drowsiness makes stuff more complicated, so it all seems like a big circus.

Getting to the company house in Kalgoorlie doesn't help much, since the Jeep is completely messed up, the trailer can't be attached and it all seems to be getting more and more complicated. It takes us hours to drive around the city, get the mechanics and electricians to fix it all up, and then another six or so hours to drive to Wiluna.

We get to our destination just before midnight, but being completely tired and worn out, I hit the sack and wake up seven hours later. The morning brought some nicer news, especially when I woke up and realized I was surrounded by palm trees. The thing was that the place we spent the night in is a vineyard located around an oasis in the middle of the desert. Now, the desert isn't a desert in a Sahara way, but it's vast and dry alright.

The vineyard accommodation in the desert

The field work went alright, with not so much stuff going off course, and with some of the Traditional Owners recognizing me, hooking up and, finally, sharing some stories. My co-worker told them about the research I did back in Croatia, which they listened to carefully, only to exchange some looks, nod in agreement, and share some of their stories.

We have the same thing, you know...

It felt great! The concerns about getting into the community, having them open up and share, and actually take me in popped into my mind very often. It takes a long time, a bunch of nerves and an open mind, so I can only hope I'm headed in the right direction.

Driving back to Wiluna after dropping some of the guys off

Dropping in for a sammich along the way, with an elderly couple checking out the news

The desert sunset

Shadowed in the desert; taken during the field survey with the whole team

Catching the sunset in the rear mirror

Honey ant habitat and a bit of cow poo

So, after two days in the desert (and some will be disappointed to hear there was no camping involved this time), we took off and, this time, flew from Wiluna back to Perth. No driving, no pain in the butt (literally), and a new experience. The airport is tiny, with only two benches, a toilet and a large scale for the luggage. I took the chance to weigh myself when no one was looking, and I realized I'm gaining some weight. Not much, but still.

I've never flown in a smaller-than-usual plane, so the thirteen-seater looked both fancy and scary. I was proven right when I realized how much that thing dances around up there. It was nevertheless a cool experience to fly in it, seeing the pilots do their stuff and be able to take some photos out of the window, and now seeing clouds only.

The Wiluna airport; number of passengers: 13

The thirteen-seater that took us back to Perth

The reason we're all out there after all - a mine

There was a fly on the plane. I tried imagining how it must've felt. I felt weird myself. Being so far away and so high up made me go all existential, you know. Where am I, what am I doing here, am I like this fly, what's the reason for all this, what if we crash, how would I react and would I react at all, and stuff like that...

Weird, isn't it?

Life updated

I’ve wanted to write a lot, but I just haven’t had the time. There always seem to be more pressing matters - whether they indeed are more pressing or not.

Maybe it’s a good thing that I don’t let the time run me over, so I hope you don’t mind me skipping a post here and there.  Sometimes it’s more important to get some sleep, prepare a nice dinner or simply chill out with no stuff on one’s mind.

Life’s been really busy with every passing day and with every new segment of work and life I’ve been involved in. Much more paperwork, many more meetings and dozens of e-mails I get to be CC-ed in make me have to try to get my head around things. I usually do that by taking notes, but when I got to five notebooks at the same time, the point was kind of lost.

Check notebook one for info about the details from the notebook three. Right.

I’ve also been travelling and out in the field a lot lately. Even though I’ve only been to two field surveys, I’m starting to do more and more. I’m actually supposed to lead the next one, which was confirmed for the next week just today. That means I’ll be flying out next Monday again, and flying back on Friday – right in time for the Australian Football League Grand Final.

A large part of your regular Australian’s social life spins around sports, especially football (the Australian kind) and, to a lesser extent, cricket. Soccer is also really in, but it takes a bit of insanity to wake up at four in the night to watch the English league.

I digress. I just use it as a chance to hang out with people, have a couple of laughs and, finally, trying to work out the rules. But considering that I managed the Cricket World Cup in India, I reckon this will be a piece of chocolate cake.

The thing that needs a lot more focus is located outside the city. Being in the desert is not as hard as it sounds, but dealing with people in their own environment, among their own kin and on their land is something that needs mastering.

People have been asking me how it is working with the Aborigines, sleeping out in the open and dealing with everything the desert brings. To tell you the truth, it’s not that different from what I experienced in India – people sitting in a circle on the ground, sipping tea and cracking jokes.

It gets a bit different once you get included into the stuff that’s going on, their personal issues, intra- and inter-community relationships and alike. That’s where your social, negotiation and human skills are supposed to surface. And not even decades of experiences can prepare you for that.

It’s definitely going to take some time to adjust to going out there on a regular basis, spending long (and I mean looong) days out in the bush, and communicating, co-existing and living with these guys day after day.

Most of the things going on are culturally sensitive and often related to a certain gender only. That means that the topic needs to be dealt with in a certain way, respecting the customs, the elders and everyone in general. It’s definitely a special feeling going to places that not even some Aborigines can go to, but it carries a lot of responsibility with it as well.

I just hope I can fill in the boots.

Other than that, I’ve just been trying to take it easy, not respond to all the stress piling up (Australians are luckily the type of people who take it all easy), and enjoy the free time I’ve got on my hands.

I joined H & G for a walk yesterday, and it was lovely. It was sunny and nice and there was a cool breeze that kept it all nicely wrapped up. We went for a round of the Waterfront, grabbed a couple of beers and caught up after a couple of busy weeks that everyone’s had.

