Simba - 18. Simba Ch 18

Showing him the signs, he said they looked fantastic, and with some strong wire and pliers, with mounting holes already in place, we walked down to the front gate to install the first sign on the gate. Once done, we stood back to admire the sign, before Uncle Nat asked us to stand on either side so he could take a picture, before heading back to the shed, where we screwed the second sign onto the end wall of the shed, near the singe door.

The biggest sign Uncle Nat had to drill holes into the wall and put plugs in, before we could screw the sign to the wall, and once again we stood back to look at it, and it was great to see. Once again, Uncle Nat took a photo of us standing near the big sign on the wall, and with the tools packed away; we went inside to show Uncle Nat our promotion banners and gazebos, which he was very impressed with.

“Are you going to drive to Port Lincoln this time, now that you have the vehicle and supplies?” Uncle Nat asked, I looked at Aaron who just shrugged. “We hadn’t thought about it, but I guess we need to discuss it with Chris and Will, when they get home from Uni,” I replied.

“Well it is a 3 ½ hour drive to Port Augusta, and another 3 ½ hours to Port Lincoln, so it can be easily done in one day, and I would also suggest that you consider a secondary base for the project. The location I am thinking is a small place called Miranda, which has a population of just 50. It is right on the shores of the Upper Gulf, and it is just 40 kilometres south of Port Augusta on the east side, or maybe a little closer to Adelaide in a bigger town like Port Wakefield or Port Pirie” Uncle Nat said.

“Maybe we can check some of these places out one weekend before the holidays and our trip to Taylor Island,” I suggested. “I can’t this weekend, but how about the next one?” Uncle Nat suggested and we agreed on that being our next trip north.

For the next week, Chris and Will joined us for a meeting that evening, where we decided to spend this weekend making improvements to the project base. With trees and shrubs to be planted on Friday, with the assistance of the landscaper, who has also recommended a type of Pergola to build and he agreed to assist with building it.

We also had the arrival of the aviary cages plus the animal cages, which are currently been stored in the sheds, as I am taking my vehicle home each day, giving us plenty of extra room in the sheds.

The dividing wall would go to where just one third of the sheds would be garage space, while the remaining space will be used for animal care, and after some thought about it, we decided to keep the aviaries indoors, and we would install skylights in the roof, to provide plenty of natural sunlight.

With the end of semester fast approaching, I knew that I had to start thinking about returning to University to continue my studies. Before then we have two road trips to make, the first to Port Augusta and a few towns in between, to look for possible locations for our secondary research facility, and a week later we would begin the one week of survey work on Grindal Island.

The day before heading off on our first trip, it was decided to make it a two-day trip, so we headed to the camping store in the late afternoon, to fit everyone out with a king single swag each, plus sleeping bags for those who didn’t have one.

Once we were fully loaded with all of our supplies for the weekend, we set off early on the Saturday morning, with Chris, Aaron and Will in the staff vehicle and Uncle Nat and I in my vehicle, and we kept in regular contact with the vehicles on the UHF radio, which helped pass the time during the trip north.

Our first stop was at Port Wakefield, with a population of around 500, it was a nice little town, and I could see this place being ideal for a place to do some research, especially when it is less than 100 kilometres north of Adelaide. Our next stop is Port Pirie, which is more of a city, as it has a population of nearly 15,000 people and is located 200 kilometres north of Adelaide.

We decided that although it is a nice place to visit, it was a little too big a place for us to establish a secondary base, and we continued on northwards towards Port Augusta, with Uncle Nat informing us that we have two places to stop at before reaching the large port town.

The first of these towns is Port Germein, which is just 20 kilometres north of Port Pirie, and had a population of just 250. The town is famous for having one of the longest jetties in the southern hemisphere, at a staggering 1,532 metres long, and we went for a walk to the end of the jetty and back, which was good exercise.

Back in the two vehicles again, we continued northwards, with the small town of Miranda, being our next stop. It was a very small town, with just 50 people living here, and there was no sign of any services of any kind, not even a general store or a tavern, and there was no jetty of any kind either.

