Rockhampton
Trip Start
Dec 23, 2007
1
36
47
Trip End
May 30, 2008
Rockhampton,
Queensland,
Australia
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Rocky as it is affectionately known to the locals, is right in the middle of cattle country and is one of its main industries. During my 2 night stay at the Rockhampton YHA, I visited Dreamtime, an Aboriginal Culture centre, which was incredibly interesting. While there I had a tour of the museum with a guide, had a presentation on Torres Straits land, trade, culture and people, listened to the guide play and discuss the didgeridoo and attempted to make a boomerang come back.
One element of the guide's presentation I found really interesting was of the specialised form of stencil art used by indigenous people in the central Queensland sandstone belt. Aboriginal people in this region didn't use brush strokes to create their artwork. Instead they broke down rocks, grinded the ochre, mixed it together with a small amount of water, poured the ochre in their mouth and it swirled around before placing their hands on the rock face and blowing the ochre onto the stencil.
The image I've included shows the outcome of the stencilling process using hands placed in different positions. Each position had a different meaning. I asked the guide what the cross pattern represented and was surprised to hear that wherever those net like patterns appeared you would always find a hole or cave in the rock face. The cave was a burial place and sacred to their people.
During my stay I also took the 20 minute drive to the Capricorn Coast. I travelled up and down the coast to many small beaches including Kinka, Mulambin, Kemp, Lammermore and Cooee Bay. I stopped off at the 'Singing Ship' in Kele Park, a memorial to honour Captain James Cook 1728 - 1779, who discovered and named Keppel Bay in 1770. The memorial actually did sing too. It was perched on the point of the bay and the prevailing winds swept through its finely tuned metal bars to create a somewhat haunting sound. Right beside the plaque to the memorial was a time capsule, buried in May 1975, to be opened in May 2070.
