Heart & Art

EXPLORE THE ANCIENT HEART OF TROPICAL NORTH QUEENSLAND ON THESE EXCLUSIVE, AWE-INSPIRING ABORIGINAL TOURS FOR THE SELECT FEW.

- Christine Retschlag

Deep in bloodwood country, home of bush tucker and bush medicine, where the tracks are soft and sandy, the dust lodges in your throat, and the scent of eucalyptus fills your nostrils – the spirits of the ancient Indigenous Australians infuse your soul.

I’m up near Laura, on Queensland’s Cape York Peninsula, travelling along what must be one of the gnarliest four-wheel drive tracks in Australia with Kuku-Yalanji man Johnny Murison.

We’ve passed through rainforest, cane fields and Aussie scrub, along a rough-asguts track, before arriving at the Jarramali Rock Art camp and site of Murison’s new tourism venture.

“Back in 2016, me and my cousin were four-wheel driving, prospecting, camping and hunting for rock art and came across this magnificent gallery and we set up camp and looked at each other and said ‘tourism’,” Murison says.

“There were some people who knew about it and others who were doing hiking there but mine is the only exclusive tour of the area.

“The word ‘jarramali’ means thunder. I wanted a strong name. It is loud, there is no mistaking what it is. It’s all about the remoteness and the exclusivity. You’ve got it all to yourself.

“Any person, animal or plant that survives up here, I take my hat off to, as this is bloody rugged country. It is the last frontier of Queensland.”

Murison, 45, has set up three tents and can take seven people on his tours to this spectacular site overlooking a steep escarpment. He is currently building a “flash shack” for those seeking a little more luxury.

The time-poor can chopper in from Cairns in an hour for a day tour, which lasts between four and six hours, and lands right outside the ‘loo with the view’.