Robert (Vin) Smith (QM 1956 - 60)
Letter from Australia ...
We’ve just returned to civilization after our third deployment to the town of Nhulunbuy in the north east of Arnhem Land – a vast area of 97,000 square kilometres at the top of the Northern Territory, with a population of around 16,000, most of them indigenous people.
The town of Nhulunbuy was developed as a mining town in the late 1960s and still owes its life largely to the mining of high-grade bauxite. It has a population that varies from three to four thousand, most of them balander (the local Aboriginal name for whitefellas), who work in the mining industry or government-provided support services like health, education, indigenous employment etc.
It is a very isolated place, around 1200 kms from Darwin via a mostly unsealed, 4 WD road that is often cut by floods in the Wet Season. Supplies come in mainly by a weekly barge from Darwin, and access to the outside world is by a daily flight linking Darwin with Cairns.
One of the things we have come to appreciate about this place and its people is the sense of community and the way in which everybody joins in to provide recreational activities and entertainment. On Friday evenings many people gather at the surf club for a barbecue - where all proceeds go to local charities - overlooking the Arafura Sea and watching the moon rise over the water. We also get occasional performances by the local thespians – one was about the inmates of a psychiatric hospital in the 1970s putting on a performance of Mozart’s opera Cosi Fan Tutti - not all that sophisticated, but great fun. On Sunday nights we gather at the Boat Club to watch the sun set over Melville Bay.
I went up there again to act as the supply minister for the Nhulunbuy Uniting Church. They haven’t had a resident minister for some years, so we’ve been there for the last 3 years to supplement whatever occasional resources are provided from Darwin. Marilyn is a marvellous help in this process, providing regular hospitality for people who drop-in at the church manse, as well as leading a well-attended women’s Bible-study group, where they seem to do more talking than studying (she tells me they are actually discussing the topic).
She is also much in demand at the local High School, where she is known as Miss America and does casual teaching whenever they are short of a teacher (which is most of the time). One of the great challenges there is teaching Yolngu (the local aboriginal people) students, who are now beginning to respond to the attempts to get them to come to school.
My role was to work with the church council to develop its ministry outreach, preach, teach, mentor lay leaders and provide pastoral support and counselling to both regular church attenders and the community generally. I got to record a number of short inspirational spots on the local community radio station, join with the local sub branch of the Returned Services League in their Vietnam Veterans Memorial Service, the Police Memorial Service and a few other things.
As we did the last two years, we had a few safaris out into the wilds, the most ambitious of which was a 5 vehicle trek to Wonga Creek, driving along a very rugged track, with a steep descent to a river crossing, followed by an equally steep climb up the other side, before finally reaching an idyllic spot where the creek flows over rapids before descending to the Gulf of Carpentaria. The only draw-back to the idyllic nature of it all is the need to keep one’s eyes peeled for crocodiles, which abound in all those waterways, and also for large, dangerous water- buffaloes, which also roam throughout the bush.
We were invited to be the chaplains at the annual Northern Synod of the Uniting Church, providing a listening ear to any who needed one. This year, instead of at Darwin, it was held in Alice Springs – right in the very centre of Australia. We flew to Darwin and then drove the 1200 kms south to Alice Springs. It gave us time to see the vast as we drove there and back, overnighting in some fascinating places, where the welcome is as warm as the temperature and the accommodation on the star rating system occasionally qualifies for half a star. Out first night was at the famous Daly Springs pub, which provides welcome cold beer, huge steaks and a bar festooned with dozens of pairs of ladies’ undies, all donated by grateful travellers over the years. We also got to stay in the location of Jeannie Gunn’s famous 1908 book We of the Never Never. Then, on the first day of our return trip I got to celebrate my 74th birthday.
It's good to be home now, enjoying the pleasures of civilization – pleasant cafes, restaurants and shows. But we do find ourselves feeling a little nostalgic for the sound of the South-Easterly Trade Winds gently blowing through the palm trees.