Butterflies and Demons. Eva Chapman

up strange wardlis. Midlato was intrigued that they didn’t use bark or tree branches but thin white pelts, similar to those she saw billowing from the ships.

      Harriet Gouger’s birth was imminent and she was desperate to get on land after enduring days of rolling about on interminable waves. But even after the sea calmed down, landing still proved to be a nightmare. Small boats had to bring her and other passengers to the sand bar in Holdfast Bay. She then suffered more discomfort and indignity, as she was carried on the shoulders of sailors through choppy seas to the shore.

      After weeks of cramped accommodation and being blown half way around the world, the new settlers looked at where they had landed. Holdfast Bay was as lush as Kangaroo Island was arid. Majestic gums rose behind the rolling sand dunes dredged with flowers and sedge. Honey myrtle and golden wattle lined the creeks, infusing the air with sublime scent. Further inland, vast lagoons fed by fresh water springs gave way to dramatic gullies. Settlers struggled in the robust winds to put up makeshift shelters. Robert Gouger hastily constructed his tent near a couple of shady gums, while the goats and chickens he had imported foraged in the new terrain. Gouger’s servants created as comfortable a space as possible for the impending birth. Harriet had to make do with sandy floors which crawled with insects, and canvas ceilings which dropped more. Fortunately, they had brought with them comfortable couches to sleep on, a godsend when Robert narrowly missed being bitten by a scorpion lurking on the floor. Then Harriet had to contend with the continual barking of bullfrogs in nearby lagoons and, worse still, being attacked by swarms of mosquitoes.

      Floods of white cockatoos squawked an incessant cacophony, which sounded like, ‘Go home. Go home!’ I wish I could, thought Harriet, nursing her heavy abdomen, idealising the precious past and fearing the unknown future. As well as the impending birth, she was worried by spots of blood that were appearing when she coughed. But there were recompenses – the vegetation was alive with an array of exotic birds: laughing kookaburras; warbling magpies; bronze-winged pigeons; and green parrots. A flock of rainbow lorikeets fought noisily for a perch on top of a large printing press transported by Robert Thomas, the government printer. His daughter Helen gathered bunches of yellow flowers that smelt like new mown hay and strewed them over their tent floor, creating a fragrant carpet. Albert Taplow, the young Quaker, helped construct a storehouse which was filled with surveying equipment, supplies and gunpowder.

      On November 11^th Gouger and Light walked inland along the Karrawirraparri, and were encouraged by the country before them. It was swathed in luxuriant grass reminiscent of an English park, studded by sheoaks, eucalypt and native pines, and framed by ‘those enchanted hills’. Light became more and more convinced that this was where Adelaide should lie.

      All around the Holdfast settlement tufts of kangaroo grass abounded with brown quail and ground parrots. Albert Taplow went exploring and chanced upon Miltewidlo making a fire in the nearby dunes. Terrified, the boy made to run away, but hesitated when Albert offered him biscuits. Albert’s uncle had tirelessly campaigned for the end of slavery and Albert was keen to make friends with the natives. He beckoned Milte-widlo into the white camp and showed him the store house and his tent. Milte-widlo goggled at what he saw, especially the magical lucifer sticks which so easily started fires. He ran off excitedly to tell Midlato.

      Camped at the edge of a sand dune, Ellen Bradshaw struggled to light a fire to boil water for tea. She had run out of lucifer sticks and was trying to use a flint. She saw some black children watching her unsuccessful efforts. Milte-widlo had brought back Midlato, who stared in wonder. Eventually her brother ventured over and very dexterously rubbed a stick into a stone and managed to get the fire alight. Her billy boiled and she gratefully made a nice cup of tea. Both children were amazed at the water boiling in the billy. The winds had died down and the sun beat fiercly onto the camp. With the heat came more insects and more ominous looking creatures. Ellen Bradshaw’s daughter Lucy screamed when she saw what she thought was a dragon. Midlato recognised her as the girl with green eyes. She picked up the dragon and stroked its head, showing Lucy that it was a harmless kalta or sleepy lizard. As she did so a stunning butterfly with black, white, red and yellow markings fluttered past. ‘Pilyabilya,’ pointed Midlato. ‘Pilyabilya,’ repeated Lucy slowly, giving the black girl a big smile, ‘What a beautiful word for butterfly.’ Lucy was intrigued by Midlato’s headband. It had what looked like teeth dangling from it.

