TAMMIE MATSON | MATSON & RIDLEY SAFARIS

The enthusiastic cackling of blue-winged kookaburras heralds the start of a new day in the stringybark and grass-tree country, followed soon after by the lilting cry of a whistling kite. Mid-winter, it’s cool enough for a light coat in the early morning, before the inevitable warmth of the day comes. When the sun rises it comes quickly over towering sandstone cliffs. Caves and overhangs tucked in beneath the cliffs harbor a special secret – the ancient rock art of the Kuku-Yalanji clan who call this place home. This is Quinkan Country, part of the Laura basin and the gateway to the Cape York Peninsula, about a 5-6 hours drive north-west of Cairns. There’s a sense of wilderness here that you don’t feel in many places, the kind that makes you want to just stop and breathe it all in.  

I’m here with my family, husband  Andy and kids, Solo and Shep (aged 10 and 6), and our host is a local legend, Kuku-Yalanji guide, Johnny Murison. Johnny’s great grandmother Rosie Palmer hails from this very country, making him a traditional custodian of the land. It’s a responsibility he takes seriously. Being out here with Johnny feels like a real honor, not only because of his vast knowledge of his people’s history and culture but also because he is a masterful and humorous storyteller and a supremely nice bloke to boot. His passion for sharing his country with the young and old is obvious immediately and he bubbles with enthusiasm as he speaks about the way his people have lived in harmony with the land and continue to manage it for future generations through cultural burning, keeping the country healthy. There’s nothing fake or put-on about this experience; with Johnny what you see is what you get.

I spot wattle flowering on the rough, 4×4-only drive in Johnny’s battered old Land Cruiser, a sign,  he tells me, that it’s a good time for goannas and turtles. He tells us about the quinine tree and its use for medicine and encourages us to taste the bitter leaves. Handing around the hard pod of clothes peg grevillea tree, Johnny talks about its various traditional uses,  from hanging items to dry to being used as a weapon in a slingshot.  Everywhere you look there is bush tucker and healthy country, and around us, small, cool dry season fires smoke gently. This is the time of year to burn here before it gets too hot and fuel loads too high, Johnny explains, lighting up another dry tuft of grass nearby.  It crackles into flame but spreads slowly.

The 20,000-year-old Quinkan artworks are magnificent to both adult and children’s eyes,  with scenes of animals such as wallabies, echidnas, jabirus, emus, and bandicoots interspersed with the spiritual figures that are the ‘Quinkans’. Johnny’s stories bring the ochre paintings alive in a way you simply couldn’t appreciate otherwise and you can’t help but feel a reverence similar to what you might feel in a thousand-year-old cathedral in Europe. 

This region wasn’t always so peaceful. The Gold Rush of the 1870s brought thousands of European and  Chinese miners into these sandstone escarpments in search of gold, leading to violent clashes with the local Indigenous people who fought – with great success – with spears flung from the vantage of elevated cliffs against the new arrivals’ guns.  

There’s still gold in the sediments below the sandstone cap today for those who are willing to search hard enough for it. It’s not easy walking. On a steep, scrambling trek into the canyon in search of a cooling waterhole for a swim, we meet a mate of Johnny’s, prospector Tremaine and his partner  Dawn, who proudly show us their hard-won findings for the day, a small handful of gold worth a few hundred dollars.  

By the flickering campfire at night, we’re regaled by yarns about what life used to be like here for the  Kuku-Yalanji in times gone by. When Johnny picks up his didgeridoo and plays, it resonates straight through you. This place, drawing in people of different cultures and ages, is a place of deep connection, awe, and wonder. It’s a story writ large in the ancient rock art of this area. This is what it feels like to be transported to a land before time. 

JOHNNY MURISON RUNS JARRAMALI ROCK ART  

TOURS ARE BASED IN CAIRNS, QUEENSLAND. 

WWW.JARRAMALIROCKARTTOURS.COM.AU/TOURS

DR TAMMIE MATSON IS A ZOOLOGIST, AUTHOR AND CEO OF MATSON &  RIDLEY SAFARIS, OFFERING LIFE-CHANGING JOURNEYS IN AFRICA AND  AUSTRALIA, BASED IN CAIRNS, QUEENSLAND.