Sep 152018
 
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kai with a nice Bawaka muddieon his spear

recently timmy mentioned he wanted to put a gate in at bawaka to try to stop unwanted visitors when no one is at the community and dave and I told him we would sort something out. in the end timmy suggested we relocate an old gate that he made about 10 years ago, that was installed at a creek crossing on the way to mosquito creek.

the removal of the gate proved to be quite an exercise on its own, timmy and i went out to mosquito creek and spent a few hours digging out the old gate post which was very securely concreted into the ground. we eventually manged to get it free with a combination of digging and brute force with the land cruiser!

dave and i then went back a few days later with a battery grinder and cut the gate off the old post and bought it home, we then sourced some pipe for gate posts and welded new hinges on the post with the help of our resident boiler maker, deano. we also made some running repairs to the old gate.

last weekend we took the new gate down to bawaka and dug new holes for the hinge and lock post and then concreted them in, it all went much quicker than we expected and only took a couple of hours all up, leaving us plenty of time for fishing and hunting!

we had thought it would just basically be a working party so sal decided to stay home, but as it turned out it was a very social weekend, timmy came down with his wife rita, his son, daughter in law and grandkids, he had also arranged for a family touring the NT from victoria to do a day tour to bawaka.

the royal family are from macedon in victoria, every year they take their 3 kids out of school for a term and go on an extended camping adventure somewhere in australia! aaron runs a plumbing business and his wife dannille is a special needs teacher. they have 2 boys, saxon & thor and a girl, mali. they are a lovely family and we really enjoyed our short time together – although i get the strong feeling we will see them again up this way!

after a great day at bawaka they unfortunatley had to return to nhulunbuy rather than staying the night with us at bawaka, we had caught a good haul of muddies during the day, so i invited them to dinner at rick’s bar & grill on the sunday night when we would be back home so they could enjoy a feast of crab!

old friends surprised us all by turning up as well, eddy & donna mulhulland and their son, reece with his wife and baby son all came down for the weekend as well, so it was a great night of catching up over the weekend. so it ended up beng a fantastic social weekend with both old and new friends!

one thing i know, bawaka never disappoints and always surprises!

 

  9 Responses to “friends and gates”

  1. Brings back terrific memories of a very special place, what a pity that somewhere so remote needs a gate to stop unwelcome visitors. Luckily Dodgy Bros. Fencing was there to do it !
    Simon

  2. its not only bawaka that will never disappoint you-its your delicious dishes that never disappoints me-disappointed me- and your visitors! your dishes are always a real great surprise! Enjoy all your other feasts! So the only thing is you have to weld some more new gates! Good luck!

    • Thanks Carl!

      • Since you have a lot of wanted and yearning guests at your grill, Rick, do you agree to my proposal to weld many more gates to prevent unwanted visitors from robbing your feasts of delicious mud crabs? I guess you really liked that hard work of installing these iron gates in the middle of nowhere.-But of course, when visiting you the next time I could try to be another handy man.
        Enjoy!

  3. Every task needs at least one competent ,skilled and motivated person ,well done Deano

  4. Three mates ,lets call them Dave ,Rick and Brian went everywhere and done everything together. Unfortunately Brian was killed in a firey car crash ,suffering horrific burns. Having no next of kin ,Rick and Dave had to identify the body. Rick accompanied by the local Constable enters the morgue and approached the slab ,Rick lifted the sheet and turned away in horror ,stoically he then grabbed the body and rolled it over announcing “No ,that’s not Brian” .
    Not satisfied the Constable called Dave in for his opinion, Dave approached the slab and lifted the sheet, he too turned away from the grisly sight ,showing incredible courage and respect for his friend rolled the body over and announced that “This is not Brian”.
    The now confused Constable has to know how both Dave and Rick could know that the body was not that of the dear friend ,he asks Dave , how could you possibly know that this body is not Brian? Well ,Dave replies ,Brian has two arseholes! ,the Constable says Ive never heard of someone having , two arseholes , how could you possibly know that ? Dave replied ,Well ,when we all walk down the street together ,everybody says
    Here comes Brian with two arseholes see you in March

  5. Such an amazing time on our East Arnhem adventures! Bawaka was beautiful and we’re so glad to have met you guys. Thank you for your hospitality and yes…. we will be back sooner than later!!

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