To do that, the ocean-trotter hitched a ride on a current within the Gulf of Carpentaria (that separates Cape York from Arnhem Land, to the west).

BBC: Crocodiles 'surf' long distance on ocean currents

In Maningrida, in Central Arnhem Land east of Darwin, 3, 000 indigenous residents speak seven completely different languages and about 22 distinctive dialects within a relatively small area.

BBC: Lost indigenous language revived in Australia

Mr Djerrkura's home in north-eastern Arnhem Land was the site of Australia's first land-rights campaign in 1963, when a collection of clans known as the Yolngu sent a petition written on bark to Canberra, the Australian capital, objecting to the mining of bauxite on their land by Nabalco, a Swiss-Australian company.

ECONOMIST: The aboriginal patterns that haunt Australia | The