Great Gum Flat Adventure on Thursday

GRAB your picnic baskets and get ready for The Great Gum Flat Adventure at Minlagawi, Minlaton, 10am to 1pm Thursday, October 7.

This free school holiday event includes a huge range of nature-based activities.

The Great Gum Flat Adventure is part of the Nature Festival, and will encourage young people and families to make the most of the Minlagawi Gum Flat Reserve, corner of Old Port Vincent and Gum Flat Roads.

Children can bring their bikes and tackle the mountain bike track, adventure around on foot, or participate in various activities.

The whole family can try outdoor yoga and mindful dance, and Archie’s Bistro will provide a free coffee, or other hot drink, for all attendees.

The Great Gum Flat Adventure will focus on Narungga (traditionally spelled Nharangga) Country through hosted activities such as ‘Nharangga Connections’, and also feature water bug catching, bird spotting, a self-guided trail walk and wooden log round art.

Youngsters can enjoy building cubby houses, making nature scavenger bracelets and warrior arm bands, creating nature faces, or just exploring the outdoors.

Recent additions to the event include earth drumming, enjoy guitar by Meggie Moon, and the chance for attendees to take home a free native plant (numbers limited).

Yorke Peninsula Council Environment Officer Letitia Dahl-helm said the event provided an opportunity to roam the Minlagawi-Gum Flat Reserve and discover all of its secret spots, including the newly developed mountain bike trail.

“This is the perfect chance to enjoy the great outdoors during the spring holidays,” she said.

“Nature Play is all about unstructured play — children having the opportunity to explore and play in the environment how they choose.

“For example, a log can be imagined to be a life-saving raft, a dragon, or a snowboard the child rides down a huge mountain slope!

“To give families ideas about what they can do as nature play, there will be hosted sessions on offer.

“These are ideas that can be done by anyone, anytime they visit Gum Flat.”

The Great Gum Flat Adventure is proudly presented by Yorke Peninsula Council, Nharangga Aboriginal Progress Association, SYP Community Hub and Country SA PHN.

To register, or for more details, visit yorke.sa.gov.au, the Yorke Peninsula Council Facebook page, or see the advert in this edition of the YP Country Times.

Focus on Narungga (Nharangga) connection

THIS year’s Great Gum Flat Adventure at Minlagawi, Minlaton, will include a strong focus on Narungga (traditionally spelled Nharangga) culture and history.

Narungga (Nharangga) dhura (people) have looked after their Banggara (Country) for tens of thousands of years.

Minlagawi is Windara Country, home of the garrdi (emu) totem. Gawi means water, and minla describes its taste.

Minlagawi holds particular cultural significance as the meeting place between the Warri (west) people of the wildu (eagle) totem, the Windara (east) people of the garrdi (emu) totem, and the Dhilba (south) people of the widhadha (shark) totem.

For ceremonies, trade and meetings, there was ample food, water, and resources to accommodate several hundred people.

The adjacent lake was once freshwater, surrounded by open grasslands and home to ducks, swans, kangaroo, wallaby, emu, possums, bandicoot, wombat, lizards and abundant fruit, seeds, and nuts.