Page 246 - Mit dem Wohnwagen durch Australien

one Banjo and another Clancy. New bones are found constantly and are prepared by volunteer lay workers which
are periodically supervised by palaeontologists. The progress can be viewed in the preparations centre. In a few
years the world wide largest dinosaur centre will be built here and put Winton on the world map.

BARRIER REEF
We were looking forward with much anticipation to our visit to the Great Barrier Reef. Not because of the sharks or
Crocs which are allegedly resident in the area, but because of an encounter with the only one of my world wide
cousins whom I have not met yet. Capt’n Stefan has left his native Germany as seaman before he was twenty more
than 40 years ago. He now lives in Shute Harbour in Australia. We have passed some very agreeable and interesting
days and evenings with Stefan. He knows plenty of stories and the time just flew by. We almost had to steal away
time to the Barrier Reef. That was a fascinating day. After 2 hours on the boat through the picturesque Whitsunday
Islands, we arrived at the hardy Reef. We immediately donned wetsuits, snorkel and fins and floated effortlessly
over the coral reefs. The Barrier Reef is the largest living body on earth and can be seen from outer space. Corals
grow in a multitude of forms and colours. Some have hard calcite hulls, other remain quite soft. Corals live in
symbiosis with a minute creature, which gives colour to the corals. If the conditions for these creatures become
suboptimal, i.e. water becomes too warm or cold, too much or not enough sunshine etc., they leave the corals and
the corals in turn become greyish-white. If the adverse conditions continue, the corals starve to death.

We enjoy the hovering over this hidden water world and have company of many coloured fishes and 3 to 3 m long
Groper and Trevally. I like the giant Venus Clams the best they are so colourful, green, purple or yellow veined, and
also get their dye from these little creatures. On the way back from the reefs we were lucky to see a family of
Humpback Wales majestically passing up North. They blow white steam fountains into the blue sky and playfully
splash foaming white spray with their tails. They usually dive for about 7 minutes and then come up again to get air.

The shore is something else. The whole area looks like the Côte d’Azur or some other overpopulated European
seaside. Each and every centimetre is built upon. There are shops with cheap souvenirs all over the place; tiny
travel agencies try to hawk the tours to the Reef and other attractions with ostentatious handmade placards. We
replenish our food supply and vanish again to the Outback.

MATILDA COUNTRY
For most of us poetry is something which had to be endured during school time. Not so in the anglophile world,
especiallyAustralia. Local bush poets are highly revered, especially Henri Lawson and A. Banjo Patterson who lived
and wrote in the middle of the 19th century. Banjo has the written the unofficialAustralian national anthem “Waltzing
Matilda” which draws tears from every Australian abroad when he hears it. It is the story of a swagman; drop out,
who rest alongside a billabong, a little water pool with his Matilda, his rucksack. A jumbuck, a lamb, comes close
and the swagman packs it in his tucker bag, his bag for provisions. There comes the squatter, a farmer, with three
troopers, policemen, and wants to apprehend the swagman for theft of the lamb. He swagman wants to safe the
only thing he got left, his freedom, jumps into the billabong and drowns. Banjo has written this song in Winton and
the little outback town has dedicated a large modern museum solely to this song. The whole countryside is now
named Matilda country.

Poetry is very popular in Australia. There are national bush poetry competitions. One of the judges and a colleague
of hers are on our campground in Winton and every evening they give a different show in the corrugated iron shed.
In the afternoon a nationally acclaimed country singer Graham Rodgers sings in the shed. He had a Nr. 1 hit in the
country chats in Europe, USA and Australia. The spectators and us of course, laugh, applaud and stamp our feet in
uproar. The artists are buskers that means, we pay not entry fee, but they do a bush hat collection at the end of their
show. People give according to their performance and the hat is very well filled each evening.