The indefatigable Darwin activist and agronomist Robert Wesley-Smith recently made a wide ranging tour of the hinterland which took in the old Tortilla Flats Experiment Station,its name derived from John Steinbeck's novel , where he used to work in the l960s ,helping expand Territory animal industry and agriculture . It is located at the 60- mile peg turnoff southeast of Darwin.
Long shut down , sold and fenced off , the Tortilla Flats accommodation buildings , above , are a melancholy sight , which he photographed , buffaloes seen grazing . Buffaloes have stamped through his life in the Territory and , of course , originally came from East Timor , the country he helped obtain its freedom .
At one stage Wes owned almost 300 buffs.
Still visible after all these years at Tortilla Flats is the cattle grid , below, Wes constructed himself from metal piping - you had to be a jack of all trades as well as an agronomist in those days .
His memories of Tortilla Flats, also known as the Upper Adelaide River Experiment Station, include involvement in pilot rice growing projects .The June edition of Progenitor, journal of the Genealogical Society of the Northern Territory , contained two articles by Ruth Sheridan covering the Territory's post war farming history and rice growing.
Little Darwin discussed the interesting articles with Wes and he supplied much additional information about individual farmers (one of them inspired a character in Xavier Herbert's award winning 1938 novel Capricornia ) , ventures and projects.
During his Australia wide travels, Wes has visited Magnetic Island several times . It could be said he keeps a close watch on the island, sends this blog items of interest , and is a strong campaigner to free WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange , who once lived on the island .
On his recent Top End tour ,which included Tortilla Flats, Wes drove about Litchfield Park where he photographed Wangi Falls .
Along the way , he checked livestock , pastures, cafes. properties for sale and historic sites. One of the sites on which there is old machinery will be run in Little Darwin . Wes took photos of rock formations which he said reminded him of Magnetic Island's stacked up granite boulders and sent one to us as a Christmas present.
