Victoria Settlement

The word that comes to mind with I think about Victoria settlement is “Epic”.  The history is epic, and so was our day getting there. 

It started with a crack-of -Dawn start because we had to drive 80km of dirt road to get there. Sounds easy right? Except that someone read the map wrong and it’s more like 130km. And the road is shithouse. So it took about 3.5 hours to drive it. Which was a bad start because it meant that we’d missed the high tide at Victoria Settlement and would be there on an outgoing tide run. This had me stressing over 2 points. Firstly Port Essington is a large body of water and you have to drive up the middle of it to get the ruins of the settlement. There is a point where there inlet narrows down to a choke point that I read some horror stories about tidal  races and visible differences in the height of the water. I was worried about that even in a 6.5 m boat. Secondly Anchoring on a shallow beach and leaving the boat unaccompanied on an outgoing tide sounded like a good recipe for getting stranded overnight. So I was a bit cranky with the map readers.

After going through some national parks shenanigans which the ranger in the really tight shorts described as “easy” we were finally allowed to use the boat ramp. It was blowing a gale right up the middle of Port Essington which made the boat launch dodgy and the trip up the middle of the harbour pretty rough. (I was feeling a fed up with driving the boat through chopped up tidal races at this point). Anyway this is where things got a bit better. There was no horizontal waterfall at the narrow part of the harbour and we were able to locate the beach near Victoria Settlement really easily. Rather than anchor the boat and leave it to get stranded on the outgoing tide we decided to check out the settlement in 2 shifts. So we dropped Daz, Daph, Jess and Matilda at the beach and Dad and I headed back out in the boat we have a beer and some leftovers for late breakfast (it was after all about 11am!). After an hour or so Tour Group #1 re-appeared at the beach so we want in and picked them up and switched places.

There is a loop walk around the settlement and the NT Parks people have kindly labelled the ruins so you know what you’re looking at. This was a pretty big settlement with 2 Quartermaster stores, Sawpit, 2 wells, a wharf, an officer’s mess, married quarters, a hospital, hospital kitchen, kiln, blacksmith forge, battery and tellingly, a graveyard which is the resting place of about 60 people who perished over about 11 years. Probably not the best mortality rate right? The ruins left behind are now silent monuments to those poor bastards who tried to scratch a civilisation out of the remote and extremely inhospitable environment. Thinking on our short stint there that day it was about a million degrees in the shade, blowing its chops off, and remote as hell. And this was the good time of year! I can hardly image how hard life must have been for those trying to set up a town there in the 1800s. Imagine being a sailor sent to live there with your wife and baby daughter/son it must have seemed like an undeserved and very cruel death sentence for the whole family. No wonder it failed!

 

Anyway, Dad and I did a quick lap of the town, before heading back to the beach to get picked up and head home. Wouldn’t you know it? The tide had gone out and the boat couldn’t make it to the beach. Dad and I were obliged to wade 50m out to the boat with heads on swivels looking out for the big scary water lizards.  I had a plan to grab Dad and throw him in the path of any crocs coming my way (so I kept him in arms reach) but it turned out I didn’t need it. We safely boarded the boat and Daz drove us to 30km back to the ramp….which is the location of our next saga!

I dropped Daz and Dad off at the ramp and they decided to use two vehicles to pull the boat out   because the ramp was so slippery. So they got their 2 vehicles positioned and I drove the boat up near to the the trailer. Just as I was starting my drive onto the trailer maneuver Daz slipped over on the ramp and did an impressive arse-over-tit! He stood up swearing and cursing cradling his hand. There was no blood so I figured it couldn’t be too bad, so I finished driving the boat onto the trailer until it latched itself on, and then looked over at Daz who was still swearing and pointing at his hand. Dislocated finger. Bugger! So I climbed out of the boat and had a look. His ring finger on his left hand was a Z shape and still dislocated. Owch! And Yuk! 

I said to him, “What the f*%k we gunna do about that?” (pointing to his finger)

He said “You gotta pull it back out and get it back in – it’s too far to a doctor!”. 

So I steeled myself and grabbed his finger and pulled it. He pulled back against me and we gave it a good proper yank. CLUNK! It pulled apart and popped right back into its rightful place. With a vehement curse Daz walked in circles for a while inventing new swear words while I tried to work out if I should  vomit or laugh .After we settled him down I bandaged him up, drove the boat up the ramp and with Daz sitting in the passenger’s seat and complaining about my driving, I drove him home. We arrived at about 7pm after a huge day and had pancakes for dinner.

