News August 07

Ethabuka Reserve

How cold is cold? When you are from the Top End, 15°C used to be cold as the overnight minimum!

Now we are experiencing new sensations; that shuddery cold that grips your chest, shuts everything down and exits through your neck. How many more layers can I put on? The sun is shining, the sky blue as blue and yet thermals, ugg boots, several layers and a jumper are not enough. Winter in the desert; top of 17°C and nights of 1-5°C and supposedly lower.

Kevin Teys, Campbell and Marilyn Morrison (Scott’s parents) are here, as volunteers, helping us out with a multitude of jobs, but the first one we get to do together is put up the old shed at the campground.

This shed had been dismantled and moved in pieces to the campground maybe 18 months to 2 years ago. Even with each piece expertly labeled and a blueprint drawn we were skeptical that we were going to be able to get it back together without trouble. A lot of the beams had been eaten out by termites and we were banking on reconstruction being a big part of the coming days.

The other factor to keep us on our toes was the imminent arrival of a Bush Heritage self-drive guided camping trip was to start on Friday and it was Tuesday! Belinda (Visitation Coordinator, BHA) had asked me the previous week on the phone if we had some sort of shelter set up in the campground in preparation for the Field Trip. I had answered that we were working on it, and whatever it was, it would give some form of shelter.

Poor Belinda and Katrina (Conservation Partnerships Coordinator, BHA) arrived at Ethabuka on Tuesday afternoon, as they were to lead the Field Trip, to find a bare skeleton of a shed with all of us digging, screwing, measuring and making concrete. In between the jobs they had to do, they also lent a hand so that if viewed from high in the sky we would have looked like an army of ants crawling over, under and around that shed currently resembling a Rubik cube.

At the end of the first day we had the frames up and cemented and the roof cross beams on. It was freezing cold as I zoomed home at sunset to feed Thor and get him into bed. Luckily his Nana (Marilyn) had done most of the preliminaries and so I was able to walk in the door, crack a beer, sit down and dish up.

Childcare is not available out here, and generally one person works while the other looks after Thor. Some things can be done all together, but building a shed is not one of them. With Marilyn able to take Thor off our hands for periods of time, Scott and I were able to work together with Kev and Campbell.

Wednesday; the roof and the sides went on. Screwing down the roof I realised that I was working in the full sun and yet still had thermals, work clothes, vest, jacket, scarf, gloves and hat on and still no sensation in my cold hands and feet!

We decided the shed would be modified slightly, with only 3 sides going on and then a verandah added on the open western side. We had purchased a rainwater tank to put on the shed to provide drinking water to our visitors. The work was progressing well but the clock was ticking.

Wednesday afternoon; Belinda and Katrina took Scott and I aside and asked if we thought we would be finished by tomorrow (Thursday) lunch-time as they needed to finish getting setup! Ahhhh! That night Scott and I worked through many scenarios of what had to be done and what couldn’t get done to meet that deadline.

Thursday morning; Campbell and Kev started on the verandah, while Scott and I met with Belinda and Katrina to finalise arrangements for the Field Trip. They agreed that we could work right through Thursday if only Belinda met the Field Trip group in Bedourie and Katrina stayed behind to finish setting up. Whew!

Unbelievably, (maybe only to me) at dusk on Thursday there was a shed with a verandah standing in the Ethabuka campground. The rainwater tank was to go in the next morning, before everyone arrived, which included pumping out the tank first and putting that water into another tank at the Homestead in 500L lots – the size of our fire unit. Kev and Campbell got the tank and tap in while Scott and Marilyn pumped water. At lunch time we called it a day, just in time for the arrival of the Field Trip.

There were still a few jobs to finish off the new/old shed at the campground but the Field Trip visitors had their shelter as will all other campers who come to Ethabuka.

Reserve Managers can only do so much on their own, especially when they have children, and this is a true example of how some things just cannot get done without the invaluable help of Bush Heritage volunteers. The reason we worked to such a tight deadline was because we had to wait until we had the skills and number of people needed to do the job; Marilyn and Campbell had only arrived that weekend and Kev had the Lister backup generator down to its pistons when they arrived.

Without Kev, Campbell, Marilyn and the previous volunteers who had dismantled the shed so lovingly, each contributing their skills and energy the shed would still resemble a puzzle created by Mr Rubik.
 

Photographs taken by Katrina Blake and Scott Morrison. From top: Kevin Teys having a cuppa,  the Campground Shed, Campaign Supporter Camping Trip, Campbell Morrison.