LAND PATROL If it could go wrong ...
BY BERNIE WEBB
For 25 years I was a Customs Officer with the Australian Customs Service. Between 1976 and 1979 I was stationed in Broome as one of the six crew members on ACV (Australian Customs Vessel) ‘Jacana’. As well as our Marine tasks we were also required to assist the rest of the staff with other duties. One of these, and definitely my favourite, was Land Patrols.
L
and Patrols were completed in one of Broome Customs' two Series III Land Rovers (one for the Office and one for the Marine Unit). The purpose of these patrols was to liaise with the various cattle stations in the Kimberley on an irregular basis to check for such things as unusual sightings of aircraft, 4WDs, people, and anything else considered suspicious. Accompanying me on this particular patrol was Kevin S. (another crew member whose nickname was ‘Speed’). Our first or second overnight camp was at the camping ground at Windjana Gorge, I suspect a completely different arrangement to what it is now. As we arrived the sun was setting and the twilight in the tropics is very short lived due to its proximity to the equator. We quickly began to set up camp while there was some light left to see what we were doing. After most things were organised, I needed to go for a pee.
100
| Western 4W Driver #123
It was now nearly completely dark, just a distant glow of the last receding rays of the sun lighting up some clouds. On arrival, I had noticed, what I thought was a relatively shallow dry creek bed running alongside the campground about 20 metres from where we had camped. Deciding this would be a good place to pee, I wandered over and jumped down … First mishap: The ‘shallow’ creek bed was more like 1 to 1.5 metres deep. I ‘came to’ lying on the bottom of the creek bed ‘seeing stars’, a few seconds later. Luckily no serious damage but it was a bit of a shock to the system! I hastily peed and scrambled back up to the top, covered in a bit more Kimberley pindan dust than I had been, sporting some new scratches and feeling slightly sore and uncomfortable. I strolled back to camp as innocently as I could. The next day, as we were only half an hour or so from Tunnel Creek (Aboriginal name Dimalurra) and being on our way to our next station, we decided to have a look. Tunnel Creek is a natural cave formed over millions of years by fast flowing wet season water cutting through from one side of Napier Range to the other. It is about 1km long (2km return trip), around 12m wide and with varying amounts of water in many pools. On occasion it is known to be inhabited by freshwater crocodiles, and while they're relatively safe
