Tourism in the Upper Gascoyne region

DARK SKY TOURISM

BY DR JOHN H COLLINS

The Upper Gascoyne Kennedy Loop Car Rally 2022, Chaff Cutters Spring Stargazing & Astrophotography.

The Shire of Upper Gascoyne continues to work hard to identify gaps in services and resources for their local government area that would be beneficial to the larger system through improved community resilience in times of drought and other significant change events.

Regular readers will recall several articles about activities associated with the Kennedy Range area. For new readers or just to simply recap, the winter edition of Western 4W Driver (#122, page 160) described the Baston family vision for Jimba Jimba Station to restore parts of the former shearing shed that was destroyed in the 2010 Gascoyne floods and to make minor repairs to former Winnemia shearing shed infrastructure to allow for low impact tourism which will give independent overlanding travellers who are wanting to camp close to and enjoy the Gascoyne River prior to entering the Kennedy Range National Park. Will Baston also described the process his family has taken to formally recognise the Yinggarda people as being the traditional custodians of the land and how they formalised this acknowledgement by negotiating and then by executing an Indigenous Land Use Agreement (ILUA) on 31st August 2021. At the time of writing, Track Care WA volunteers have made a start on the project and reportedly, already the area isn’t recognisable. Around the Kennedy Range in Five Days: A Vintage Car Challenge published in Western 4W Driver's spring edition (#123, pages 140-151) discussed how this Vintage Car Challenge was intended to be the first step in assisting the creation of a new trail that will add value to the existing Gascoyne Murchison Outback Pathways (www.outbackpathways. com). It was anticipated by the authors that this new trail will spotlight the Gascoyne Murchison attractions of astrophotography, astronomy, stargazing, geology, station stays, birdlife and wildflowers. The authors predicted that these attractions will appeal

to self-drive overlanders, particularly those who are prepared for an authentic 4WD adventure. Developing strategies to bring community together, develop a shared vision and to form bonds is a challenging objective at any time. When the local community is just over 200 residents within a land-locked shire spread over 57,809 square kilometres, it is important to have a feeling of connectedness, particularly in difficult times. An added layer of complexity is that many of the community reside in other locations within the state. Although geographically separated from the shire, many people hold on to strong connections to the region even though those relationships will be complex and diverse. It is important to reach out and reconnect to these people as I believe that they can bring additional skills and support that is required in times of adversity. Reconnecting with these nonresident stakeholders is a well-recognised regional community development or resilience building problem. One solution for engaging with all stakeholders is the upskilling of community leaders, a process that in some parts begins in primary school. The development of courageous and authentic leaders by engaging in experiential leadership training is a method that has been successful and repeatedly demonstrated by approximately 30 years of great work undertaken by Australian Rural Leadership Foundation (ARLF) graduates who together work towards building thriving and resilient regional, rural and remote communities. Gascoyne community leaders Alys McKeough, Will Baston and Ainsley Hardie have recently participated in the Australian Drought Resilience Leadership Program that is delivered by the ARLF. What is this program? The program is typically delivered over eight days in total and focuses on topics including adaptive leadership, change theory, personal and community resilience, climate science, problem solving, mental and physical wellbeing, scenario planning, influence,

and network leadership. The program is part of the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund which provides funding to help Australian farmers and communities prepare for and respond to the impacts of drought. The program intends to provide farmers and regional communities the opportunity to develop skills, knowledge, mindset, and networks to lead their communities into the future. Ainsley said that as part of the program, they were given the opportunity to create an event that would bring the community together to celebrate who we are, and to better understand the resilience of our community, and how we can come together to create opportunities to strengthen this resilience. The Car Rally event was envisioned by Alys, Will and Ainsley to take the invitees out of their day-to-day environment and meet in a neutral space away from technology. This facilitated participants to enjoy their own backyard, meet new people and have time to yarn over food. Of course, sitting around a campfire ensures everyone is able to have a shared experience that simplifies the development of new social networks that are essential to better individual and community resilience during times of need. The organising trio decided an ideal

location for the workshop would be the Kennedy Range loop road that included camping at Chaff Cutter Spring. The event commenced at the Gascoyne Junction Community Resource Centre on Friday 16th September, with two departure times so that arrival at the Chaffcutters Spring was timely and ensured essential camp set-up activity could be completed before sunset. This approach ensured sufficient time was available to stop and discuss various points of interest such as Mooka Springs complex and its associated creek formation that is a regionally significant aquatic system and an unusual ecological community. The name is derived from the Aboriginal word "mooka" that means "running waters", no doubt in reference to the many freshwater springs that feed Mooka Creek. Participants viewed the protection and interpretation signage provided by the recently established DBCA National Park ranger team. The spring stopping area is adjacent to the Mookaite mine that produces a

gemstone that has been described as chert, opalite, chalcedony or combinations of the three. Apparently, the degree of silica in the material determines its description. Mookaite is made up of billions of fossilised silicate skeletons of marine organisms called Radiolarians. They are found as zooplankton throughout the ocean, and their skeletal remains cover large portions of the ocean bottom as radiolarian ooze. This ooze has been heated or metamorphosed over the millennia of time and the porcelainised mud formed the Mookaite. The colours were added by the manganese and iron minerals weathering from the Kennedy Ranges into Mooka

