FERVOUR ON MOUNT BROWN

Most of us York residents have at some time driven or puffed our way up to the Mount Brown lookout to enjoy magnificent panoramic views over the town and nearby cemetery. 

Go to Trip Advisor, and you’ll see that the lookout is a favourite destination for visitors to York, ranked first among local attractions just ahead of Penny Farthing Sweets and the Town Hall and well in front of the Motor Museum and the Avon Suspension Bridge. 

(Several reviewers counsel visitors to steer clear of the suspension bridge at this time of year, to avoid the tragic spectacle of suicidal ratepayers tossing themselves despairingly into the turbid waters below.)

Most of the Trip Advisor reviews are highly appreciative of the lookout, and none is dismissive or disparaging.   

‘Lovely in the evening with a blanket in the cooler nights and a bottle of wine with a friend,’ says one.  ‘Marvellous place for meditation, you can feel the cosmos flowing through your veins,’ says another, signing himself Siddhartha.  

A third, MeToo, tells us, ‘It was a leap year, so I took the opportunity to propose marriage to my boyfriend…when he knocked me back, I pushed him over the edge of the Mount Brown lookout in York…a victory for women everywhere, and the most satisfying and exciting leap year of my life so far’.

Yet another visitor, NotMeIMissedOut, unfairly describes going up Mount Brown as ‘one of the few things to see or do in York’, but still gives the view 5 stars.

Myths and legends

York readers will hardly need reminding of the mythological significance of Mount Brown not only to the indigenous Balladong people but also to the descendants of white settlers who persuaded the Balladong to hand over their ancestral lands to farmers so the latter could chop down all the trees.

One indigenous story, possibly apocryphal, relates how a bulyit—a malevolent, hairy creature much like a gnome—tricked a young woman into climbing with him up the slopes of Mount Brown.  I don’t know how the story ends.  Some versions hint at moonjin, others hold that mischievous sprites known as mummari men intervened to put the bulyit off his stroke.

Whitefella residents have a Mount Brown legend of their own, concerning the collapse of a temporary erection for which shire approval had not been sought.

‘Fervor events’

No doubt hoping to capitalise on Mount Brown’s popularity with locals and tourists alike, York Arts & Events have applied for council approval to make Mount Brown the venue for two 'long table dinners’ planned for Friday 1 March and Saturday 2 March next year.   

Their application was included as an appendix to the agenda for July’s council meeting.   It was approved subject to a variety of conditions, including provision of parking areas, rubbish bins and toilet amenities, and undertaking of cultural and community consultation prior to the event.

The dinners, called ‘Fervor events’ after the ‘pop-up restaurant’ that hosts them, are the brainchild of brother and sister Paul and Bree Iskov.  Fervor events have been held in many of WA’s regional beauty spots, including Port Hedland, Karratha, Paraburdoo and of course Mukinbudin, whose name in the local indigenous language, Gubrun, is thought to mean ‘the place where many rodents make their nests’.

I’m sure we can all agree that York’s most popular open-air romantic rendezvous is a rather more appealing venue than any of those just listed.

It’s my fervent hope that the Mount Brown Fervor event will be a great success and become an annual feature of social life in York. 

If you want to take part, contact Jo Bryant of York Arts & Events on 0411 287 944. 

But hurry, only about 80 tickets will be available (40 per night), and I imagine that a good many will be snapped up by tourists and other interlopers from Perth and surrounding shires.

CULTURAL NOTE:  In the Balladong language, a dialect of Nyungar, Mount Brown is known as Wongboral, which means ‘sleeping woman’.  For an explanation—definitely not apocryphal—of how that name came about, see https://www.creativespirits.info/australia/western-australia/york/aboriginal-legend-of-mount-bakewell-and-mount-brown

 

View from Mount Brown lookout (Image: Javin Tham)

BREAKING NEWS 5 August 2018

Porcine Peregrinations—A Crackling Good Tale

A certain elderly lady of this parish recently witnessed an extraordinary event concerning a pig and a goat. 

On Friday afternoon, she was reposing quietly in her lounge room when she heard loud grunting sounds coming from somewhere outside.  Thinking that her neighbour might be having difficulty repairing damage to the dividing fence, she went out to investigate and if needed, offer advice.

Imagine her astonishment on observing from her verandah a giant pig in the yard of the property backing on to her neighbour's, energetically poking its snout under the cyclone fencing of its pen.  The pig began to shake its head violently, which sent the fencing crashing down on its night shelter, thus providing it with a means of escape. 

Seizing its opportunity, the animal fled into the yard backing on to Ms R’s property, presumably with a view to applying for asylum.  Behind it trotted its owner's pet goat.

Ms R reports that at this point the pig began to display an unhealthy interest in her chooks—unhealthy, that is, for the chooks, not the pig.  Luckily for the chooks, the pig decided to postpone lunch and pick a fight with the goat.

Meanwhile, some spoilsport had called the ranger, who prevailed on the pig’s owner to return home and coax it back into its pen.

It appears that the pig was served with an order to find alternative accommodation within seven days, failing which it may be impounded or deported to Manus Island.

No doubt the goat will be glad to see it go.