Back of Beyond The NT: Mary River Floodplain Sept 2010

FF
The Mary River Floodplain which is currently the Mary River Proposed National Park was once the playground of buffalo and crocodile hunters with a few barramundi fishermen thrown in for good measure. The last lease holder was Terry Baldwin who called the property Annaburroo. He purchased the lease from Cecil Goodman in 1962. The property had been a buffalo lease since the turn of the century. Buffalo had been imported into the top end from Timor as a food source on the Coberg Peninsula at Fort Wellington in 1827 and the Victoria Settlement in 1838. When both settlements failed the buffalo roamed free and soon colonized most of the coastal top end. The word Anaborro was an Aboriginal word for buffalo and that is how he named the station. The station comprised 435 square kilometers.

Terry Baldwin describing how he earned a living wrote "…each year, at the correct season, [we] mustered branded and shipped wild cattle; shot buffalo for hides and pet meat under license; shot crocodiles for skins, until the ban, and fished commercially for barramundi. Dingo scalps brought one guinea each and were our petty cash." (Baldwin 38) Baldwin, Terry & Kath. "The last Roundup." Buffame - T & K Baldwin. 2000: 38

I was very interested in his description of how pastoralists set up their burning regimes as this could and would influence the ecosystem today. How did it differ from the indigenous regimes and more importantly how does it differ from the regime employed in Kakadu. I have heard stories, especially concerning the demise of the Gouldian Finches that because pastoralists burn out their runs the birds starve from a lack of grass seed. According to Baldwin this did not occur. He wrote that after a burn, the small amount of green shoot would quickly be eaten or shriveled from the heat or lack of rain between July and September. The end result would be that stock would simply walk off to a neighboring lease, not good for business.

He wrote that the "Policy was to carefully early-burn with late-afternoon cool fires called strip or patch burning in order to create large islands of grass for grazing." (Baldwin 91-2) Baldwin, Terry & Kath. "The last Roundup." Buffame - T & K Baldwin. 2000: 91-2

This process saved grass from huge late dry season fires coming downwind on the South-Easterly winds from the fires burning out of control in Arnhem Land. He also wrote that this "…method prevented neighbors from burning us out and shifting our stock on to their place where there was feed." (Baldwin 92) Baldwin, Terry & Kath. "The last Roundup." Buffame - T & K Baldwin. 2000: 92

Obviously, the creation of additional water dams, introduced grasses and the hard hooves of the grazers and feral animals have impacted the environment, but nothing compares to the destruction of large uncontained fires which destroy entire populations of flora and fauna, sometimes permanently.

Baldwin lived in the Northern Territory when there was no electricity or easy living and felt that the land would, "…knock you down when you are not looking or build you up if you keep in step with its music." (Baldwin 147) Baldwin, Terry & Kath. "The last Roundup." Buffame - T & K Baldwin. 2000: 147
FF
Even though we have it much easier some things haven’t changed.
FF
Acacia mimula
FF