WORKING for the rural media is one of the best gigs in the world if you happen to like travelling about the bush.
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No better way to see the country, poke your nose almost anywhere you want.
In almost 40 years of rural reporting, I have travelled umpteen gazillion kilometres to all points of the compass in the south-east of Australia.
But I had a fair dinkum “pinch me am I dreaming” moment on the road near Katherine last week.
I had been invited out to Manbulloo Mangoes to illustrate a story I was doing with the super impressive head honcho Marie Piccone.
I was provided with a fairly detailed mud map of how to get to the place, two pages no less, it sure put stick drawings in the red dust to shame.
In Victoria, we rely almost exclusively on our phone GPS to get places, not a good idea in phone black spot prone NT to do the same, I have no intention to try any wee-drinking skills learned from Bear Grylls on TV.
Head out the Victoria Highway, check.
Turn at the sign, check.
Keep travelling along the airfield for two kilometres, what the?
Even newcomers who travel along the Stuart Highway can see the many chocolate coloured finger boards pointing to WWII secret airfields, obviously no longer so secret.
Not sufficiently intrigued to waste time finding out, I had pasted that information in the mind for when I was doing laps of the continent as a grey nomad.
The red, windy, dusty (and private) road to the orchards was steady going and then it widened out into what must surely be the widest (30 metres) bush road in the Territory.
A road born out of panic because northern Australia looked very much like being overrun 74 years ago, you are driving over history.
That the airstrip was built well enough to support the Yanks B-24 Liberator bombers way back then and still be usable is also remarkable.
They flew out over Katherine to attack Japanese airfields, ground installations, shipping and industries (according to Wikipedia).
Other missions included disruption of enemy sea channels; dropping photoflash bombs and propaganda pamphlets.
For a runway hacked out of the wilderness to be used today to join two pieces of private road when you are just trundling along private property was just one of those moments not to be forgotten.
