PEOPLE OF THE DESERT
Aboriginal People
Aboriginal artists use rocks, cave walls, bark and land to display art work. To make this artwork, they use sticks, colours, rubble, bark and crushed rock.
Bluey Llkirr is an artist. To make one of his master pieces, he cuts a big piece of bark from a stringy bark tree. When it is dry, he cuts it into pieces to paint on. He makes his paint by crushing different coloured rocks and mixing with water. That is why Aboriginal art has unique earthy colours. Aboriginal artists use lots of dots (put on with the end of a stick) and use patterns with special meanings like the pattern for waves.
Aboriginal people traditionally hunted for food in the desert using spears, boomerangs and stone axes. Tribes knew good places where water was close to the surface and they dug holes or used bamboo straws to suck up water. They watched birds to find waterholes. They marked good water holes by piling up rocks to make markers.
Desert tribes moved around to keep surviving. They were nomads.
Explorers
Many famous explorers lost their lives in the Australian desert because they didn't bring enough food and water or ask the aboriginal people for help.
Some of the successful explorers used camels. Camels are good in the desert because they can hold a lot of water, they have big flat feet for walking on sand and long eyelashes to keep out the sand.
Some of the famous desert explorers were
Charles Sturt (1844-46) explored the Stony Desert, the Simpson Desert and Lake Eyre
John McDouall Stuart (1860-62) explored all the way from Adelaide to the North Coast
Robert O'Hara Burke and William Wills (1860-61) explored from Melbourne to the Gulf of Carpentaria
Peter Warburton (1873) explored from Alice Springs, through the Great Sandy Desert to the West Coast
Ernest Giles (1873-76) explored the Gibson Desert (named after his friend who died), the Olgas, Uluru and many other outback spots
The Camel Lady
Robyn Davidson set out on her trek from Alice Springs in 1977. She took only 4 camels, her dog Diggity and food and drink to last them all.
After 75 days, she met an aborigine who taught her how to live and survive in the desert.
During that time she had to shoot her dog, because he had eaten some poisoned meat set out for the dingos.
After 195 days, Robyn and her camels reached their destination on the west coast and saw the Indian Ocean.
Page created by Nathan, Colin, Stacey and Amber