Tuesday 22nd July

We only travelled a short distance to our next stop over location, Timber Creek. It was about 95 kms from Victoria River to Timber Creek. The Caravan Park in Timber Creek is so nice and shady with not too much dust around. The ablution block is just about 50 metres away.

Timber Creek is just a speck on the map but it attracts many travellers like us. Tonight there are about 60 caravans in the park. One of the high lights of the park is crocodile and other wild life feeding late in the afternoon. That attracts a lot of the travellers.

After we arrived here, we made various phone calls and checked emails. There was no phone or internet service at Victoria River. We had a bit of a wander around the complex and then had lunch.

After an early lunch, we had decided to visit part of the Gregory National Park which is not far from here. Our decision was to go to visit Bullita Homestead and to get there we travelled 46 kms on a gravel road of varying standard. We arrived at Bullita and found several other travellers we have seen around already there.

Bullita was originally part of Humbert Station and was an outstation first. This area was owned at several times by members of the famous Durack family who were among the first settlers in the region.

The buildings are predominately covered by corrugated iron sheeting. I guess because it was easy to transport. The floors were concrete but some of the frames were either timber or steel. Termites are a problem in this area and even fences do not have wooden posts. The other buildings around Bullita were storage, workshop, butchers shop or another tiny residence.

Inside the home, there are many items telling of the history of the region and also several letters written by former residents. These letters told of the hardships that they endured on this station especially relating to the isolation and limited communication.

One letter written in March 1977 by a Mrs Lyn Berlowitz, described how she endured very late monsoonal rain. Her husband was out at a station camp working cattle and the rain came late and so trapped him away from home. The East Baines River, which flows into the Victoria River, is no more than 50 metres from the back of the house. She was awakened during the night to the sounds of things falling in the kitchen. On inspection by torch, as the generator was shut down due to electrical storms, she found a big brown snake on a shelf. She attempted to shoot it with a hand gun but instead put holes in the corrugated sheet wall. The snake was injured and disappeared but she sat up the rest of the night unable to sleep. She checked the rain gauge, which had overflowed, in the morning to find more than 250 mm of rain had fallen. She called into the RFDS to report her rain and that she was experiencing severe flooding.

Mrs. Berlowitz went and tried to save a favourite female dog and her pups. She tried to carry the pups in a mail bag but could only manage to carry two and encourage their mother to high ground. The river was rising very fast and she was unable to save the remaining pups. But her drama was only just beginning. On trying to return to get the other pups she was caught by the flood current and struggled to save herself. Eventually, she caught onto a fallen tree and there she stayed for many hours and the water continued to rise. She struggled to stay there with her arms crossed around a branch and standing on one foot. The water covered all but her head. She watched big trees being washed out of the ground and float past her and other debris, too.

Finally the water started to recede almost as quickly as it rose. Soon she was able to leave her tree and wade back to her home to find it had been inundated and everything in it was damage or destroyed. While doing this, her female dog found her and soon after she heard the sound of a pup barking. She went and found the runt of the litter was the only survivor and it went crazy with excitement on being found.

Mrs Berlowitz’ husband eventually managed to walk at least 10 kms through flooded country to get home after an aircraft had dropped a message to her saying he was on the way.

As their home and possessions were destroyed, the local community managed to get together to help them try to recover. One final thing that Mrs. Berlowitz wrote was that they would stay there to try to recover and that they owed the bank $20,000 and wanted to clear that. They sold the station not many years later. Eventually, it became a part of the Gregory National Park.

So if you think you have problems, remember this little bit of Northern Territory history.