      Gouger tried to make his wife as comfortable as possible. He was relieved that initial encounters with the natives had been friendly. He wrote in his diary, ‘I felt great anxiety respecting them and hoped our province would be unstained by native blood.’

      The weather got hotter and hit 103 degrees as Christmas approached.

      James Cronk proved his labouring skills by sinking the first well in the new colony. It went to fourteen feet and tapped a moderate supply of fresh water.

      The number of settlers reached 300 as they waited patiently for Governor Hindmarsh to arrive on the Buffalo, and for a decision to be made about where the new city would be sited.

      Christmas 1836 was 105 degrees. The settlers, stiflingly hot in their starched collars and stiff bonnets, insisted on a traditional Christmas dinner; roast beef and plum pudding, supplemented by pork and parrot pie. Fresh beef was courtesy of a cow, which having survived months on the deepest of oceans, drowned in a lagoon! A Christmas service was held in a large tent. Light, exhausted from all his hard work, was too ill to join in the festivities.

      Midlato was intrigued by the clucking birds in cages near the white-skins’ tents. She watched the girl with green eyes gather their eggs.

      How easy to collect those, she thought. Midlato picked ground figs and quandong berries and gave them to Lucy Bradshaw. Lucy handed her a penny in return, grateful for some fruit after the long sea journey.

      Midlato couldn’t wait to find a hidey-hole so that she could look at her treasure. It felt round and warm in her hand. She nestled in the hollow of a gum tree hidden by tall grass, and gazed at her prize. She marvelled at its perfect roundness, like the sun or a full moon, and a bit like a smooth pebble in the river. She put the object between her teeth. It was hard. Must be made of puri or stone. The colour reminded her of the shiny brown back of a reed beetle.

      ‘Ah!’ she gasped at the image. The head of a man, perched on a fat neck, looked into the distance. Her heart leapt. Was this an ancestor of the ghost-skins? If so, how clever of them to etch his picture on this piece of brown puri. She marvelled to see tiny inscriptions around the edge of the disc. She turned it over and gasped again. A resplendent looking figure held a spear and a shield. Midlato was puzzled – the breasts showed it was female. A female ancestor who had a spear and a shield? Only the men of her people ever handled such weapons. It was a strange looking spear with three prongs. Looking more closely at the shield she saw a design on it – similar to what she had seen on sticks, flying in the breeze at Patawalonga Creek. The design reminded her of a simple spider web. There was something strange on top of the woman’s head. What was it? It looked like a creature crawling over her head and down her back. A snake? Or perhaps some kind of possum? Or perhaps it was a large feather. Or even cockatoo feathers, she thought excitedly, just like her people wore in ceremonies. She would have to show this to her kammammi – what would she make of it?

      Wauwe Woman: Oy, it pains me that you have Midlato looking at this penny with such wonder. The poor little mite. If she only knew what she was looking at.

      Author: The man with the fat neck? It was William IV – a bit of a buffoon, ten illegitimate children; not quite as mad as his father, George IV, who kept a pet giraffe in his palace, but harmless enough.

      Wauwe Woman: Harmless! I’ll have you know, this so-called common ‘ancestor’ was one of the most vociferous opponents to the abolition of slavery. Argued in Parliament that it would be the end of the British Empire.

      Wirra Woman: How right he was.

      Wauwe Woman: He talked of his duty to keep the slaves ‘happy’ in Jamaica.

      Author: Well Midlato didn’t know any of that, did she?

      The heatwave