Aurizon Train Driver Michael Hudson shares his story for National Reconciliation Week 2026

Michael Hudson is a proud Adnyamathanha, Arabana man and a Train Driver for Aurizon’s Bulk & Containerised Freight business. As part of his role, Michael runs train services hauling a range of commodities along the Tarcoola-to-Darwin railway line and enjoys seeing much of the country in Central Australia. For National Reconciliation Week, Michael provides some insights on his connections to Country to help share First Nations histories and stories with both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people.

Nunga (hello in Adayamathana Language).

My name is Michael Hudson. I am an Adnyamathanha, Arabana man but also have cultural connections to the Narungga, Ngarrindjeri and Wangkangurru people.

I have lived the majority of my life in Port Augusta where I have held several jobs – Trade Assistant, Track Worker, Correctional Officer and Senior Community Constable.

I started with Aurizon in 2024 as a Trainee Locomotive Driver with Bulk Central. Aurizon’s Bulk Central business provides general freight rail haulage and port services and runs the 2,200-kilometre Tarcoola-to-Darwin railway line. I have since completed the traineeship and I’m now a qualified locomotive driver. I enjoy the fact I’m able to see country and how it changes when I’m working through from Adelaide to Darwin.

I have very recently joined Aurizon’s Indigenous Reference Group – a group of Indigenous and non-Indigenous employees who oversee the company’s Reconciliation Action Plan. My goal as part of the group is to spread knowledge around Aboriginal culture through my journey to employees and our communities to hopefully achieve better understanding of First Nations people and history. 

Connection to Country

My connection to Country spans from the northern regions of South Australia, including the Simpson Desert and Northern Flinders Ranges, across the western areas of Lake Eyre, through Yorke Peninsula, the Lower Murray River, eastern Fleurieu Peninsula, and into the Coorong region of South Australia.

I come from Port Augusta, home to the Bargala people, a country town roughly 290km north of Adelaide in South Australia. It’s widely known as the crossroads of Australia and I think that statement really shows in my Aboriginal background. 

Growing up in Port Augusta was a childhood experience as an Aboriginal man I forever cherish. A lot of my childhood friends are Aboriginal and we all came from different cultural connections. Not all of us had cultural connections to the Port Augusta region but it was our home. We all learnt from each other, sharing stories between ourselves and also from the Elders when visiting each other’s homes.

Those small pieces of memories were so vital to our identity as Aboriginal people and definitely shape our future and morals when we now pass down those stories.

Adnyamathanha Dreaming & the Flinders Ranges

Growing up my Elders would often tell me Dreamtime stories about Yurlu (The King Fisherman) and the two rainbow serpents that created the Flinders Ranges which I’ll share. 

Adnyamathanha Dreaming (the Aboriginal people of the Northern Flinders Ranges), is everything was created at the beginning of the world by giant half-human creatures who formed the landscape – the hills, creeks, gorges and mountains, and all of the animals and people.

Long before the coming of white settlers to Wilpena, there was an old Kingfisher Man called Yurlu who lived in the west near Kuyani territory. He journeyed south from his home at Kakarlpunha (Termination Hill) to attend an important Malkada (corroboree) at Ikara (Wilpena Pound). On the way, Yurlu stopped to light a big signal fire to inform his people that he was coming.The charcoal of that fire remains today in the form of the massive coal deposits that have been mined for decades at Leigh Creek.

Passing through Brachina Gorge on his way to the ceremony, Yurlu saw two giant serpents (Akurra) travelling in the same direction. The snakes scared him and he hid behind low hills until they passed. 

The corroboree was well underway when Yurlu walked into Ikara and the people were unaware of the arrival of unwanted guests: The giant serpents that had entered the pound through another gap and secretively slid up to the ceremony in the darkness. 

Yurlu acted quickly to try to save his people, snatching a fire stick from Walha, the Wild Turkey Man, and throwing it up into the night sky. That burning stick became the red star, Wildu (Mars). To their horror, the light did not scare the giant snakes. It only served to illuminate the people’s fate. 

The Akurra surrounded the people in their giant coils and set about swallowing everyone they could. Yurlu and the Wild Turkey Man escaped, both fleeing to the south. The two Akurra (male and female) were so bloated by the feast that they coiled up and died. Their bodies form the high, red rock and quartzite walls of the pound and the ancient horizontally and vertically fractured and cracked surfaces still to this day looking like giant, reptilian scales.

It is said that St Mary Peak in the Flinders Ranges is the head of Ngaarrimudlunha – the female Akurra.

This story is such an important part of my culture and when I travel back to Country you can see the landscape of the Flinders and how it looks like two serpents have shaped the mountains. 

Talk, listen and share stories and experiences

The theme for National Reconciliation Week this year is ‘All in’. To me that means everyone doing their part big or small to try reach the common goal which is reconciliation.