Sky High
Australia's highlights
WORDS KATE ROBERTSON
Some places in Australia are just too vast, wild or sacred to fully grasp from the ground. To truly appreciate the scale and spirit of Country, sometimes you need to take to the skies.
From the escarpments of Cape York to the beehive domes of the Kimberley and the winding waterways of Nitmiluk Gorge, helicopter tours enable Aboriginal guides to share stories of Country from a whole new perspective.
Cape York
Far North Queensland
By the time Johnny Murrison’s guests have flown over some of Australia’s most significant landscapes and landed at a remote campsite perched on a 400-metre-tall sandstone escarpment, they have only one word to sum up their experience.
‘It’s always, “‘Wow”. When they have flown through that Sky Country and seen the differences in the ecosystems of Country, and then land on this rugged, remote sandstone Country that was an ancient seabed, it’s just “Wow”,’ the Kuku-Yalanji man laughs.
‘They fly over the Great Barrier Reef and the Daintree Rainforest, so they’ve already seen two World Heritage areas before arriving here, where we have the Quinkan Rock Art site, which is recognised by UNESCO as one of the top 10 rock art sites in the world.
‘Not that we need anyone to tell us the value of it,’ Johnny says. ‘We already know its spiritual and cultural value.’
‘All that Sky Country is our Country too,’ Johnny says.
After the roughly 40-minute helicopter flight from the coast, over Country that was home to 13 clan groups, Johnny takes his guests to The Magnificent Gallery – a rock site featuring 450 works of art – before being given the option of a cooling dip in a rockpool fed by a cascading curtain waterfall.
‘We move quietly and respectfully through the galley and see some of the things that were recorded as being important to them back then – elements of our culture and tricks of survival, which they had done for a very long time and done very well,' Johnny says.
Jarramali Rock Art Tours
Helicopter Tour | AU$POA
The Kimberley
Western Australia
It’s only from the air that visitors can begin to grasp the vastness of the Kimberley and the spiritual connection Aboriginal people have with Country, says Bec Sampi, a Gija woman and guide with Kingfisher Tours Garingbaar.
As lead guide on the Iconic Kimberley Air Safari, Bec witnesses the impact the sky-high perspective has on guests as they realise they are flying over the Country of multiple Aboriginal language groups that are still practicing their culture today.
As the landscape unfolds beneath them, revealing nature’s canvas of rivers, streams and mountain ranges, visitors are stunned to note its similarity to the art created by Aboriginal people who have never taken to the skies.
‘Our old people have painted their creation stories from memory or from dreams of where our ancestors have walked for millennia,’ Bec says.
Kingfisher’s four-day adventure includes multiple flights, including a helicopter flight along the rugged Kimberley coastline to the remote Mitchell Plateau; a flight to the top of Mitchell Falls / Punamii-Uunpuu with a jaw-dropping vista of the four-tired waterfall; plus, a scenic flight over the unique beehive domes of the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Purnululu National Park / Bungle Bungles.
The final flight of the tour ends with a spectacular landing timed to include the drama of the sun setting over Broome's famed Cable Beach.
Kingfisher Tours Garingbaar
The Iconic Kimberley Air Safari | AU$7,800
Katherine / Nitmiluk
Northern Territory
Jodi Woods’ favourite time of day to accompany visitors on a helicopter tour of Katherine / Nitmiluk Gorge is the early morning or late afternoon, when the iron-rich sandstone walls are spotlit by the sun as it sits low in the sky.
‘It looks like the sun itself is just sitting on the rock,’ says Jodi, a Jawoyn woman and guide with Nitmiluk Tours.
‘When they see it from above, it's just magnificent.’
While most visitors cruise the famous Nitmiluk Gorge by boat or canoe, exploring up to the sixth gorge, depending on the season, the helicopter tours can follow the river’s course all the way to the final, 13th gorge.
‘And it’s epic, because you can see how the river flows through the gorge system,’ Jodi says. ‘You can see the entire river system stretch for miles and miles, through to the border with Kakadu National Park.’
Seeing it from the air helps visitors better grasp the Dreamtime story of Bula, the Jawoyn’s primary creator ancestor, who created the gorge when his body collided with the sandstone rocks when hunting.
‘When you travel through the gorge, you'll see that you're actually following how a snake would travel through the land,’ Jodi says.
Helicopter tour guests have the option of visiting rock art or swimming at a rockpool nestled between two waterfalls with stunning views of the gorge. Jodi would always opt for the swim spot, which is inaccessible by canoe.
‘So, they've pretty much got the whole place to themselves.’
Nitmiluk Tours
Nitmiluk Heli Swim Adventure | AU$345
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