Pormparaaw, the gulf of carpenteria ~

Monday, 18 June 2018

Pormparaaw, the gulf of carpenteria

01:08

Lance Dean

Pormpuraaw

Finished packing up and reducing weight in the truck, and while at the wreckers I bumped into a mate I had met at a job , I did over a year ago, I asked if he had any work for me, a few weeks later I got a call, come to Pormparaaw to install a few air-cons, where the hell is that I said. Well I won't be able to say that when I get there.

Laura, Riverside camp for the night on the way up north

Stocked up on supplies, filled up my water out of the creek, filled my 135ltr fuel tank and a few Jerry cans and headed north, up the Cape York Peninsula development road (pdr) camped on the sand of a dry riverbed,
Good thing it's dry season, carried on north turning west at Musgrave Roadhouse, still another 200km of dirt, and this is a quiet road, not like the busy well maintained pdr. So along endless straights, and across salt pans I made it to Pormparaaw, right by the sea

So this will be home for a while. Works work, still air-cons, but this boss is pretty cool, laid back approach, just like the locals, a great change from the regimented grind at the mining camp.

Some great off work activities,We go check the crab pots before work, and after, go fishing, looking for Pippies or pPawns when the tide and weather suits, even if it means knocking off work early, or not even starting lol. Plentiful seafood!

Sunsets on the west coast are amazing.

My drinking licence.

I was told that it is a dry community, no alcohol and don't bring any with you, but there is a pub, where you must pass a Breathalyzer to enter, a rule to discourage illegal alcohol being brought into the community. So coming from the mining camp where I had to pass a breathalyser to start work, now I must pass one to finish work and go to the pub. When I get to the bar, the barmaid said I need a membership card, like a drinking license, so into the office, fill out forms, take my photo and now I have a licence to drink light beers only at the pub, no takeaways and you must swipe it every time you buy a beer, to keep track of How many you have had, and 8 is the maximum per night.

The fishing is awesome, Barramundi everywhere, it's difficult to target other types of fish, but I've caught :

Baramundi 🐠

1.2m Barramundi!

Fingermark (a breed of snapper)

King Thread fin salmon

Blue Thread fin salmon

Mulloway / Jew fish.

Mangrove jack

Wing head shark

Mud crab for lunch.

Mud crabs

Pippie

Prawn 🍤

Stingray

Mantis shrimp 🍤

Mullet

Popeye mullet

Hearing

Mackerel

Shark

I'm sure I've missed something

And of course, catfish

And eaten most of them, we live off seafood, there is often a stack of fresh cooked Mud crab in the fridge, if you want a snack just crack one open. The boss does get meat sent up from my favourite butcher shop in Cairns, mighty nice meats at Earlsville Shopping Centre, just to break up the seafood a bit. But it doesn't slow down our fishing, we just start putting a few back.

There is alot of stray dogs, well at least they look stray, skinny, hungry, roaming the streets, but some are nice, the nice ones have names, Gerard is our favourite one, we are mates, he comes over and politely waits for food, and a little Jack Russell who I thought was called Whiskey, the story goes that she can smell when you have whiskey and like to drink, but later found out that her name was Fang, but she still showed up when I smuggled in some whiskey lol. There is also bear, saru, smithy, marydog, ranger, Ted, 'titties', yes that's her name you can imagine how she got it, hopper (has a back leg missing), a bunch of dingo looking ones, another group of cattle dog looking ones, dogs everywhere. And sometimes if you show fear and your walking alone especially at night, the can try to surround you but are easily scared off.

Heading back down the Chapman river after a good day fishing.

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Edward River, as it was previously known, also has a Croc farm, and alot of Croc's on the rivers

Barra for crab bait
Barra fishing, big Barra, medium Barra, small Barra, even put some Barra back, Barra fillets, Barra soup, Barra wings.

Lots of mud crabs, big bucks too, boiled mud crabs, steamed crab, chilli crab, crab salad, crab fritters, crab stir-fry, crab cooked on the fire down the beach.

Big estuary cod in crab pot.

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Caught up on the air-con list, so going for a break, checked the crab pots and got a few nice live crabs, tied them up ready for their journey to Cairns . Headed off after lunch to avoid driving directly in to the rising sun on the 200km stretch of road that heads east. I got onto the pdr road and it was getting dark, I thought I would keep going, perfect time to try out my new bar light, woah, how did I live without it. But it didn't stop the roo's, I Spotted them, but the moving light and shadows messes with their vision and just when you think you missed it, they drive into the bull bar. So I thought that was a good place to stop for the night, carved off a leg and put a stew on the fire, was quite good.