Department of Environment and Conservation

The Story of Jandamarra

In the 1890s, an Aboriginal man named Jandamarra, often referred to as 'Pigeon', gained a notoriety that rivalled that of the Kelly Gang in Victoria.

Using the caves and surroundings of Windjana Gorge and Tunnel Creek as hideouts, he led an organised armed rebellion by Kimberley Aboriginal people against European settlers. These activities prevented pastoralists from opening up a large part of the Kimberley for some time.

Aboriginal people in the Kimberley were dispossessed of their land by pastoralists, deprived of their traditional hunting areas and forced to work on the stations. If they were charged with spearing sheep or cattle, they were chained around the neck and walked to Derby, where they worked off their sentences in chains.

Jandamarra was a Bunuba Aborigine who lived in the Napier and Oscar Ranges for most of his life. During his early contact with Europeans, while working on stations and while in gaol for spearing sheep, he became a highly skilled horseman and marksman. However, the stint in jail interrupted his tribal education, and he was not properly trained in the Law. On his return home, he was effectively banished from Bunuba society because of having broken strict kinship rules that prohibited sexual relations with particular women.

After befriending another loner, the Police Constable Richardson, Jandamarra became an unofficial tracker for the police. During a patrol of the Napier Ranges with Richardson, Jandamarra helped to capture a large group of his kinsmen and women. But over the next few days, while they were held at Lillimilura Police Post, his tribal loyalties gained the upper hand. He shot Richardson, stole some guns and set the captives free.

On November 10. 1894 Jandamarra and his followers attacked a party of five Europeans who were driving cattle to set up a large station in the heart of Bunuba land. Two of them, Burke and Gibbs, were killed at Windjana Gorge. This was the first time that guns were used against European settlers in an organised fashion.

In late 1894 a posse of 30 or so heavily armed police and settlers attacked Jandamarra and his followers, who had staked out Windjana Gorge in readiness. Jandamarra was seriously wounded and was believed to have died. However, the police then embarked on a military-style operation against Aboriginal camps around Fitzroy Crossing. Many Aboriginal people were killed, despite none being identified as rebels.

For three years, Jandamarra tried to defend his lands and his people against police and white settlers. His vanishing tricks became legendary. At one point a police patrol managed to follow him to his hideout at the entrance to the Cave of Bats (Tunnel Creek) when word was received that he had raided Lillimilura Police Post during their absence. Jandamarra was held in awe by other Aboriginal people as a magical person who could "fly like a bird and disappear like a ghost". They believed he was immortal, his body simply a physical manifestation of a spirit that resided in a water soak near Tunnel Creek. Only an Aboriginal person with similar mystical powers could kill him.

The tide finally turned in favour of the police, when they recruited a remarkable black tracker from the Pilbara, known as Micki. Micki was said to possess magical powers and did not fear Jandamarra. Jandamarra was finally tracked down and killed by Micki at Tunnel Creek on April 1, 1897, finally ending the battle for Bunuba lands.

Devonian Reef

The Devonian Reef

A 'Great Barrier Reef' fringed an ancient Kimberley land mass during the Devonian period, between 375 and 350 million years ago, when a tropical sea filled the Canning and Bonaparte Basins.

Remnants of the reef are preserved in the West Kimberley as ranges of low, rugged hills extending for 300 kilometres. The reef probably extended for more than 1000 kilometres around the seaward margin of the Kimberley and is also seen north of Kununurra, where it forms the Ningbing Range.

The structure was built by lime-secreting organisms, mainly calcareous algae and extinct coral-like organisms called stromatoporoids. Though corals were present, they were much less important in reef-building than the corals of modern times. Gastropods, brachiopods, bivalves and stromatolites were also present in and around the reef.

The reef today

The ancient reef now forms a chain of often steep-sided, low limestone ranges, up to 300 metres above sea level, which rise from 40 to 150 metres above the surrounding Fitzroy River floodplain. Boab trees often grow on the rocky hillsides.

