Burrowing bees of Carnarvon are a favourite of tour operator Rennee Turner for two reasons.
First and foremost, they are a totem of her Yinggarda culture.
“Moogadgurrah as we call them, have significant cultural stories attached. They’re the keepers of things soft and pretty. I love sharing them because they’re endemic to our region,” Rennee says.
And her second reason? “They don’t have stings so everybody can enjoy them.
“I’ve had a few people say, ‘oh no, no, I’m allergic to bees’ and once I mention that they can’t sting you, people then want to experience them. It’s something they’ve never been able to enjoy before.”
The burrowing bees are one of the elements of Rennee’s Wooramulla Eco Cultural Journeys based around Carnarvon.
The tours, which run from a couple of hours to full days and overnighters, take in many elements of Aboriginal culture from language, bush foods and medicine plants, wildflowers, the night sky and the landscape, history and traditions of the local Indigenous people.
Rennee also works for the West Australian Museum, or the Culture Centre in Carnarvon, where a workshop in 2021 gave her an introduction into the tourism industry.
“I also happened to start a business for cultural awareness training with my mum. And it really opened my eyes up to what people want to see and learn about Aboriginal culture and history and our people and country. It’s sort of a bit of a melting pot of those two things.”
Rennee says clients are looking for a deeper insight into country itself.
“I’d like to think my tours are fun, getting you to shake that city dust out of your eyes and look at country in a more natural way. It’s heaps of fun. We do tag-alongs and we do a lot of walking tours for people who want to come and learn about our culture and our people.”
She says there is much more interest now in Aboriginal culture than there was, say 10 years ago.
“Most people want to go back to nature-based tours, learning about ancient cultures, civilisation, and we are the oldest living culture on the planet.”
It’s about encouraging visitors to open their eyes and look at things a little differently.
Rennee poses the question is it a wildflower or is it a weed? To her it is food and medicine.
“People are really taken aback at what they don’t realise is sitting right in front of them. There’s just all sorts of stuff, literally lollies, fruit, food. That one plant or flower could be many things, many times over in the year. What starts off as being a food could end up being a medicine.”
Most of her guests self-drive to Carnarvon, but Rennee says Tourism WA is promoting fly and drive, driving one way and flying the other.
When she launched the business, visitors were more local because it was during COVID, but over the last 12 months, there have been a lot of international and interstate visitors.
Rennee says Carnarvon itself is amazing.
“It’s breathtaking. You’ve got bush to beach. You’ve got dune to dune, whether it’s the desert dunes or the ocean dunes. It’s so diverse.
“We’ve got the most amazing coastline. We’ve got the best sunsets on the planet. We’ve got amazing wildflowers. We’ve got the Kennedy Ranges, we’ve got wetlands where people wouldn’t think they were. It’s an amazing piece of country.
“Lots of people don’t realise it is so close to the coast. It’s been a place where people fuel up, buy their stores and continue on. But there’s actually a beautiful, beautiful town with a lot to offer. And we’re definitely the food bowl of Western Australia.”
Rennee also has another business that sits alongside Wooramulla called Bibbi Murra which means mother’s hand.
“I do bush medicine workshops, engaging with the community or corporates. I’m selling products from that, to give me a little bit of out of season income.”
She is also working with Wooramel River Retreat in Carnarvon.
“We’re going to be doing some night sky stuff and some afternoon walks, some walks to enjoy the afternoon sunset, watching the sun go down and also having a forage, like learning about what people call wildflower weeds. We want to be showing them that it’s not quite what you think it is.”
“We’ve got the most stunning night sky any time of the year. In fact, this time of the year is probably one of my favourites because you get to look at the planets a little bit more.”
Rennee says she can also predict what’s going to happen based on weather patterns.
“I’ve been taught weather, so I can predict. A few years ago, I predicted we would have probably one of the driest years ahead. I even almost got down to the day, spot on; when we were going to have our little licks of rain.
“The next year on, I predicted that we would have the best wildflower season and didn’t we just have that? It was the most spectacular year. Some parts of our region haven’t had a wildflower season like that in a hundred years. And I think everybody thought I was a little bit crazy after the really hot season we’d had when I said, you watch, we’re going to have the most amazing season.”
Find out more about Wooramulla Journeys at www.wooramulla.com.au or call 0477 126 983.
