Green and Gold, butterflies and frogs and insects. Water, water everywhere and no one to drink a drop!
Living as we do in our isolated wilderness sanctuary here in Yaraka, it is at times, reasonably easy to tune out worldly events and happenings. Not so this time as the world population grapples with COVID-19.
As you can imagine, would be travellers have to have good cause for ‘essential’ travel and having Yaraka as a destination as an ‘essential’ doesn’t really work. And the caravan park, the swimming pool, the tennis courts, the park and Shire hall are all closed.
And so are we, the Yaraka Hotel is closed! We are ‘mothballed’ – I don’t like the word ‘lockdown’ as, for me, it creates visions of military type security with drawn guns. Mothballs or ‘mothballing’ (just typing that brings back to me that distinctive smell!) has a softer less aggressive meaning so we are ‘mothballed’!
The main (and only) bar is closed as is the dining room, the Barcoo room and the Garden bars. Entry prohibited! However we are allowed to sell takeaway meals and grog. These transactions will happen on the front veranda of the hotel as we greet and smile at each other with two metres separating us.
We have taken dramatic steps to cut our overheads by shutting down as much equipment that uses electricity as possible (electricity being our largest overhead) and having the kitchen cold room on with everything packed and stacked in there. The bar and dining room look very desolate indeed in their ‘mothballed’ state.
So Yaraka is without tourists. It’s just us locals and not many of us at that! But our wildlife, in its broadest sense, is prolific. Let’s start with insects. The huge variety, and in some cases, plague proportions of beetles, moths and flying insects is extraordinary and there are varieties that old timers have never ever seen here before. Suddenly they arrive at dusk where every light attracts them and the air is filled with flying, flitting, hitting and some biting insects. The arrival in huge numbers of black beetles recently, and they are still lingering, was an eye opener for all. Where did they suddenly emerge from? And they did appear to be a beetle we hadn’t seen here before. Outside the hotel we have a timber electricity pole that runs wires and is also a street light. At night this pole was hidden by a dense covering of these black beetles, as was every other light source, and beneath each source of light was a carpet of black beetles. In smaller numbers we also had the almost bright green beetles mixed in with a whole heap of other creepy crawlies! And we had moths – big ones, small ones, white ones, brown ones – flitting and flapping everywhere and again attracted to every light source. (Can someone explain to me why these insects attracted to light sources don’t start flying toward the sun each morning?) And if we throw in what seems to be every winged insect ever created to come and join their light attracted partners, you will be understanding that perhaps it is not such a bad idea not to be in Yaraka! However invasions of insects like this are a good sign that rain activity is around and usually a sign that we are in for more wet.
And how extraordinary are frogs? We’ve had this serious drought for a number of years – the area was a dustbowl. The rains come, the countryside is revived and dormant seeds explode into life producing a verdant carpet which is now turning to silvery gold colouring, and the frogs are back! Big fat Green frogs who delight in sitting in toilet bowls; and are able to squeeze into tiny spaces where they can, with their nearby neighbours, commence their croaking chorus. And with them we have a multitude of tiny Brown frogs that appear everywhere. So here is the next question. The wet brings back the frogs and the ones that do sit in the toilet are the minority but the majority seem to head for buildings and other dry places to live and croak happily – why is it so? And where have they emerged from whilst the ground was parched, cracked and during the summer months like a hot plate during the drought?
Now that’s the night time picture. But during the daytime everything changes and we have butterflies flitting and floating everywhere in huge numbers and they are a delight to watch!
So now with waterholes filled and rivers and creeks having run, and ready to do so again with even moderate rains, and dams full, we have water, water everywhere and no one here to drink a drop, unlike the lines from The Ancient Mariner – ‘Water water everywhere and not a drop to drink’. Our town dams are full and we have enough water to keep us going for a couple of years.
So here we are in Yaraka in isolated isolation and you know what? It’s rather nice! Our beautiful, and sometimes brutal, landscape of mesa hills and ranges with their colour changes and shadows combined with the ivory gold coloured grasses and woody weeds, is restful on the eyes and the peace and tranquillity of the place makes up for some of the previously mentioned disadvantages – and I haven’t even mentioned the flies! Oh dear me the flies – they are another story!
By Chris Gimblett