Busting the Toad Busters

 There are shades of guava pink in the clouds at dusk tonight and you can be satisfied just by looking at the Kununurra ridgelines. But it is not all sweetness and light in the Kimberley, not all sunsets and G-and-Ts. There is a tension here in the frontier air, and it seems as if history is repeating itself, that mistakes of other times and places are happening here now. The specifics and people are different but there is unnecessary conflict due to misunderstanding and lack of respect for history. For when the sun goes down, when darkness comes, we will be out looking for cane toads and the satisfaction of this moment will seem a lifetime away. This is work we should never have had to do if others had read their history books and governments did what was asked of them. It is conservation work that no amount of G-and-Ts will soothe.

I am not a misplaced urbanite in search of some romanticised noble savagery. I am just a community member lamenting government mismanagement,…