It is the end of the wet season, also the start of the visitor's season. We are a bit early in the season. It is still quite hot and the majority of the roads are still closed to all vehicles due to floods and washouts. We attempt a part of the Gib River Road, notorious for 4WD breakdowns, and get almost stuck in the mud. A car wreck, rolled over by floods during late wet, was lying in the river.

Halls Creek and Fitzroy Crossing are towns set among aboriginal communities. Some call them wellfare towns where aboriginals have no other activity during the day except for sitting down and drinking alcohol. Public places are scattered with empty beer cans. A community notice board announces the next AA meeting. Abuse, neglect, it is all extremely sad to see. Did we only meet the outcasts and those that are banned from their outback communities? I certainly hope so. When discussing Aboriginal art, an art dealer said that contemporary artists no longer know what song is linked to their drawings. To me it sounded as if Aboriginal culture is fading. Wandering, straying, trapped between cultures. Things are not going well for the 'grubbed out' ('uprooted') Aboriginals.