 Hm, so may of my posts end up being I-posts, which I’m trying to avoid. It’s just hard to write about stuff that’s going on without starting a sentence with I. Or without writing in the third person, which might be an even worse solution.

I will try to write in more detail though, kind of more on a story side than diary style. So we’ll see how that goes…

For now, here's a couple of photos from yesterday arvo down by the Swan river waterfront...

And last but not the least, the tired, beer craving me, having a drink at the Waterfront.

First time in the bush

After spending my first couple of days at a survey out in the bush, I came to notice tiny but nevertheless highly noticeable similarities to what I experienced in India.

People looking away, almost uninterestedly; sitting on the ground all around the place, huddling together, separated in smaller groups or even on their own (showing respect to be given to the elders); mumbling under the breath and then just expelling what sounds like a magic spell out there, toward everyone; making jokes in local languages and giggling… It all just seems so familiar.

I didn’t really expect anything in particular, but I’ve had an image of what was coming up - unlike others, who are probably eagerly awaiting detailed feedback on how I did - which I understand, because it’s surely not easy to rely on someone you’ve just hired to do the job properly. Especially when it’s so sensitive.

Being that there’s also a fair amount of driving to be done (half of the way is flight, the other half or so driving a 4WD), I had my initiation and, boy, did I have one! I was driving with my co-worker and two of the elders into the sunset, the Sun shining into my face, bouncing off the hood and piercing me with its rays from a couple more directions. It’s a non-asphalted road, straddling the countryside in a straight line, and lined by low vegetation on the sides.

Nothing but that, an occasional rabbit, kangaroo or eagle, and the mighty Sun. The sunset was kick ass nevertheless, at least the bit that I managed to actually see.

All in all, there I was, sitting in the bush, sharing an orange and sipping tea with the elders (who filled me in on some basic vocabulary), the initiated men, right next to what is probably their most sacred site. I had the privilege and the chance to go to where even non-initiated Aborigines aren’t allowed to go.

Now, doesn’t that kick ass?!

Taking off from the Work House in Kalgoorlie

The Gwalia (meaning Wales in Welsh) mining site in Leonora, where H.C. Hoover (the later-to-be president of the US of A) was hired to work as a geologist

Right as I thought to myself how good we were doing, we got a sunflower-shaped blow up

Lunch

Hoover's house (now the whole complex is a museum)

Descriptions

One of the bedrooms (some people thought it was my new place when they saw the photo, hahaha)

The Gwalia mining site

Our Toyota in front of the Hoover House (built in 1898, I think)

List of the miners working at the site at the time

The site from the air (a photo of a photo)

The office house and she shadow of my nose and hat

Preparing the road

Bottles and old cars and stuff

Driving back

The scenery (and this is still quite lush and green, compared to the summer and what lies further inland)

Eucalyptus trees, which catch fire as easily as pine trees, which of course created huge problems and large fires

I saw a couple of kangaroos (and had to watch out not to hit one along the way, since they jump out), rabbits, hawks, owls, ravens and similar

Red sand

Washing the car before leaving for the airport

Google Earth image of the tracks we took - so cool!

New, new, news

Oi!

I’ve been so busy I didn’t have time to write anything, and let alone post it. Now I had dinner, did all the chores and I’ve got some time before I faint and hit the pillow. I’ll hopefully remember my face hitting the pillow.

Now there’s something wrong with Word and it’s not helping my mood. I’m super busy at work, there’s more and more paperwork cluttering up my desk, but there’s an upside to it. I have a new office.

The company got the other part of the building, so we’re all over the building now. The whole building. It’s an old red-brick school overlooking the park, with high ceilings and wooden floors. That might not sound special, but it’s so rare you wouldn’t believe it.

All in all, the new office is at the end of the hallway, there’s only three of us in it so far and it’s much better than the middle-of-the-office desk I had before. Another bonus is the high windows that reveal the sky, the treetops and the rain that’s going to fall as I finish work.

I moved into my new apartment two days ago. It’s not only furnished, but it has a TV, an amplifier, speakers, vacuum cleaner, iron, AC, kettle, toaster, washing machine and even a coffee machine. The TV does lose reception when the train passes, but it’s just something to remind me of reality.

No, seriously, the place is awesome, it’s right by the train station (it takes a four-minute morning no-coffee walk) and it takes me about seven minutes to get to work. I’m planning to get a bicycle, but it’ll have to wait until I have a bit more time to research.

I won’t be spending much time in the apartment though, since I’m going out into the field. I’m leaving on Monday and I’ll only be away for four days, but I’m going to a very special place, reserved for men only, due to its ritual significance. I already met some of the Traditional Owners I’ll be working with, and I’m still working on brushing up on my Aboriginal phrases.

After that I’ll have the weekend off and then I’m off again, even further and for even longer. I’ll be away for ten or so days, which will probably knock any memory of a comfortable bed out of my head.

With that thought, I bid you g’ nigh’…

An update on life

Well, I just move into the new apartment!

I'm waiting for the Internet and it's not the best time. Even the server at work went bust.

Talk about work, I'll be super busy in the next couple of weeks. I'm going out to two heritage surveys in the next two weeks, so I'll talk to you guys around mid September, when I'll surely have a lot to say.

Here's just a couple of photos from the new place. Enjoy!