Day 44 – Sun, 22 Aug at Derby

I was awoken by an early telephone call – Robyn thought that she would ring me before she got out of bed this morning - which was lovely as it was 7:30 in Sydney, but she forgot that it was only 5:30 in Derby. We both laughed as I was awake, but she had totally forgotten about the time differences. Not much later Jon rings from the BMW riders group for a chat – it was really nice to hear from everyone, as it is not often that I have mobile coverage.

As I wasn’t moving on today I thought I would take it easy over breakfast and then do a short ride to look around Derby. So before the day got too hot, I donned the riding gear and took a tour.

  First up was out onto the jetty which sits in the muddy water of the bay. The tide was on its way in with a high of 9 odd metres due at lunch time. They can get tides exceeding 11m here, some of the biggest in the world. The town is surrounded on two sides by mud flats that can obviously be covered with water in the truly high tides – not so today.

After that a short ride around town and I finished at the Old Derby Gaol. What a depressing place this turned out to be and a real blight on our history. To see a place that was used to hold the aborigines, sometimes for a couple of days and at other times for months, was utterly abhorrent.

You see, this Gaol commenced operations in 1906 but didn’t close until 1975 – I was 25 years old at that time and Australia was supposed to be an inclusive society long before that, I guess we only had gotten rid of the White Australian Policy a number of years before hand.

Initially the police were used to deal with the “problem blacks” in the early pastoral days. But then they were used to deal with Australia’s aboriginal solution – the lost generation as it is now known. The Gaol was no more then a concrete floor, with corrugated iron roofing and rear wall, and bars around the rest. No sanitation, prisoners with collar shackles chained to the floor.

So this was a shock but the story boards told the history from the various perspectives. The communities still have strong feelings for this significant place, which is now a part of the national trust – and so it should be. I know we have just had an election, but are we doing the same thing in a more “humane” way with the boat people that are arriving. Makes you think about what we are actually being told by the governments of the day.

Sorry about that but as you can see it really affected me. I moved onto coffee at a local cafe where I spoke with a miner heading out to the Kimberley Diamond Mine (about 110km up the Gibb River Rd) to start a 13 day shift at the mine.

This afternoon was a rest period, sitting in the shade of the tree at my camp, catching up on some forward planning. Oh I had been to Woolworths and bought some steak for tonight which I had with Leo & Marika from SA. They have been travelling now for about 2 months, have had some Nissan engine trouble, but they also enjoy prospecting for gold and fishing. Lovely people who shared their wine and time with a fellow traveller.

So I watched the sunset, enjoyed the company of others and generally finished in a happier mood then this morning. Tomorrow I head out to see what more this fabulous country of ours has to offer. Be kind, empathetic and thoughtful to your fellow man - it isn’t that hard.