EM: I wanna tell a story about when I first started as a ranger here at Yawuru. So this was maybe eight years ago. And my experience growing up here in Broome was that I was more of an indoors kid. Anytime I did go outside, it was more coastal side, so I was doing more, more along the beaches. So, I wasn’t very inland when it came to going out on country, but I still had, really very interested in taking care of country. And before I ever became a ranger, I got my certificates in land conservation and management that by the time I actually went and started becoming a ranger, I was going out with the team. So the team was, at the time, there was a four-man team, we would be going out on country. It was Johani, Jacob and my Uncle Pio. And as that team would be going out on Roebuck Plains almost every day doing photo point monitoring, doing water monitoring, doing fencing work, just all this various, some tough work. But it was, it was all good and fun back then. But in the early days I was still pretty new to a lot of the things. And on one of those trips, we went out to do some photo point monitoring at a very specific dragon tree water soak.  

So this time of the year, it was definitely dry season because as we were driving around Roebuck Plains, it was very hard road. We were in a very old beaten-up Isuzu car that just, we definitely wanted it replaced by then, but it was a very rough, rough trip every time we’d go out there. And the soak that we’re going to was all dried up. There was a bunch of dead, stood up trees, but mostly it was all just no water. Very dried out, just very grey landscape with no life.  

But when we got outta the cars that day, Uncle Pio, he noticed some goanna tracks and Jacob and Jahani very excited, uh, they wanted to go find it. And they began searching around for where this goanna could be. Me, I was, as I said, I wasn’t much of an inland kid, so I’d never actually even gone hunting for goanna at the time. So, I kind of stood a bit more back in comparison to everybody else, just holding onto the camera, ready to take, doing the photo point monitoring, I was holding onto the camera and I was just trying to stay as far away as I could from everybody, basically waiting at the car. 

But, Uncle Pio, Jahani and Jacob, they all managed to find the goanna. It was at the, at the very least, they saw the tail sticking out from a pretty big but dead tree. So Jahani, this was when Jahani was always working out. So, he was much stronger than he is nowadays. But he grabbed it by the tail, he was the first one to grab it by the tail, and he was pulling as hard as he could, pulling it and pulling it. But apparently this goanna was, must have been climbing up the tree because it was gripped into the bark. And he was struggling a bit, pulling it out. But eventually, Jacob had his stick ready, was waiting for as soon as it was gonna come out. He was gonna smack it on the head as soon as he could.  

Uncle Pio was watching, supervising it, making sure everyone was doing it right. And I was as far as away as I could from it. Uh, and Johani pulled it as hard as he could and out him and that goanna, they swung in a full circle around and around, and Jacob swung down trying to hit it and missed. And missed again. And Johani still holding onto it. Didn’t wanna let it go, but it was fighting and fighting. He just threw it in the air and we all watched it go up in the air and it landed a good metre or so away from them, just flat, stunned as it was, just looking gazed as it could be.  

Then it noticed me. I was standing as still as I could and I was stunned as well. ‘Cause I did, I was shocked by the entire sight of it all, just in general. And it started to gain its consciousness a bit and started to, then it just made a quick move cutting straight towards me.  

But luckily Uncle Pio, Jacob and Johani all were on it, immediately swinging with their sticks and went and killed it immediately. But Uncle Pio looking at me, he was like, Ed, what you doing, boy? Why are you standing still there? I’m like, what? I was, I wasn’t doing anything. He’s like, that’s the thing, Ed, you were standing still, he thought you was a tree. When you stand still and do nothing, that’s when the goanna is gonna go and climb you first. And I was like, ah. And he is like, there’s the other thing you missed out on doing, Ed. I’m like, what’s that? And he’s like, you got a camera in your hand… why didn’t you take any pictures? 

And so the things, I guess I learned two things that day. It was, really you gotta, you’ve kind of got two morals to that. You have to keep moving, gotta keep going. Don’t wanna get stagnant in what you’re doing. And it’s always good to keep, keep your motion going but also always being ready to take the shot. Never letting yourself miss out on opportunities. Otherwise you just miss out on things all the time. And it could have made a million dollars on that, on those pictures. That’s what Uncle Pio was always saying. “You could have made a million dollars, Ed, that day if you had just taken a picture.” Yeah. But, all right, thanks everyone. And that’s the story.