Day 66 – Sydney, Day 2

This morning we walked around The Rocks neighbourhood of Sydney, which is right next to the ship. This attractive historic neighbourhood is home to lots of independent shops, restaurants and bars. We then walked around Circular Quay to the Opera House and stopped in a nearby restaurant for lunch, where I was served uncooked swordfish which was duly sent back and a refund issued! After this we walked through the stunning Royal Botanical Gardens as far as the Art Gallery of New South Wales where we limited ourselves to viewing the aboriginal art section only, as we were short on time and our feet were close to seizing up. After this, we returned by cab to the Rocks for some last-minute shopping before getting back on board the ship at around 4 pm. Along with many other passengers we made sure we were up on deck 11 for the sail away at 18.30. It was really magical – dozens of people had climbed up to the top of Sydney Harbour Bridge to wave us off, and we sailed past the majestic Opera House just as the sun was setting.

We have absolutely loved Sydney. We wish we had a week here – oh well, a good excuse for another world cruise at some point in the future when we’ve saved up enough money!

Aboriginal Trackers

Warning: Aboriginal and Torres Strait people are advised that the following article contains the names of deceased aboriginal people, with great respect.

Whilst in Australia we have learnt something about the ancient practice of aboriginal tracking. Upon researching the subject further, in our own time, it is very apparent that the contribution that aboriginal trackers have made to Australian society, particularly in relation to finding lost persons and capturing criminals, has been grossly neglected and under recognised and therefore we have decided to write something about the subject here, as a mark of respect.

Tracking is the art of reading and interpreting the environment in order to locate or follow something/someone (the subject). Aboriginal peoples, along with other indigenous peoples around the world, traditionally used tracking to locate prey, find water and gather vegetation. During the 19th and 20th centuries, they started to be employed by the police to assist them in finding missing persons. The signs that trackers routinely look for are largely imperceptible to the untrained person, but more than that, it is about being able to interpret signs. For example a tracker will identify an animal print that is not even visible to others, but he she will also be able to determine how old the footprint is based on the erosion of the print. The tracker can tell how big the animal is that made the print but also determine other information about how it is travelling (i.e. at speed, in fear, whether injured or carrying young). Good trackers are undeterred by rain and wind damage as they know exactly how tracks react to the elements. They can also identify and interpret things like disturbed vegetation, a single bent blade of grass, the slightest movement of a pebble, clues from animal faeces, twig fractures, toe patterns, gate, odour and moisture, all of which can indicate direction of travel, the condition of the subject (including mental state), time elapsed since the subject left the trail and velocity of travel. This information collated can reconstruct trajectories, as well as reveal time and distance relating to the subject being tracked. Trackers will often follow their subject over distances of well over 10 km, using signs that are invisible to the untrained eye. These skills have been honed over thousands of years and handed down from generation to generation.

Jimmy James

Jimmy James, born circa 1913, was one such tracker who rose to prominence due to the extent of his success in assisting the police in locating missing persons. Originating in central Australia, he was trained by his elders and his formal tracking career working alongside the police began in 1948. In 1966 he, along with Daniel Moodoo, found nine-year-old Wendy Pfeiffer after she had been abducted, stabbed and left for dead by a stranger. After extensive police searches involving more than 150 officers over two days, Wendy remained missing. At that point she was presumed dead. At 5:30 am on day 3, Jimmy James and Daniel Moodoo were called in, ostensibly to locate her body. Knowing roughly where she had been left by her attacker (who had been arrested in the meantime), they tracked her over 20 km of scrubland in just two hours, until they found her, miraculously still alive. Retired chief inspector Bill Newman said in an interview afterwards “Jimmy could see tracks on the ground that most white people couldn’t see… he had the [uncanny] ability to identify the tracks of the person we were looking for… other footprints wouldn’t distract him at all”. Jimmy James said afterwards that he ‘followed her fear’. He was even able to identify from her footprints that she had been running in a chaotic manner and that she was frequently looking behind her. Yet, always humble, when he found her he simply stood aside and let the little girl’s father be the first face she saw.

Jimmy was eventually awarded the Order of Australia Medal in 1984, years after he found the missing child. He kept the medal with him every day for the rest of his life.