Ardyaloon

Ardyaloon, also known as One Arm Point or Bardi, overlooks turbulent waters off Western Australia's Dampier Peninsula. The dry tropical coast is broken by mangroves, reefs and inlets, swept by powerful tides. Its sea country lies at the entrance to King Sound, where mainland camps faced the islands of the Buccaneer Archipelago.

For Bardi communities, land and sea formed one inherited estate. Family groups moved between coastal camps with the seasons and ritual calendar, while estate boundaries are traditionally said to extend into the water as far as a person could swim. Bardi voyagers used kalwa, rafts of mangrove wood pegged together in two overlapping sections. These craft carried them on fishing and hunting trips and short crossings to offshore islands in difficult tidal channels.

Passages and reefs around One Arm Point connected Bardi camps with offshore islands and neighbouring groups. Kalwa crossings depended on reading wind, tide and swell, and on timing journeys through King Sound's powerful currents. The point's rocky shelf and sheltered lee offered landing places for fishing and coastal travel.