“I like this town Uncle Nat, it is so quiet, and with no basic services like a store, any accommodation, a tavern or even a country fire station, it has possibilities to it,” I commented as we stepped out of our vehicles, parked on the Esplanade road, which is gravel like all the other roads in this town.

“See this ¾ acre block of vacant land behind us? I have put in an offer to purchase it, as agree with your view on how nice this little town is, and the good thing about it, is that the town is surrounded by a conservation park, so it can not grow any bigger than what it is now,” Uncle Nat announced.

“If the offer is accepted, what will you do with this property?” Chris asked, “Well I have already bought the four bedroom house next door, which is completed but not furnished, and it needs a front verandah added to it, and it already has a double garage and two large water tanks.

I was thinking of establishing a general store on the site, as well as a few other stores for the community, and employ managers to run the place. I have put in a submission to have a town jetty built on the corner of the Esplanade and Winninowie Street, which is this corner street,” Uncle Nat announced to us.

“I think that is an awesome idea Uncle Nat, I look forward to seeing the place again, when all the building work has been completed,” Aaron said. After a quick look inside the house, that Uncle Nat had bought, we set off once again, with our main destination of Port Augusta, where we had booked into the caravan park for an overnight stay.

Having booked two sites next to each other, the vehicles were parked on the far side, facing opposite directions, so that the awnings would facing each other, and the two gazebos would be put up together, in between the awnings to fill in the gap between them, and so provides a large undercover space.

It was not long after that we had set up camp that a mid aged couple approached. “Hello, we just wanted to ask you what Kuishi Project is?” the lady asked us, and Uncle Nat looked to me, to give the response, while Chris headed to the back of the staff vehicle to retrieve some recently printed information pamphlets.

“Kuishi is a Swahili name meaning…” “To Survive, yes we understand what it means, we are originally from Kenya,” the man said cutting me off, and I saw Uncle Nat frown at the man for interrupting. “The project is a privately owned and run scientific organisation, specialising in performing fauna surveys, as well as rescuing and treating injured and sick native animals, Uncle Nat said to the couple.

“I see, and why did you go and select a Swahili name for the project?” the man asked, “Kwa sababu nilitumia miaka mitano, ya kwanza Kuishi chini ya Kilimanjaro,” I said in fluent Swahili, “Would you like me to translate that for you?” Uncle Nat said to the couple, and I tried to hold back laughing.

“No, we got most of what your boy said, thankyou for your time,” the woman said and they walked off, not looking too happy, and shortly after I burst out laughing.

“What did you say to them Jacob?” Aaron asked, “I just said because I spent the first five years living at the foot of Kilimanjaro,” I replied. “They were not to happy about your comment about translating,” Chris said to Uncle Nat, “Serves them right for being so pompous,” Will added.

Going over to the camp barbeques, we cooked up our dinner, and made up a salad to go with our steaks, and we finished our early dinner just as it was going dark. I want to take a bit of a walk, does anyone want to join me?” I announced after we had finished cleaning up.

“I will stay and read a book, but feel free to go,” Uncle Nat said to us, and the others agreed to tag along. We checked out the river first, and with the sun still setting in the west it was a great view, before making the 700 metre trek towards town, with Port Augusta split in two by the river, once we reached the main road, we continued on for another 700 metres until we reached the highway, and close by was the bridge crossing the river.

As we headed towards the bridge, I saw a riverside park and there was a group of local indigenous people gathered on the edge of the beach and the park, which got me thinking. “Hang on a second guys, I need to go and have a chat with the fellers down by the river beach there,” I said to them, as I changed directions, and the lads followed but from a distance.

There was a mixture of ages in the group, a few elderly looking, a few adults, some teenagers and some children, as I approached, and I noticed that the lads had stopped following and watched from a distance. “G’day, my name is Jacob, can I take a seat with you please?” I asked as I stopped near the main group.