Now Daz has a swollen bruised knuckle but he’s ok

Fishing at Wiligi

We’ve been fishing every day here so far – and boy have we had some fun! There are plenty of places here for GT, Golden Trevally, Spotted Mackerel, Rock Cod, and Queenies. All caught using lures on the troll. We’ve tried crabbing with pots but all that we got was 1 muddie and some sharks as well as bunch of wrecked crab pots courtesy of the sharks. There aren’t too many creeks on the northern side of the Cobourg peninsula so we had to go a hell of a long way to find a place that looked good to set them. On both the setting and the retrieving trip the trip back to camp involved a long trip (30Km by sea) traversing a bloody horrendous tidal race which was no fun for the boat driver (me!). Oh well. On the plus side, on the first day of the crabbing trip we happened across a school of frenzied birds and bait fish. We caught a heap of HUGE Queenfish and we had a truck load of fun catching them (and releasing most of them once we have enough for food). The second day was redeemed only by Bruce catching a nice Coral Trout while trolling back near Wiligi.

The next day we discovered a place near Valencia Island were the bottom drops from 15m to 30m in a near-vertical wall. In the 30m hole there was the mother-of-all bait balls visible on the Echo Sounder. We decided to try something new – Micro Jigging through the bait ball.

Well I’ll be damned! It turns out that there was serious fish around that bait ball!! We had numerous hook-ups that went off like freight trains heading to Indonesia! I hooked something that quickly unravelled about 200m of line then up in the distance there was a kerfuffle in the water that was a big shark eating my fish! Picture this: Shark surges up from the water, there’s a wall of red water erupting at the end of my line, another 20m of line unspools and everything goes slack. Holy shit!

So the next day we go back and ditch the micro Jigs in favour for big Knife Jigs. After a few more hook-ups and a long fight, Bruce landed a nice Northern Blue Tuna. Since I have Soy Sauce and Wasabi on the boat we dined on Sashimi in the boat on the way home. We’ve been back to that spot a few time and we can always find the Tuna near that bait ball.

But too much fishing can get old, so tomorrow we’re going to take the boat up to the tip of the Cobourg Peninsula on the trailer and then head up Port Essington to check out Victoria Settlement.

Wiligi Outstation - First Impressions

Here we are at Wiligi Outstation. Wow what a beautiful part of the world! As planned we left Jabiru yesterday morning at “Sparras Fart”. “Sparras Fart” was *Supposed* to be 0400 but as it turns out Daph had forgotten to change her phone to NT time so according to everyone else it was 0330 :-( Oh well! Since we were all up we hit the road anyway. With me in the lead car and very thankful for the big LED bar lights we head off up the Arnhem highway in the dark with Matilda assigned to the task of chief roo spotter. Soon afterwards those big lights paid for themselves (Sadly Matilda’s roo spotting skills failed) when a bloody great buffalo trundled out onto the road in front of my car. Thankfully I’d seen him on the side of the road and had plenty of time to slow down. Matilda (when she eventually noticed it!) was absolutely delighted to see it trotting along the road right in front of the Dmax before getting a bit agitated and it started bucking around and kicking before finally crossing the road and disappearing into the darkness again. Wow! What a treat! Matilda spent the rest of the car trip switching between sleeping and asking me if we could get a baby buffalo. 

Soon afterwards we arrived at Cahills Crossing. It was still dark and there was no one around, so we pulled out the torches and carefully approached the water’s edge to check it out. Since we were a little early the tide was still running out at a pretty brisk pace, but the water only looked to be about 6-10 inches deep. Since I was at the front and already on the road that leads into the crossing (It’s a bit of a corral with walls and trees making the lead into the water almost like a tunnel) there was nothing else for it but to give it a crack. Ok,4WD, High range, seatbelts off, windows down about 6 inches (just in case we have to make a quick exit) and Matilda and drove easily across into Arnhem Land. Easy Peasy!

