SNAKE CREEK TURNOUT – Gulf Country
JOURNAL NOTES
There was a question I asked some showman “what is the best bush get together in the north?” “Up in the Gulf!” was the reply. “Once a year on a June full moon, Karumba and Normanton put their small-town rivalries aside for a weekend and half way meet up at a waterhole known as Snake Creek.”
The story went that on a late Friday afternoon there is no one about the scrub lagoon, and then by sunset hundreds have set up a camp amenities, food stalls and refrigerated semi-trailer arrives and people dig in for a weekend of lively verve.
With little way of confirming the reality of this far-off obscure annual ‘get together’ by a fishing community and a cattle community… I headed off into the great out there for a 3200 kilometre round trip upon a full moon in June. And so, with tattooists, showman, hat and saddle sellers among the bush poets, families, fishing folks, ringers and locals for the turnout.