The group fell silent, and there was looks between the group until one of the older men waved me to sit down, so I sat down next to the old man, who was smiling to me, with a number of missing teeth. Another of the men a little younger was the first to speak up.

“Jacob, what brings you to our country?” he asked me. “I wish to acknowledge your peoples as the traditional owners of this land, and I ask for a moment to speak to you on a matter that can be beneficial to both your people and my small organisation,” I responded.

“Thankyou for asking for permission young Jacob, you are welcome here on our Nukunu lands any time, now tell us what is it that you want to know, the same man said after the older man said something in their language. “I spent the first five years of my life living in a place called Tanzania in Africa, at the foot of the great Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in that land,” I said.

“I have heard of this great mountain, I heard that it snows on the peaks even though it is in the middle of Africa,” the man said in response, “Yes sir, it does snow there, and I have climbed the great mountain, with my African brothers to spend time in peace and with nature.

It is from this experience, and the many mountains and tracks that I have trekked over the years, that has lead to me attending University to study conservation science. My friends and I own and run a private science company called Kuishi Project, which is Swahili for ‘To Survive’, and our main aim is to do surveys of native animals on land and in the water, as well as rescuing and treating sick and injured native animals,” I said to my hosts.

“Do you speak the language of the people of the great mountain Kilimanjaro?” I was asked by another person in the group, “I do, and very fluently, the woman who helped to bring me up along with my mother, her name is Nanny Afya, I speak to her regularly, and it is always in Swahili,” I replied.

“That is good that you speak that language where you grew up, never loose that language, as it will lead you to many places all over the world,” the old man said in slow broken English, which caught me by surprise. “I will do that Elder, thankyou for that,” I responded, and the old man smiled.

“I understand that the state government likes to include Indigenous peoples from all over to be part of the organisation that manages all of the national parks and reserves in South Australia, and it is why I am here sitting with you here this evening.

I would like to ask the Elders of these peoples for a recommendation for one of your mob to be part of my organisation, to help us to understand your country better, and help us to conserve and protect all of the native animals in South Australia,” I asked.

“We have a few of our people that work as rangers for the Department of Environment, and I can think of one of them who would be a good match for your organisation,” the middle-aged man said to me. “I am happy with this good news, is this person here today?” I responded, as I noticed that the rest of my team were now seated at the back of the group, listening in to the conversation.

“No, but I will send word for him to come to see you, if you give me the address to your office,” the man said to me, and I retrieved my wallet and passed to him one of my business cards, the first to be handed out to anyone. “Flagstaff Hill, that is in the southern suburbs of Adelaide, am I right?” the man asked me, “Yes sir, it is just south of Flinders University, where my friends and I are studying,” I replied.

“Very well, you will hear from him in a day or two, as he is based at the Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources, in Clare,” the man said to me. “I look forward to meeting him, thankyou all for allowing us to sit with you this evening, have a good night,” I said as I stood us and smiled to the group as the rest of the team, and together we headed back towards the Caravan Park.

“Interesting discussion Simba, I mean Jacob, it would have been nice to have been brought into the plan, before it happened,” Chris said once we were well away from the group. “Sorry about that, it has been something that I have been thinking about for some time, and when I saw the group gathered in the park, I thought I might as well ask to see if anyone would be interested.

You are not against having an indigenous member of staff are you?” I responded, “No, I think it is a great idea, and I understand that you want to, since you have lived in Africa when you were younger,” Will replied, and Chris nodded his head in agreement.

“That is very good to hear, as I would be very annoyed if you were not for this. Aaron, what are your thoughts on this, you have been very quiet,” I asked my cousin. “Well since this is my first time coming face to face with Indigenous Australians, and that I have only been in Australia for a short time, I guess I can’t really comment about it been good or bad, but I liked how you were very diplomatic about it,” Aaron replied.

“I noticed that too, very respectful and diplomatic, and I understand why you did it that way, and I think we should all be mindful that they are the first people of Australia, and maybe include it in our information pamphlets and displays,” Chris said.