The Angling Club owns the rights to all this area, there are parts designated for casual visitors like ourselves, Members Only areas, a Life Members area, the lodge which has accommodation, Alice Springs Outback Angling Club reserved spaces and of course, “Residents Dwellings” AKA shacks.
It spreads over several kilometres of MacArthur River frontage.
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Some of the shacks look very neglected but have a lot of fishing paraphernalia in the yard. One had a collection of Honda outboards but the one on the boat nearby was a Suzuki, I think he finally gave up on Hondas. I can imagine someone coming up here for many years until they were unable to continue and the family not willing to part with the shack but not using it.
We drove out towards Black Rock and Batten Point as they were marked on the map in our Information Booklet, we were expecting to be able to investigate the areas but the road ended suddenly at an Aboriginal Permit area. A lady who lived there told me the name of an impressive plant growing near her house and offered me some seeds but I told her the plant wouldn’t survive the cold and wet at home.
Also in our Camp Info booklet are details on what we have to do in case of a Cyclone Warning Siren, that’s an 8 point list as is the Flood Warning info, the Fire Emergency Siren means we have to follow the 7 steps on that special list. Also listed are the 7 things we should have in our “Grab Bag” and one of the steps on our emergency warning lists is, “Grab your Grab Bag”! I’m confident we’ll be able to leave tomorrow without having to implement any of the action plans!
Last night we could ……he could…. have had Pizza at The Groper Bar & Grill followed by an exciting night of Bingo but I slaved over blog writing instead! As will be obvious by now I didn’t find any way to post it. King Ash Bay is a Telstra black spot area and our info booklet tells us places we might be able to get coverage because a repeater has been bought and installed by the Angling Club. We only found a magic spot this afternoon and maybe it will still be working this evening.
Maybe twenty cars and trailers were near the boat ramp this morning so those owners were out on the river fishing. A notice near the ramp says that Freshwater Sawfish are sometimes caught, Australia is one of the last places on Earth where they are still found. Since 2006 research has been carried out and Sawfish have been tagged, anyone catching a tagged fish is asked to pass on relevant information to the Environment Dept. I hope any caught, tagged or not, are returned to the river.
We watched some boats returning at the end of the day. One boat trailer was attached to the front of the vehicle which looked weird going down the boat ramp.
There are lots of birds around here, Kites, Mudlarks, WillyWagtails, Diamond Doves etc. Today I saw Double-bar Finches for the first time.
2macstracks 
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