These three words and my curiosity was piqued; I wanted to see this place to know more. Buried deep in the Mitchell River National Park via Iguana Creek along the Woolshed creek there is a sacred place, a magical place in Brayakooloong country. The Den of Nargun. Getting to this special place was basically straight down the side of the gorge and then along Woolshed Creek.
It was quite a precipitous track down to the valley. Lindsay was my fall guy as always.
Tradition has it that the Nargun lives there - a fierce being half human, half stone. The Nargun was feared because it took children who visited the rock pool.
The forest and creek floor green and shady with blankets of moss and lots of birds.
Start of the track to the Den
It was pretty hairy in places - most places!
One slip and it would have been a slow haul back to help!
The Den, a cave under a rock overhang, was once rimmed with stalactites but sadly visitors over the years have broken most of them. This is traditionally a place only for Gunnai/Kurnai women, the men were not allowed down to the Den of Nargun or indeed to the Den of Dedcock further downstream nor were they allowed to what is known today as Woolshed Creek and that traditional law is still respected. It was a memorable place - and Lindsay saw his first pink robin so was smiling all the way back over the rocks.
It was difficult finding the path at times
After a rather magical visit to the Den of Nargun we wandered down stream through the lush rainforest growth of the gully encountering more gentle waterfalls until we came to a track back upstream to visit the Den of Dedcock. This also was a sacred place for the Gunnai/Kurnai women. Much of the knowledge of how the aboriginal people of the area lived is held by the women elders and is of great significance to their cultural beliefs and values. I felt like I was intruding into something ancient and previous.
We had to walk out over this rock shelf to get to the next bit of track. Wouldn’t have been possible if the creek had been in flood.
That’s the track on the left. Once we got there we understood why the railing was necessary!
At least there are steps! And proper railing.
We crossed this creek three times.
The Den of Dedcock. Much of the knowledge of how the aboriginal people of the area lived is held by the women elders and is of great significance to their cultural beliefs and values. I felt like I was intruding into something ancient and precious - I said many silent thank yous.
The gully is a warm temperate rainforest and almost the southernmost of this forest type in the world. It is crowded with ferns and mosses, Kanooka (water gum), lianes and vines, Lilly-pilly and blue olive-berry trees. This lush habitat survives because the walls of the gorge shelter the plants from drying winds and fire. We were aiming for somewhere left of the top of that rock wall in the pic. Be still my heart!
Dry rainforest which includes Kurrajong trees, covers the walls of the gorge and the ground is scattered with seed pods. Mitchell River is the western most limit of the Kurrajong trees in Victoria. The Mitchell river with its mouth at Paynesville, is Heritage listed. It’s a gorgeous place to visit.
A school camp group rafting their way downstream through the white water. What fun!
We of course had to climb back out of the gorge if we were to reach our trusty stead - and more food! Fortunately the ascent was a gentler climb than going down!
On the way back to the car park we had to hang over the safety railing on the Bluff - it was awe inspiring and somewhat scary peering down to the river so far below. But we were feeling pretty chuffed that we made it, well I definitely was!!
Zoom in to see the Bataluk Cultural trail. It follows significant traditional routes used by the GunnaiKurnai people to travel over their land for over 30,000 years after Borun (the pelican) and Tuk (the musk duck) created the people (see earlier post or http://hwheat8.blogspot.com/2020/08/gunaikurnai.html). The backbone of the network of trails and trading routes is today the South Gippsland Highway and Princes Highway. Slowly we learn a little about the heritage of our land - it is quite captivating for me.
We finished the day with a drive to the sleepy hamlet of Dargo. A magical day.
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