Along the Pituri Trail

[2b]

Visit My Websitehttp://www.abc.net.au/rn/hindsight/stories/2008/2277583.htm

Documentary aired on Radio National yesterday, highly recomended. Pod cast or live stream available from above link.

In 1876, explorer WO Hodgkinson led the last government-funded expedition into the Simpson Desert, ostensibly to find land suitable for pastoral expansion. But Hodgkinson's diary from the journey reveals that his main interest in the desert country was to find the source of a valuable native narcotic known to the local Aboriginals as 'Pituri'.

In this feature, a group of latter-day expeditioners follow in Hodgkinson's footsteps. They, too, went in search of the story of Pituri, and found that this, in turn, revealed a larger history of colonisation and environmental change in the Simpson Desert.

The contemporary expeditioners comprise biologist Mike Letnic, writer, filmmaker and historian Tom Murray, and archeologist Hugh Barton.

Presenter

Michelle Rayner

Edited June 30, 2008 by 2b

[apothecary]

Thanks 2b. Gonna listen to it on the walk to work tomorrow

[Plantsoma]

Thanks. Downloading now.

You might want to edit the link. I had to delete the http// part in the new window that was doubled to make the link work, might be just my browser though.

[2b]

Thanks, i should have checked the link. All good now.

[Bolwarra]

Great stuff 2b! thanks for posting

"The natives bring large shells from the NW, and tell mysterious legends of a place called Peecheringa" I remember this Hodgkinson quote blowing me away in P.Watson's 'This Precious Foliage'. Brilliant!