Essence of Australia I was out at Pimba, south of Woomera where the Indian Pacific railway turns west to the Nullarbor and Perth, when I saw this irresistible opportunity. The quintessence of Australia: impossibly blue skies; land so flat it makes a billiard table look bumpy; wafer thin soils blood red from the seemingly endless wastelands of iron; a solitary chair suggesting that the woman who hangs out the washing doesn’t want to bend down too far and is never helped by her male companion; and one of those great iconic Aussie symbols, a Hills Hoist clothes line which some kid has been swinging on until it has become hopelessly bent out of shape and the wires were no longer taut. It was one of my photos used for years by the Australian Picture Library and catalogued under the amusing heading “Consumer Products” with the caption “A Hills Hoist stands in the desert at Pimba, South Australia.” In delightful contrast, and high incongruity, here’s a photo, taken in 1996 at Pimba, of the Womad tour which, that year, travelled from Perth to Pimba on the Indian Pacific Railway with world music all the way. The concert, which drew Aborigines in from the Western Desert and a few hardy world music lovers from Adelaide, included such exotica (seen here) as the Bauls of Bengal; Shu-De, a group of Throat Singers from Tuvla in central Asia; and Remmy Ongala and his Orchestre Super Matimila, Tanzania’s King of Bongo Beat. What could be more daring (and foolish – it made a huge loss but then it was sponsored with government money so it didn’t really matter) and exotic than the Bauls of Bengal singing in front of the Indian Pacific in the middle of nowhere - exotic sounds never heard before in this ancient desert? And for those who read yesterday’s entry: the Bauls would have been greatly improved if I had NOT used Fuji Velvia. Too much saturation!
Posted on: Sun, 20 Jul 2014 07:55:37 +0000
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