23 November South Alligator and Darwin

After a day resting in Darwin and a good sunset supper at the Trailer Boat Club with Shrley my hostess

I was up bright and early on the Monday morning to meet up with my old friend Mike and head off to the South Alligator Valley at the southern end of Kakadu National Park. Ther had been 13 uranium mine sin the valley back in the 60s before the park was ceated and in 1996 I was part of ateam that began the task of planning and organising the remdiation of the mine sites and the various otehr contaminated areas  associted with the workings. We have been working on the task for a long time and Mike came into the team when we got to the serious and practical part. There was a lot of talking with the Aboriginal Traditional Owners and many surveys etc to get the data  togtehr so we could ahve agood plan. Also we ahd to wait for the Government to allocate the money to pay for the work. But it all came together just as I was leaving for Vienna in 2004. Mike ran the implementation over the next few years and at the end of September this year he was able to declare the job finished. So this trip was a bit of a memory lane job for us to see the sites done earlier and the most recent final works. It was great to be back in the area with Mike and whilst it was along day we saw heaps and had a good time. He has done a superb job and the revegetation at sites finished last year is going well as you can see in the pictures...

This year's work has been to finish the containment for all the contaminated waste and landscape the sites after clearing.....................

All looking pretty good and seeded ready for the wet season to bring on the new growth.

While we were driving around we  small herd of wild horses "brumbies" and, for the first time in many years, an emu - but sadly no picture of the emu.

The end of the day saw us high up on the valley side looking downstream to the north over the  valley wher the containment is located. You can just make out the old airstrip which is the construction site in the mid-background of the picture.

So a grand day out and then some.

The next few days were spent in Darwin checking up on my house and seeing my income tax accountant and meeting up with friends and colleagues from work. There may be heap of new uranium projects coming up in Australia over the short term  and I might have a chance to be  involved. Anyway in the end the time was over all too soon and I was on the QANTAS flight down to Sydney for an overnight stop on my way to see son Michael up in Armidale.