My year on Bathurst Island, NT

On into the wild we went. Chasing one of the most iconic Australian fish species....The so far elusive Barramundi  ( Lates calcarifer ) The Tiwi people call Barramundi Arlaminga I on the other hand, call them the most fickle and hard to catch fish, while being one of the most exciting to catch.  I have been fishing land based and in the newly acquired boat "Queenie" a few times now and each time I have always kept the bait caster at the ready to flick a multitude of lures at snags, flats, gutters and drains. All to no avail it would seem until an adventure into a new creek system on Melville Island side of Aspley Straight. Aptly named 3rd creek as it was the third creek on that side. Access to the creek is a bit dicey on low tide and you have to transverse between the island and a sand back that has trees on it, effectively a small island itself. (See below) the passage to get to 3rd Creek on Melville side Once into the creek it is obvious that fish...

Term one has been completed Term one has officially ended. The lack of blog entries is testament to the busy nature of teaching during term one. That and the increased amount of time spent fishing in the many new wonderful spots being revealed each time I head out to fish, whether that be in the new purchased boat (more on that later) but also land based fishing at one of the more picturesque places visited on the island so far. The students are resilient and slow to trust. The high turn-over of staff this year has seen new methods, faces and names introduced to them. However, the students are funny, intelligent in different ways and sometime volatile and angry. I will never possess the knowledge or skills that some of the staff here at Xavier College have. Our leadership team steer a very tightly run ship with a mixture of discipline and rule. However this is vastly outweighed by love, empathy and huge amounts of patience when a student is having a particularly bad time tha...

Fishing Adventures – A man and his boat One of the major draw cards besides beautiful water holes, camping and sunsets to die for is the fishing. A long term passion of mine. For anyone that knows me will know I love fishing in even the most treacherous of weather. Here in the Tiwi islands, fishing has been a culturally significant event for many years as the Tiwi people rely on fish, turtles and Dugongs for food. Turtles and Dugongs are still caught around the islands and eaten as traditional meals. This is something I have yet to witness. As a non-Tiwi person I am unsure how I would feel witnessing the capture and eating of a turtle or dugong. On to the fishing…. It has been a love-hate relationship so far. I came prepared with what I thought was enough gear to catch fish. I was wrong. Very wrong. I quickly found out that I was lacking the required fishing gear, knowledge and ways to fish. So my first trip into Darwin saw my first Baitcaster ready to catch Barramundi purchas...