Spring and staining the Mookaite. Being a chert, this geological supply was an important stone tool or implement making resource for Aboriginal people and the area is surrounded by several sacred sites and water holes. The surrounding exMooka pastoral lease was purchased as part of the Gascoyne Murchision Strategy (GMS). The Strategy purchases comprise the Mooka pastoral lease and parts of seven other National Park adjoining leases. All the eight purchases have been managed since acquisition as if they were already National Park whilst the process to add them to the public conservation estate proceeds. The GMS started in 1999 and was intended to help drive increased tourism, agricultural infrastructure development and agricultural diversification in the GascoyneMurchison Region. It was described by our State Government as a 'highly successful $50million Strategy' that was completed in September 2004. Chaff Cutters Spring stargazing was the “star” event for me! Matt Woods’ day job is Tour Administrator at the Perth Observatory and he led the stargazing viewing using a telescope focused on Saturn and other points of interest. I saw for the first time, the unmistakable rings of Saturn. The image had a very sharp focus although quite small, but it was surrounded by smaller bright sparkling stars. The scene reminded me of a fine jewellery setting with Saturn the central feature that was surrounded by innumerable sparkling diamonds arranged to enhance and focus attention onto the central feature! The dark night sky was perfect for viewing the stars and provides a great opportunity for anyone interested in astrophotography or nightscape photography. Briefly, astrophotography is the capture of deep space images of faroff features such as the Milky Way that shows features not observable by a human eye. Nightscape photography will typically include some foreground features with a brilliant star light sky. Matt also reminded everyone that the Shire of Upper Gascoyne is working with the Shire of Carnarvon to coordinate a series of events based around the Solar Eclipse that will be occurring on Thursday 20th April 2023 in Exmouth. At around 11.27am the path of totality will graze the tip of WA along the Gascoyne coastline drawing thousands of visitors to the Gascoyne Region. On 20th April, Gascoyne Junction will receive 90.25% path of totality, Kennedy Range National Park 92.19% path of totality, and Mt Augustus 87.81% path of totality. Matt said, "On April 20th, 2023, WA gets to experience a rare total solar

eclipse at Exmouth and if you can’t get to Exmouth, Gascoyne Junction isn’t a bad spot to see it from. We're looking forward to getting back to Gascoyne Junction on the way back from the eclipse as well. It's always fantastic to be able to get out of the city and experience the darkest night skies possible. It's even better when you can experience breathtaking scenery during the day as well and we got to experience this on our trip up to Gascoyne Junction this year." This eclipse is unusual for two reasons. First, this one promises to be a relatively rare “hybrid eclipse.” This is when the Sun-Moon-Earth spacing provides an annular eclipse at both ends of the path of totality (the points on Earth farthest from the Moon) in which the Moon covers the Sun’s centre, leaving the Sun’s outer edges visible. This brief event forms a “ring of fire” or annulus around the Moon and, a brief total eclipse in the path’s middle. Second, the track of totality covers tiny bits of land in just three countries - the Exmouth Gulf Area of Western Australia, Timor-Leste, and Indonesia. While this is a truly fascinating region of the world, getting to see totality will require some planning and as I suspect, accommodation bookings will be challenging around Exmouth for the event. WARNING: Never view the sun with the naked eye or by looking through optical devices such as binoculars or telescopes! The morning of Saturday 17th start was leisurely as we were to complete the Loop Track before heading back to Gascoyne Junction for a Gascoyne Food Festival dinner at the Junction Pub and Tourist Park. There were numerous stops along the way to enjoy points of interest and just to take a short break from driving. Our BBQ lunch stop overlooked the eastern edge of the Kennedy Ranges and the expanse of the Lyons River valley far below us. The view was described by Matt who said, "I was awestruck getting the chance to stand on the Kennedy Ranges escarpment and seeing an ancient landscape that few people get to see in their life." We also stopped at the mysterious former Merlinleigh Station homestead, which was apparently destroyed by fire. Although

little of the homestead building remains there is an adjacent corrugated iron shed that was possibly a harness / saddle area. Nevertheless, it is an interesting spot to stop and ponder various abandoned artifacts from an earlier time. The culmination of a great last day was the invitation from the Gascoyne Junction Pub and Tourist Park to enjoy a gastronomic event that comprised an array of BBQ and smoked meats from the region, paired with some of the other fresh Gascoyne produce. Everyone was dressed in their best country attire and dancing boots for those country tunes. We also had the opportunity to once more enjoy a leading stargazing experience that was complete with the prospect of viewing brilliant stars set against a very dark sky through a telescope operated by Matt from the Perth Observatory. People interested in the 20th April 2023 Solar Eclipse may like to consider as their planning evolves that according to Matt, "Gascoyne Junction isn’t a bad spot to see it from". I look forward to hearing more from our hosts Alys, Will and Ainsley about how they perceive the success of their innovative project, which I think is an interesting example of experiential outdoor community engagement. These types of community engagement programmes tend to foster a sense of stewardship and encourage appropriate visitor behaviour that minimises adverse visitor impacts on the environment while enhancing visitor experiences. I also feel privileged to have been a part of such an innovative project and offer my thanks to everyone who came together to make the event such an extraordinary occasion.