The Kimberley Camp Dog Launch
A few families came along to enjoy some colouring in and puzzles as a school holiday activity at the Eden Killer Whale Museum under the sails. Jila came along with her family pictured above to meet her fans.
She even had a bath!
Thank you to all who attended and to the museum for their kind support - we are lucky here on the Far South Coast of NSW to have such a mild winter allowing us to enjoy these outdoors activities.
The above film clip of the book is read by Trish Lamacraft - the grandmother of the Try family - the photo above was taken on her deck looking down on Twofold Bay in Eden where Jila and her family came to visit each Summer before flying back to the Kimberley region where Nick was the principal of the tiny bush school, teaching aboriginal children. Here is her story.
THE
KIMBERLEY CAMP DOG – A Fly in – Fly out – Doggie
When the little pup was born it rained and rained forming
puddles in the red desert dirt of the Kimberley. The aboriginal people there spoke about
Wandjina – the spirit that brings water and life to the desert. Perhaps this pup was a gift of the rain
maker. She was found, almost drowning in one of those
puddles, coated in red sticky mud, so they named her Jila which means ‘water’
in Gooniyandi.
Jila is a typical camp dog, part dingo, part heeler, part
mongrel. She’s not particularly
beautiful – her back black as velvety desert night skies, her face and the
lower parts of her strong body was as red as Kimberley dirt. Her four, ever-on-the-move paws are snowy
white, as is the tip of her tail, a small spot on her questing nose and a little
flash on her chest. Jila has a deep barrel
of a chest and muscular legs, built up like a body builder by the constant patrolling
of her territory. She is a dog constantly
on the move.
The tiny community at the Yiyili Aboriginal Community School where
she lives is almost mid-way between Fitzroy Crossing and Halls Creek, home to a
vibrant community of artists and crafts people.
These people create beautiful paintings and wooden carvings based on
dreamtime stories and featuring the plants and animals of this harsh desert
landscape. They celebrate the bounty of
the trees in their artworks and decorate the wooden nuts.
Jila, was plucked out of the puddle and saved from certain
death by Nick Try the headmaster of the school as his family didn’t have a camp
dog. They obviously needed a protector
and hunter for their growing mob of tiny kids – every family in the community
had at least one dog – or more. It
seemed important that the head man of the school had a Kimberley camp dog.
Jila grew as did Nick’s family – almost every year a baby
appeared and they looked much like little fat, white witchetty grubs to the
Yiyili mob. It was important to the
grannies and the tribe that these children had tribal names and were part of
the community. They talked to the missus
about smoking the babies. She was a bit
concerned at first – then realised it was quite a compliment and form of deep
acceptance. So the head man teacher and
his missus agreed.
All of this was closely watched by Jila who was very
protective of her family. She took up a distance
stance keeping an eye on the proceedings without making her presence felt. She showed no interest in the aboriginal
community preferring to stick to the tribe of the teacher.
Every Christmas, when the school closed for holidays, Nick’s
wife Kate would arrange to meet her parents, at the Snowy River in Gippsland to
start their summer break. This involved quite a lengthy trip. The first leg was a seven hour drive to
Broome then a plane flight to Melbourne.
They would then pick up a car and drive from the airport to Orbost
meeting Kate’s parents at their holiday cabin on the river.
This long and journey was further complicated by their needs
of their growing family and having to bring Jila along as well. The first trip was quite traumatic for the
Kimberley camp dog. She was terrified as
the car left her home at the school and headed down the highway to Broome.
At the airport Jila was pushed into a travelling crate, a
plastic box with a wire-mesh door at the front. She was then loaded into the luggage
compartment of the plane with other animals.
She hated it. She whined. She howled.
She bit the wire. She sulked and
then she slept. The scariest part was at
take off when Jila felt like her tummy was left behind at Broome as the rest of
her body was in the air. This flying
part of the journey was not a happy time for her.
In Melbourne the family waited to collect their unhappy dog. Jila gave them the cold shoulder for a while
until she was loaded into the car for the next leg of the journey. Nose in the
cool breeze she took in the smells of the city and sneezed – too much pollution
here in all this traffic. Out on the
Gippsland Highway she felt a lot better.
It was very green and the forest had a damp smell to it – so different
to the dry sparse Kimberley scrub.
They stopped for breaks every couple of hours allowing
everyone to stretch their legs and the littlies to run about. Nappies were changed, everyone fed and Jila
allowed to explore just a little on her leash, then back into the car for more
miles of travel.
Kate’s parents Trish and Richard Lamacraft who live at the
top of a hill overlooking Twofold Bay in Eden would set off from Eden to meet
the family.
The book follows the journey Jila and her family have taken
for many years and illustrates how a little determined dog has her paws firmly
planted in the red soil of the Kimberleys and the sandy beach of Twofold Bay.
