Summer in Queensland is the season to witness the birth of new marine life. See newly-hatched turtles take their very first swim on Mon Repos beach, near Bundaberg. Or witness the hyper-colour production of a mass coral spawning across the Great Barrier Reef. You can see this dazzling natural phenomenon, nicknamed by marine biologists as ?sex on the reef?, from a glass-bottomed boat or live-aboard dive tour.

It?s a 15 minute drive east to from Bundaberg to Mon Repos Conservation Park, where green, flatback and loggerhead turtles nest on the accessible mainland beach. After dark between November and March, see female turtles coming ashore to lay their eggs, or their newly-hatched babies crawling to shore for their first swim. Mid-November to February is the best time to see turtles laying eggs, while hatchlings usually begin to leave their nests from mid-January.

Visit in January and you might get a fascinating glimpse of both nesting adults and little brown hatchlings. Join a guided tour or learn about the turtles at the information centre, then follow the walking track to the turtle rockery. You can also experience the turtles nesting on nearby Lady Elliot, Lady Musgrave and Heron Islands.

You can see an altogether different miracle of life on the Great Barrier Reef in October, November and sometimes December, when the water has reached the right temperature. On certain nights following the full moon, egg-engorged corals spawn across the reefs in spectacular sync. The rush of pink eggs and sperm to the surface of the night sea has been likened to both an upside-down storm and millions of exploding champagne bubbles.

Whatever your analogy, it?s visually breathtaking. The tiny cells form a thick, pink spawning slick across the water?s surface, which can stretch metres wide and kilometres long. Slicks have even been seen from space by satellite imagery.

See this visual spectacular for yourself from a glass-bottomed boat or immerse yourself in the experience on a night dive. You can see the phenomenon all across the southern Great Barrier Reef, on a tour from Brisbane, Gladstone or Bundaberg, also the base for the Mon Repos turtles. Townsville and Mackay are good gateways to the central reef. From Cairns or Port Douglas, live-aboard tours leave for the Local, Ribbon, Far Northern, Osprey and Coral Sea Reefs.

Dive tours are organised around predicted spawning dates, which are one to six nights after the first full moon in October for inshore reefs and similar times in November and December for coral in outer reefs. During the spawning you might also see marine worms breeding en-masse and blue bioluminescent flashes from small prawn-like crustaceans spawning near the surface.

Don?t miss the chance to get up close and personal to Queensland?s marine miracles this summer.

Baskets were often made from twisted bark fibres

Bark was used by many people across the continent. This technology is still used today to produce baskets, which are particularly popular in the tourism industry. Kurrajong bark is a popular bark, as is the bark of river wattles, sand figs, banyans, burney vines and peanut trees.

In the north, the more tightly woven styles were made, whereas in the south, a looser stringed bag, popularly known as a dilly bag was made.

Hair

Hairstring was an important textile traditionally made by Australian Aborigines.

People, particularly the women, cut their pubic hair regularly using quartz or flint knives. This hair was never wasted. It was rolled on the thigh and then spun into long threads of yarn. It was then plaited to about the thickness of 8 ply wool.

Purposes for the string were manifold. These included making the head ring for resting the coolamon, headbands to keep the hair off the face, spear-making (securing the head to the shaft), and even balls for ball games.

A general-purpose belt was made of the string, from which things could be hung, such as small game like goannas in order to free the hands on long walks and hunts.

Aboriginal dancers wearing a more modern version of this covering, performing at Nambassa in New Zealand- 1981

Among some groups, including the Pitjantjajara, a small modesty apron was made of the string for young girls to wear when they reached puberty. People in Central Australia today may talk of a girl having her “string broken”, which can mean sexual abuse, or having sex when she is not ready.

Among some tribes, adults wore a loincloth-like pubic covering, which also hung from the waist belt. This was made either of the string itself, or of other material, including paperbark. In the Kimberley region of Western Australia, the men wore pearl shells as a pubic covering, which they call Riji, and which are considered extremely sacred.

The string could be died various shades using dyes such as ochre.

Some string was only worn for ceremony, such as skirts worn by the women.

String games

Cat’s Cradle

Many Aboriginal groups traditionally made many shapes out of the string (cat’s cradle). A researcher once watched and photographed a young Aboriginal woman from Yirrkala make over 200 separate string figures. Each one involved complicated movements of her fingers and thumbs. She was able to remember the correct sequence of finger movements for nearly every figure she made, with only an occasional mistake which she quickly corrected. As she made each figure she gave it a name. Some examples included dangurang a lobster, bapa lightning, matjur an ibis flying into a tree and gapu the ripples on a pool.

The Bangarra Dance Theatre’s 2005 production of CLAN incorporated traditional desert string games into one of their performances, creating intricate patterns as they thread themselves through long, elastic strings.,

Grasses

Grasses were combined with the hair to create a tougher fibre. This varied depending on the area in Australia. In the arid areas, it was spinifex, whereas in the Top End, it was palms such as pandanus.

Pandanus and sand-palm are used in areas such as the Daly River region and Arnhem Land to weave carry baskets, dilly string bags, wall hangings, floor mats and fish-nets. The women of Peppimenarti and Oenpelli are famous for such weaving, however each community has their own distinct styles and techniques.

External references

^ ABC Radio National Interview with anthropologist Diane Bell

^ Aboriginal Lonka Lonka Pearl Shell Pendant, Pubic Covers From Kimberly (Tribalmania.Com)

^ Aboriginal Technology: Fibrecraft, Barlow, Alex, 1994, Macmillan Education Pty Ltd, p 6.

^ Bangarra Dance Theatre: Clan

^ Graceful spin on a life’s web – Arts – www.smh.com.au

Australian Aboriginal Anthropology

Arrernte Dictionary

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man making hairstring

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The short video overview I made about the historical genocide against Australian Aboriginals. Please note that all of the info presented came from Australian government sources. NOTE: Due to the huge amount of racism, comments will no longer be allowed **Because of the large degrading amounts of racism, all comments are moderated. Please do not write anything ** Excerpt from the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide (and ratified by the UN, including Australia, in 1948): “Article II: In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: (a) Killing members of the group; (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group. Article III: The following acts shall be punishable: (a) Genocide; (b) Conspiracy to commit genocide; (c) Direct and public incitement to commit genocide; (d) Attempt to commit genocide; (e) Complicity in genocide. ” Federal Apology (feb. 13, 2007) issued by Prime Minister Rudd of Australia: “Today we honour the Indigenous peoples of this land, the oldest continuing cultures in human history. We reflect on their past mistreatment. We …
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