<
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/apr/30/lake-eyre-kati-thanda-tourists-salt-pan-adelaide>
"When Bronwyn Dodd looks out across Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre, an expanse covering
almost 1,000 sq km in the middle of a national park, she thinks of home.
It’s a place both sacred and dangerous, she says, which is why there’s a plan
to stop people walking on the lake bed without permission.
“I think of the place my father, my grandparents and all those that came before
have walked, lived, hunted, survived,” the chair of the Arabana Aboriginal
Corporation says.
“In such a vast, remote landscape it’s very grounding to think our people have
survived there for thousands of years.
“I also reflect on water. Water is very sacred to us. My elders often tell me:
‘without water, there is no life’.”
Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre, about 700km north of Adelaide, is an enormous salt pan –
until the floods creep through it, bringing colour and life.
There’s a small flood every few years, a big one once a decade, and the lake
fills up about once every 25 years as water from the Lake Eyre Basin – which
spreads across Queensland, the Northern Territory, New South Wales and South
Australia – drains into it.
Overlaying it are the Arabana’s dreaming stories, their knowledge, their songs
and traditions – their Ularaka. There are culturally significant mound springs,
dreaming stories associated with the underlying Great Artesian Basin. There are
totemic species, alongside bush tucker and traditional medicines.
But the lake also attracts tourists, who sometimes stray from the paths in
their cars or by foot. A draft management plan aims to stop that, and to keep
tourists to specific viewing platforms and on specific tracks around the lake
bed. There’ll be exemptions for scientific research and commercial filming and
photography.
Swimming, driving and boating are already restricted. Those restrictions will
be extended to walking on the lake bed if the plan goes ahead.
“It’s actually quite dangerous for them to [walk on the lake bed],” Dodd says.
“You can sink knee-deep in it.”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