The formation of the present landscape occurred in two stages. The first took place 250 million years ago when the reef was uplifted above sea level, and eroded. Some caves in the limestone formed at this time. The reef was then buried by younger sedimentary rocks. When the whole area was uplifted and eroded 20 million years ago, the limestone forming the reef was more resistant to erosion than the softer overlying rocks, so that the ancient landscape was exhumed from beneath them. The reef now stands above the surrounding plains, in much the same way it would have stood above the sea floor 350 million years ago.

Fossils from an ancient sea

Cross-sections through the one-time barrier reef can be seen in the walls of Windjana Gorge. In such places, you can see where flat lying limestone beds grade into steeply dipping beds. The flat-lying beds are the back reef limestones, laid down within protected lagoons between the reef and the shore. The front of the reef, which faced the sea, is marked by the steeply dipping marginal slope or forereef limestones. These were an underwater scree slope formed by the accumulation of debris eroded by waves from the top of the reef. In places large, jumbled blocks of reefal limestone can be seen. Fossil sponges, brachiopods, nautiloids and some stromatolites may be found in the slope deposits.

Around the reef, calcareous mudstones, sandstones and thin limestones represent material deposited in the deeper and quieter waters of the main basin adjacent to the reef. Here, fossil ammonoids (shelled animals that are now extinct), nautiloids and more than 25 species of the prehistoric, armour-plated fishes, that dominated Devonian times, may be found.

Fish were the first vertebrates and some species eventually developed rudimentary limbs and the ability to breathe air, becoming the precursors to the amphibians, reptiles, mammals and birds.

The Bush Book Geology and Landforms of the Kimberley has more information on the geology of the Kimberley.

Geology

Geology

The limestone reef is made up of calcium carbonate, which is readily dissolved by rainwater seeping from the surface into the rock. Over many thousands of years, water flowing along cracks, joints and bedding surfaces dissolves the limestone away, opening them out to form caves. Cave systems have formed wherever the reef has been exposed at the Earth's surface. This first occurred 250 million years ago, and the present system of active caves may have reused the same channels they created over the last 20 million years or so.

Tunnel Creek follows a prominent joint through the limestone. A old river valley on top of the range formed at a time when the climate was wetter, and the water table (the level to which rock beneath the surface is saturated with ground water) was higher. Erosion has since exhumed the reef, preserving the old river course.

The presence of underground pools along the floors of the cave is due to the water table being just below the present erosion surface. Water only flows through the cave after prolonged heavy rain during the wet season. During the dry season, water dripping from the roof of the caves and onto the floor precipitates calcite to form stalactites and stalagmites, or flows down the walls to form curtains of flowstones.

Freshwater Crocodiles

Freshwater Crocodiles

Unlike their larger relatives, freshwater crocodiles (Crocodylus johnstoni), also known as Johnstone crocodiles, are not usually dangerous to people. They are very common in the Kimberley.

Freshwater crocodiles are often seen basking in reasonable numbers around the perimeter of gorges and rivers, creating an interesting wildlife spectacle for local and worldwide visitors. There are some 21 species of crocodiles and their relatives, but only two species occur in Australia, and both are present in the Kimberley. These primitive reptiles have an ancient lineage and are remnants from the time of the dinosaurs.

Description:

Freshwater crocodiles are grey or greenish-brown above, with heavily mottled flanks. In contrast to the saltwater variety, this species has quite long, smooth and slender snouts. However, they are often difficult to distinguish when partially submerged. They may reach up to three metres long.

Distribution:

Freshwater crocodiles are widespread across the northern Australia, including the Kimberley, Northern Territory and Queensland. They live largely in freshwater rivers, gorges and billabongs.

Life history:

These reptiles are active by day but most hunting is done at night, when they search for fish, frogs and other small animals. They breed between October and November, at the end of the dry season, laying about 20 eggs in nests excavated in sandbanks. As with the saltwater crocodile, the sex of the young is determined by nest temperature. A steady temperature of 32 degrees Celcius results in the birth of males, but if the temperature fluctuates much above and below this, females result.

Precautions:

Never trail arms and legs from a boat in areas where freshwater crocodiles are known to live. A freshwater crocodile could easily mistake a small portion of your body for a fish or small animal. Do not approach them too closely, as a cornered freshwater crocodile will defend itself by biting or lashing with the long tail.

The Bush Book Hazardous Animals of North-Western Australia has more information on hazardous animals in the Kimberley.