Roger (right) and Janette, known as RaJ, on board Brahminy Too @ Magnetic I.
Our friends, Roger and Janette, (RaJ) from Nfeisa, were having a long weekend at their holiday home at Wooli.
We were very happy to coordinate our schedules since the “Renaming Ceremony” in Horseshoe Bay, Magnetic Island was our last visit together.
Temperatures and humidity had been soaring around Ulmarra. Even being anchored in the river offered little breeze. Gratefully we piled into their air-conditioned car and enjoyed the novelty of seeing the world from the roadside view.
Once over the Pacific Highway the next 45 klms was a winding series of narrow roads over a range and through pasture lands, heath and coastal Banksia bush. We were keenly watching for Coastal Emu but nary a feather was seen. After running along Lake Hiawatha, Roger took a short divergence to Diggers Camp. A small coastal enclave of only a few dozen houses shared a waterfront location. Ocean one side and national park the rest. Quite a special spot. With names such as Nugget and Miners Road at Diggers Camp, it’s gold mining history was apparent. However the only nuggets we saw were the ones you needed to buy a piece of that property, $2.5 million worth of nugget! To be fair it was a large beach house. The whole community had chosen to save off the “grid”. No gas, water or electricity was piped in.
Information board photo of Wooli
Then onto Wooli. The town was located on a narrow peninsula with the Wooli Wooli River on one side and the Coral Sea on the other. The Solitary Island Marine Reserve was on the east and being surrounded by the Yuraygir National Park, it breathed tranquility. No over-eager developer had crowded the village with high rise and the longer distance rural roads for access appeared to limit the hubbub of tourist traffic even though we were in the school holiday break. Entrance to the river was via a very tricky coastal bar crossing with narrow breakwater walls. We had never entertained the idea but the dangerous seas we saw that day made any thought of bringing Brahminy Too in over the bar a closed case. Locked and bolted and the key thrown overboard….. If you understand my meaning.
Same crossing but the next day
Wooli Wooli River bar crossing
Whilst Europeans were settling in the Wooli district by the 1880s and oyster farming and fishing date back to 1885, the entrance walls to the Wooli Wooli River were built only in the 70’s. How they managed is a credit to their navigational skills and good eye for the weather.
Fine salt mist and humidity haze
The haze over the ocean was palpable. Visibility to North and North West Solitary Islands was negligible. The sun beat down with a cancer-creating bite.
Solution: a quick dip in the river and back to the house for some shade.
That is after stopping off to buy some Wooli oysters, first. Yep good white wine and freshly shucked oysters. We who live inexpensively, know how to live well!
View of the escarpment colours
Wooli oyster lease in the background is owned by the shop.
No sooner were we settled on the aft deck overlooking the river when the sky grew grim. Down it came with a ferocity that had us scampering indoors after rescuing furniture and goods from the sudden deluge. But, oh how delightful it was, with the earth relinquishing its pent-up heat.
We and nature sighed with a cooling breath.
Aft deck of Tulenderley
Much alcohol was drunk, many stories exchanged, plans for future trips outlined and delicious food ingested. It was well past our bedtimes when we eventually snuggled down for a cool nights sleep at “Tulenderley”. Thank you RaJ.
Little Wattlebird
The morning bird walk along the coastal bush to the sports grounds then along the mangroves by the river delivered the usual suspects. (See Burneysbirdblog )
However, what continued to intrigue us was something RaJ had informed us about:
Goanna Pulling Championships … .?
Maclean may have its Caber Toss
Archive photo
And Julia Creek had Bog Snorkeling but Wooli’s claim to fame was Goanna Pulling.
Apparently?….
“The 30th annual Australian National Goanna Pulling Championships took place on Goanna Mountain in October 2015.”
Birding near the Wooli sportsground
Goanna Pulling sign
Goanna Pulling mount
Goanna Pulling is probably not what you think…..it does not involve tugging these creatures apart. Disclaimer:No animals were harmed in the making of this event…..
The event gets its name from the fact that the participants look like goannas when taking part in this competition ie two people lying on their fronts, face each other with a heavy leather strap joining them around their necks, then they pull each other in a version of tug-of-war.
Archive photo: Not your usual “lounge Lizard”
Hans and Burney tried to imagine the day…. Sweaty men with bulbous muscles and extended arterial networks grinding their teeth as they heave back with their trunk like necks. Crowds cheering their favourite on to fame and the $500 prize money. And numerous stall holders rubbing their hands with glee and massage oil as a hoard of chiropractors prepare for the next round of clients.
The current sports ground was constructed in 1984-85 with approval from the then Ulmarra Shire Council. Apparently a meeting was held after the sports ground was completed to discuss holding a Goanna Pulling Championships on the Long weekend of June 8-9th June 1985. It was for the then NSW State Goanna titles. Yep 30 years ago.
(How they came upon the concept has eluded our research. There have been unsubstantiated references to the 19th century.)
Burney did read that some of the first sponsors and events were;
– Goanna Pulling sponsored by Playboy Magazine, The Goanna Oil Co and Scrivens’ Wooli Kiosk;
– The Wet T-Shirt Competition Sponsored by People Magazine and Wooli Hotel-Motel;
Other events included:
-The slow bicycle race, – Three legged race,
– Broom Throwing and the Wheelbarrow race.
Now we know you have to put Wooli on your holiday destination list for October.
After a Sunday swim and another lovely lunch, we shuffled off back to Ulmarra and our boat. But along the way, still looking for Coastal Emus, we were treated to another tourist drive.
Minnie Waters, a sister coastal village north of Wooli was also surrounded by the Yuraygir National Park. However with a fringing semicircle of rocks the southerlies were much calmer in what appeared like a lagoon just off shore.
Wooli Wooli River
Bye Wooli
Archive photo of Minnie Waters
Before leaving this blog post a few words about the Indiginous history of the area.
Prior to European settlement the Yaegl tribe and their neighbours the Gumbaingirr Aborigines had lived in the area for thousands of years. They were noted as having strong healthy bodies and their movements were mostly from the sea to the hills sourcing a good supply of food and shelter. They were also known to have a sharing culture whereby in times of plenty neighbouring tribes were fed. However with the eventual incursion and settlement of white settlers their lives were forever more changed. Disease, massacre and displacement disrupted their lives, culture and ongoing heritage.
For example:
The Red Rock headland is reputedly the sight of a massacre of Gumbaynngirr indigenous people in the 19th century. A memorial cairn has been erected at the base of the headland to commemorate this. Apparently Aboriginal women still tend to avoid the site. It is reported that The massacre began at Blackadders Creek when mounted police entered the camp shooting and pursuing the survivors to the Red Rock river where they continued shooting. Some people were then driven off the headland. Some used hidden caves to survive. There after the headland was referred to as Blood Rock.
However, in recognition of the longtime connection to that country with the renaming of the Greater Angourie and Red Rock National Parks, Howard Creamer wrote: ‘In considering the area involved, the most appropriate course of action would be to give the park the name of the small tribe which occupied an area almost identical to that of the park’. ‘It should be noted that when the emphasis is put on the middle syllable Yur-ay-gir, and the final r is rolled (‘rr’), this is close to the correct pronunciation for the National Park, and more similar to the pronunciation of the word Yaegl (as ‘l’ and ‘r’ are interchangeable)’.
Fortunately the Yaegl mob are resurrecting their language and have two land councils. More can be learnt by visiting the Port Yamba Historical Museum.
svbrahminy 