Arnhem Land Buffalo

In May 2014 I was flying low in a helicopter over the Tomkinson River floodplains in western Arnhem Land, locally known by the regional name Bulkay. While I had visited Bulkay on many occasions, this was my first chopper flyover since 2009. This area is renowned as a site for large gatherings of Aboriginal people owing to its seasonal resource abundance. I saw herds of wild buffalo visible from the air in greater numbers than I had ever seen before; the environmental damage that made drives over the floodplains pugged by hard hooves so bone jarring during the dry seasons was clearly visible from the air, as were numerous wallows and deep channels