Loading expedition supplies brought to Groote Eylandt by a RAAF Catalina seaplane, onto a wooden Aboriginal canoe, to set up the first camp during the 1948 American- Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land. An aboriginal man stands in the canoe loading the supplies.

In his report to Mountford, American Anthropologist Frank Setzler, wrote about his experience of travelling in the Catalina:

After leaving Darwin on April 4, 1948, I experienced one of my most memorable events. We took off in a Catalina plane during a heavy rain storm headed for our initial camp in Arnhem Land.

For the first few hours visibility was nil, then as we neared the high sandstone escarpments we could see the East Alligator River, which, at this time of the year, gave the appearance of an arm of the sea. ...As we flew across the sandstone escarpments the clouds melted away, and we could see the rugged canyons and gorges forming rectangular patterns of green in the white sandstone. After several hours we could make out the eastern end of the escarpments and the Catalina slowly descended over Blue Mud Bay where we caught our first glimpse of the Gulf of Carpentaria.

We began to circle; all were requested to move into the cabin out of the blister. Everyone held his breath, air became stifling. Soon there was a woosh, then a bump, a swish, and we were down safely on Little Lagoon. We had reached our destination, Umba Kumba, on the north-eastern corner of Groote Eylandt.

Setzler, Frank, Reports of Staff, Expedition to Arnhem Land, 1948, Mountford-Sheard Collection PRG 1218/17/17.

American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land, (1948)

Angurugu Community Government Council - Groote Eylandt Community