Hope for the Taylors

Mataranka continued

13/9/08

We really appreciated the peacefulness of Mataranka. The fact that all were finally settled in the tent routine and sleeping (by which I mean Jessie) meant we stayed a few nights.

The area around Mataranka was made famous by the novel ‘We of the never never’ by Jeannie Gunn. The book was written about the nearby Elsey Station. There was a replica of Elsey homestead where we camped, that was built in the 1980s to film a movie adaptation of the novel. At night they showed the movie on an outdoor screen. The combination of sitting outdoors and watching the movie right where the story was set, triggered feelings of nostalgia . The book is an autobiographical novel of the authors experiences as the first white woman to settle in the area. She had accompanied her husband who was a partner in the Elsey cattle Station, back in 1902. The movie was way too slow for kids and I really enjoyed watching it without them.