Mataranka of the Never Never

As we packed up before heading to Mataranka, the bracket holding the TV up on the wall spontaneously ripped out of the panel it was screwed into.  Lou was standing in the doorway talking to Ross when they heard a commotion and they turned in time to see the TV plummeting to the floor.  Luckily, it was plugged into all the cables which attach to the ceiling and that broke its fall somewhat.  The TV landed on a corner and the antennae cable ripped out of the back.  Somehow it didn’t shatter and when we tested it, it still played DVDs fine.  The big issue was that when the antenna ripped out of the back it took most of the connection point on the TV with it.  The result was that we couldn’t watch any free to air, which was a big pain given Ben’s newfound obsession with Zumbo’s Just Desserts and also with the AFL Grand Final approaching.  We spoke to New Age (again!) and they said they would send us a replacement TV to Alice Springs where we are heading in a couple of weeks.  Jenny decided to fix the bracket herself as she had discovered that they had screwed the original one into a thin wall with short screws.  She bought longer screws and went in search of a hunk of wood that she could glue and screw in the wall cavity as plating  to provide extra purchase.

Onwards to Mataranka…

The area around Mataranka is where the book and movie ‘We of the Never Never’ is set.  There is a lot of memorabilia, a couple of museums and some well-worn statues there and Jenny was keen to watch the film ‘on location’.  She had wanted to do the same with Wolf Creek but we weren’t able to take the van down to the Wolf Creek crater for that viewing (which Lou was very happy about!)

Luckily, when we visited the ‘Never Never Museum’ they were selling copies of the film so we purchased one on the way in.  As it turns out, the DVDs on the front counter are about as ‘Never Never’ related as the museum gets.  It is mainly town history and a lot of WW2 memorabilia.  As with many areas of the NT, Mataranka saw a lot of armed forces activity and the descriptions of living conditions at the time are dreadful.  Anyone who served up here during those terrible years should get a medal, even if they never saw direct action.  Surviving the heat, bugs, crocodiles, mosquitos, diseases, snakes, spiders, lizards, wet, humidity, vast distances and many other challenges was a miracle in itself.  

For our real ‘Never Never’ experience, we visited the reconstructed ‘Elsey Homestead’ which is the relocated replica of the original house that was used in the movie.  The interior has furniture from the set and there are several dresses worn by Angela Punch McGregor who starred as Jeanie Gunn in the film. 

Outside the Elsey Homestead.

Despite its historical renown and celluloid credentials, Mataranka is best known for its hot springs.   There are two to visit, the Mataranka Hot Springs and Bitter Springs. 

Mataranka Springs is the most well known but to be honest, we found it a little underwhelming.   It is smaller than we anticipated and it has been paved, so it is more like a public swimming pool (albeit a very warm one) than a natural hot spring.  The hot springs in Katherine are much better, as are the Buley Rock Holes in Litchfield (although Buley aren’t hot springs, they are certainly warm enough). 

Ben enjoying Mataranka Springs.

After taking a dip with a zillion other tourists, we left and headed into town to take some cheesy photos with statues of the film characters which dot the parkland there.  

Jenny and Ross.

Lou with Jeannie and Aeneas Gunn.

Jenny was delighted to find a giant fake termite mound that was covered with spray on render and had a bull’s head embedded in it.  She does love tacky monuments.

Happy dance at the fake termite mound.

We headed for Bitter Springs and as the kiwis would say, it was much ‘bitter’ than the pool at Mataranka. For a start, it was still in its natural state, other than for some paved steps to make getting in and out easier and safer.  We’d been told that you can drift downstream in the water and then walk back up a path to the entry point so we went prepared.  We took thongs as the return path is rocky and in order to carry them, everyone had a floatation ‘noodle’ with a thong stuck on each end.  Ben had his Wahu vest with thongs laced through the straps.

The water was really warm and the current made for a leisurely float down the river.  There were bits of algae in the water, submerged logs and grasses growing beneath us while we were surrounded by trees and blue skies.  We passed through a few smelly sections but just made fart jokes and carried on.  We ended up with some great underwater footage of Ross kicking and turning in the water, which Jenny put to music and edited to make a very funny synchronised swimming video.

Noodles and thongs ready!

That night Jenny saw a snake in the toilet block area. There was also a cane toad (that Ross whacked with a door mat) but the snake seemed to know to keep away from it.  The caravan park owner told us that the cane toads had decimated snake numbers over recent years and she was glad to hear that there were still some around.

Snake vs toad.

Later on we experienced a ‘top end’ rain dump.  Luckily Lou was still awake around midnight when the rain started and she ran outside to grab the washing off the line and put away the camp chairs.  Ross was also out putting chairs away and bringing their washing in too.  It was good timing, as just as we got back into our vans the heavens opened and it absolutely bucketed down.  

Unfortunately, we were getting close to the end of our time with Ross, Barb and Daniel.  When we hit Daly Waters, they would head east and we would continue south.  The boys were not happy about this situation as they get along so well and did not want to be parted at all.  It has been brilliant for Ben to have company and Daniel is one of the nicest kids we have met.  We would miss Ross and Barb a lot too.  They have been brilliant to travel with and we were all a little surprised to realise that it had been 5 months since we first met and around 3 since we have been travelling together.  In that time, we have done so many great things with them, had heaps of laughs, learned a lot (Ross is a walking encyclopaedia), laughed at how similar Ross/Jenny and Barb/Lou are, caught very few fish, played a lot of cards and generally had an awesome time.  We’re really glad that they live so close to us back home!