Segment: Njaki Njaki Tours
Presenter: Christina Morrissy
TX Date: 6th January 2019
Halfway between Perth and Kalgoorlie lies the central wheatbelt town of Merredin, home to one of the best cultural experiences in Australia.
- Local boy Mick is a Njaki Njaki man with an encyclopaedic knowledge of the country he was born in. His tour starts in the bush just outside of Merredin – and this Aboriginal reserve was the place where he spent the majority of his childhood.
- You’ll be shown the old camping ground from long before the white settlers came to the area. The grounds are surrounded by marked trees, otherwise known as scarred trees.
- Mick shares many of the old traditions, particularly those he credits for the longevity of his old people. Both his grandmother and great grandmother lived to be over 100, which Mick believes is due to the fact that they ate off the land.
- The tour stops by some quandong trees. These trees are what the local people make their jam out of, something that the older people swear by.
- The old army hospital was built in the 1940s and it was built because the Japanese flying in the area only had fuel for the one way, so if they ever reached the Merredin area, they were going down.
- The tour takes you up the hill, giving you a great lookout over the area. You can see the town’s original dam from the rock. This damn was the area’s watering hole, and when the white settlers came along, they made it into a dam to feed their steam trains.
www.njakinjaki.com.au
www.westernaustralia.com