The Eastern and African Cold Storage Company of London Go Hunting at Roper River

a work in progress



The Eastern and African Cold Storage Company of London and Melbourne goes hunting at Roper River


The Roper River watershed produced
a rich sustenence for a large populace,
so eight tribes lived as neighbours
speaking eight distinct languages...

There was Nunggunbuyu and Mara,
the Warndarang and Rembarringa;
the Ngalakan and the Ngandi,
the Mangarayi and the Alawa.

At Roper Bar by 1988 there was not one speaker
of Warndarang or of Ngandi, there were hardly any
left to speak Mara, or Ngalakan, nor in Alawa,
thanks to the Eastern and African Cold Storage Company

for those closer Roper River people's countries
were the hunting grounds for the great Company's
gangs, those hunting parties sent to shoot-clear
the lands for cattle, the cows and bulls and steers

of the all-important Eastern & African Cold Storage Company
while the more distant Rembarringa, the Ngalakan country,
and the Mangarayi retreated to rocky hills of Arnhem land
to hide quiet-quiet by day, stayed away from blooded sand.

There was Nunggunbuyu and Mara,
the Warndarang and Rembarringa;
the Ngalakan and the Ngandi,
the Mangarayi and the Alawa.
.