Colours of a Central Australian Summer
Lately, the weather has been changing. One of the brightest splashes of colour in the recent winter season around town has been the ruby-red Sturt’s Desert Peas. They spill over the borders of median strips and clumps of them nestle like jewels on the side of the road. These flowers speak of Central Australia, the desert region to which they are iconic. All over the town of Alice Springs, they bloom, as the winter days slowly grow longer.
It has been warm, then cold; then warm again, in the space of one day. The calendar tells us we are headed for summer, and history confirms that blistering heat is on its way. The days of deep winter when the wind is cold and the frost bites will soon become a memory. No longer will it be too chilly to sink into the Artesian water at Ellery Creek, or Ormiston Gorge, both popular swimming holes a relatively short distance from town. They will soon draw people to their dark wells seeking respite from the heat like magnets.
Summer means high temperatures at ten o’clock at night. It means every room must be air-conditioned, the reason why people in Central Australia still carry cardigans with them in December. But it also means longer days, brilliant sunshine, evening barbeques – and unfortunately, flies. A January trip out to Ellery Creek earlier this year gifted me three flies that went down my throat. They were the unlucky ones from a mass of the little insects swarming over my fly net.
On this occasion, we grabbed small spindly shrub branches to wave them away. We had hit the time of year when every door to the inside of a
house or vehicle must be pulled shut quickly to keep these pests out. However,
when we walked down to the creek and pushed out into the water, the flies
disappeared. All we noticed was the red of the rocks and the blue of the sky. Now, summer is coming again. Seasons
do change; but out here, in the heart of Australia, a versatile landscape means
that beauty is present regardless.
Summer dawn in Central Australia is a
pastel of colors: The gently breaking light, the crimson creeping across the
morning sky. It comes with a touch of morning air already carrying
the breath of heat, foreshadowing the furnace the day will bring. These dawns have
softly lit up the landscape since the beginning of life in this arid place. They
signal something new, despite the sweat of higher temperatures.
Change is part of life. It is not always negative. The cycle of the seasons and the hope of an aftermath to the pain that has
gripped us this past year can bring renewal. Nothing lasts forever. Soon, the Sturt’s Desert Peas around town will wilt and fade and no longer draw the eye of passing motorists and
pedestrians. We live with their death because we know that it is not eternal; they
will return when it is their time. The landscape will yield them to us again.
Until then, there is still much to see and much to experience. We must keep our
eyes open to the brilliant summer sunshine and the hot red earth of the land we
call home. We must continue to see its beauty.