Anna and Gordie: Mataranka

The area of Mataranka is probably well know to all Aussies thanks to the book “We of the Never Never” but for those non-Australians I will explain. Northern Territory is beautiful but very harsh place to live even today. Now think back about 100 years, to 1902 and you have pretty much no roads and outside of Darwin no supplies within reach, very few people and even they may be couple of days horse ride away and during wet season the isolation may be complete. Now in that time a lady called Jeannie married a station manager of Elsey station which was in one of the areas with the above descriptions. She refused to back down and spent a year living as the only white woman within 100 miles radius on the Elsey cattle station. Her experience is described in a book she wrote called We of the Never Never – as she describes that harsh and merciless country as a place which

“those who have lived in it, and loved it, and left it, know that our hearts can Never-Never rest away from it” (Jeannie Gunn)

When I realized that we will be driving through that place I read the book and really recommend it. It gives amazing insight into the life of these people “out bush” and it is written with much humour and much love for the place and all the people. There is a movie but I do not recommend watching it without reading the book first as I found the way the film portraits the characters and the life very different from the book. When we got to the Elsey we visited the replica of the station, the cemetery which holds graves of some characters and commemorative plagues of other and also the original site. The site is now only a marker as none of the original buildings are still standing. I was really taken away by the place and I think this is the first time I started to understand what people refer to as the Australian outback and life in it.

Area kolem Mataranky, konkretne oblast znama jako Elsey je Australanum dobre znama nebot se postupem casu stala nedilnou soucasti australskeho folkloru. Je o ni totiz napsana knizka jmenem “My z Nikdy Nikdy” jejzi autorkou je Jeannie Gunn, puvodem z Melbourne, ktera si za muze vzala manazera dobytci stanice. Jeji pribeh je z roku 1902, kdy jedinou osadou v Severnim Teritoriu byl Darwin, za jehoz hranicemi to byla na dnesni pomery divocina. Stanice Elsey, na kterou se Jeannie se svym manzelem vydala, je stovky kilometru od Darwinu, tenkrat ale nebyly zadne silnice a Jeannie cekala drsna cesta australskou busi. Samotna stanice nebyla o moc lepsi – jednopokojovy dum vybaveny posteli bez matarce, stolem a dvema zidlemi a zrcadlem se stal jejim domovem na neco malo pres rok. Nevim jestli knizka k dostani v prekladu a celkem o tom pochybuju, nicmene pokud jo, tak urcite vrele doporucuji. Je to uzasny nahled do zivota prvnich osadniku nehostinnych casti Australie a je napsana s humorem a laskou k tomuto mistu i lidem, kteri ho obyvaji. Jak sama autorka rika,:

“Ti, kdo zde zili, kteri ho milovali a kteri ho opustili, vi, ze jejich srdce nikdy-nikdy neopusti.” (Jeannie Gunn)

Kdyz jsme dorazili do Mataranky, navstivili jsme repliku hlavniho staveni ze stanice Elsey, hrbitov, na kterem jsou pohrbeni nekteri z knizky a mnoho ostanich tam ma pomnicky, a misto, kde Elsey puvodne stala. Tam je dnes jen napis, nebot zadna z povodnich budov se nedochovala.

Nejen tato oblast, ale cele Severni Teritorium na mne udelalo velky dojem. Je to oblast extremu – mesice sucha stridaji zaplavy, i v dnesni dobe velmi zridka obydlena, nicmene ti, kteri se tu naucili zit, to popisuji jako raj na zemi.

Replica of Elsey Station