MovieChat Forums > Rogue (2007) Discussion > 'We shouldn't really be here. This is sa...

'We shouldn't really be here. This is sacred territory?'

posted 17 years ago by itlyb
8 replies | jump to latest

Sacred to whom? The cult who worships crocodiles and paints them onto rocks?

[–] GirlyfromOz 17 years ago

The traditional landowners. But they got permission to film which is really special as otherwise we would not have got to see this bit of beautiful scenery. Mind you the NT is beautiful but its just that much better to see these extra sites.

[–] parrot_juice 17 years ago

The indigenous Australians that lived in the Northern Territory up to 40,000 years ago. The rock art are heritage listed and protected throughout the area.

You get to read more about the Northern Territory / Kakadu National Park / Nitmiluk National Park on the Travel NT website:
http://en.travelnt.com/explore/kakadu-arnhem.aspx?cid=sem-g-arnhem

The Rogue (2007) movie is also noted here:
http://en.travelnt.com/experience/nature/the-crocodile.aspx

[–] gunneos 17 years ago

Speaking about the painted white-chalked drawings on the rocks...who drew them?

Nothing is more reliable than a man whose loyalties can be bought with hard cash.

[–] puirt-a-beul 17 years ago

Those ones were faked by the art department for the purpose of this flick.

But there are many areas in this region of Australia where genuine artwork similar to this exists. It was done by the original inhabitants and owners of the land -- most of it for tribal and totemic purposes and for evoking the spirits of the ancestors or the creatures they were hunting -- some instances of such artwork on the cliffs and caves are tens of thousands of years old.

You might very well think that. I couldn't possibly comment.

[–] gunneos 17 years ago

I see. I thought it was poorly er, linked, because it made me go "is that some kind of SOS or warning from the Flare Dude?"

For that matter who threw the flares? It appeared to fall off the side of a cliff, or from high ground at least, so I don't think the person got eaten because it was a freaking cliff. Crocs can leap out of water but they can't scale rocky walls I'm certain.

Nothing is more reliable than a man whose loyalties can be bought with hard cash.

[–] puirt-a-beul 16 years ago

For that matter who threw the flares?

I always figured they were simply fired from a gun. I think, when that happens, you basically only see the flares as they're starting to fall, so it would have looked like they'd been tossed off the cliff.

The subject of crocs here has reared its head -- if you'll pardon the expression -- in a pretty sad way over the last week. Last weekend, a bloke who was camping at a public camping ground up in the Top End (something like where this movie took place) went down in the early morning to check the crab pots that he'd put out in the shallows of the water ... and that was it. He was gone. His poor wife had to be hospitalised with shock. In one of those cruel turns of fate, he had gone to pull the pots up, because they were actually leaving that same day. All they found of him was some of his gear lying on the bank.

There's been the usual public uproar, with people wanting the croc destroyed, and the people who actually understand crocs pointing out that that will achieve nothing, since as soon as this croc is killed, another croc will move in and claim the territory, and will be even more aggressive in its attempts to establish itself. The problem is that we humans think we're the top of the food chain and natural masters of all other animals, and so don't learn how to co-habit. The poor bugger who got taken apparently broke quite a number of the "rules" of being in crocodile territory -- the prime one being that, having put out crab pots, he went to the water every morning at around the same time and at exactly the same place. Big no-no.

If that sounds like I'm not sympathetic to the bloke who got taken, well, that's not how it is. I feel very sorry for him, and of course for his wife, and also for the woman who managed the camping ground who was understandably pretty distraught about it all. The tragedy is mostly due to a lack of awareness on people's part. Crocs are always going to be dangerous. But they're survivable, if you learn how to behave around them.

You might very well think that. I couldn't possibly comment.

[–] GirlyfromOz 16 years ago

Thanks - very sad story. I am note sure how flares are ignited - i.e. if you need a gun or if disturbed they go off themselves. It is obvious that when crocs take their prey it is quick, that's why I thought the first death was really dramatic and disturbing.

[–] bogwart-1 16 years ago

He was a 63-year old Brit. A Viet Nam vet. Very sad, but your last sentence says it all.

When you live in a country like ours, which has no indigenous fauna that can kill you, you become pretty blasé about the possibility of something that will do you in a second, like a saltie or a Great White.

But I have to say you wouldn't catch me in either environment. I have an atavistic aversion to being lunch for some animal.