Daz followed with the boat, then the oldies. No probs. From here on it was dirt for the 150Km to Wiligi. I’d like to say that the Arnhem Land landscape bedazzled us with its natural beauty, but since it was still pitch black I have no Idea. Really all I could see was a pretty average dirt road in the light beams ahead. It was pretty patchy, alternating between good dirt road, then washouts, then some patches of corrugations as bad as I’ve seen anywhere, then back to good again etc. So we had to stay alert and give Daz enough info to mollycoddle the boat through the worst bits. After an hour I was wondering where the hell the sun was as it was still dark as hell outside we were having to da a few little river crossings in the dark again. It seemed to take forever before the sun finally woke up. By 7am it was light enough to stop and have some breakky on the side of the road near one of the river crossings. We tried flicking a few lures around in the river in the hope of snagging a stray Barra but it was no good, so we pushed on until we finally arrived at Willigi at about 10am.

One of the many little river crossings at oh dark hundred

It's all a bit too much for Tilds

The convoy stopping for breakfast

Wiligi was a welcome site with beautiful green water, a camp ground with a bit of beach and a view out to that green ocean looking straight out to a little island called Copeland Island. But how’s the temperature? Pretty damn hot!! Too bad we can’t swim at the beach unless we want to play Russian roulette with the local Croc “Midnight” and the marine stingers. Oh well. There’s a few cold water showers around but mostly the water only trickles out of them so best to take a bucket when showering so we can tip it over ourselves. Not to worry – we spent the rest of the day getting set up and unpacking the boat which made the trip pretty unscathed (a few minor rub makes here and there is all). We also checked out the “Boat ramp” – it’s actually just a bit of sandy beach. We were a little worried about that since a 6.5m boat is no small thing to get up and down a sandy beach. The next day would tell.

Relaxing at Wiligi after setting up camp

Today dawned bright and clear – after all it is Jessica’s Birthday and we were about to launch the boat in Arnhem Land for the first time! Hopefully it wasn’t about to become a royal shitfight!! After breakky we prepped the boat and loaded all the people in it (except Daz who, as caption of the Launch and Retrieval was towing the boat full of people behind the Dmax). He Backed us down onto the nice hard packed sand and gave me the nod. “Righto Nat back ‘er off!”. Ok. Engine started first go – good. Put her in reverse. Nothing. Put her more in reverse. Still no good. Gun it in reverse. Still no go. Rev the living Christ out of it in reverse. Nope.

So Daz decided to give it a shunt in the direction of backwards while I’m still reversing the hell out of it. Still no. Daz goes forward a bit to get a run up for another reverse shunt but then the Dmax started digging itself a hole. Oh shit. We all stopped and started to assess the situation as Daz pulled the max tracks off the roof and stuck them under the Dmax wheels. While he was doing that we noticed that the surge of the waves was lifting the boat a little. So I decided to give the reverse off another go. And this time SHE MOVES!! Very slowly, as if un-gluing itself for about 3600km of being glued to the trailer Skull Drag’n is afloat in the Arafura Sea! Everyone gave a cheer and even the Dmax was so happy it drove up the sandy beach without any more bogging incidents.

Beach launching the boat

So we headed out in the boat and found ourselves a bit of reef to troll around. After a few hook-ups Jess caught the fish of the day with a 5kg GT. Happy Birthday Jessie! We made it an early day because we have to do Cake for Jessie and we were all a bit worried about how we would fare getting the boat out.

Jess pulls in the fish of the day for her birthday - 4.5kg GT

Back at the “ramp” and Daz and Bruce decided that they were not going to wait to get bogged. Instead they would do a “double pull” – meaning Daz Backs the trailer down the ram with the Dmax, and Bruce backs the Patrol down in front of the Dmax. The back of the Patrol has a snatch strap connecting it to the front of the Dmax. Nat Drives the boat onto the trailer, and the 2 vehicles pull up the beach in unison. Sounds good in theory right? Well apart from the boys forgetting the Patrol keys the only complication seems to be that it’s a bit dicey driving the boat onto the trailer in a cross wind and surging beach. It took me 3 goes to get it lined up right but eventually I did good and got it on the trailer. The bit with the 2 vehicles pulling up the beach worked an absolute treat! They didn’t even dig up the sand. So apart from me needing some driving practice it looks like we’re in business. Time to get some serious fishing happening!

The Patrol snatching out the Dmax towing out the boat which Nat drives onto the trailer - The "Double Pull"