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Published: September 6th 2007
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Turning off the Brand highway at Northampton, the road sweeps
over rolling farm hills of crops and livestock. Quite unlike
the flat landscape until that point. After a few days on the
Brand Highway (the coastal highway between Perth and Broome)
we realised that the driving experience was not going to be
a scenic one like the Great Ocean Road between Melbourne and
Adelaide. In fact, most of the time the road is a half an hours
drive from the actual coast, so the views normally entail long,
straight stretches with bush or farmfields on each side. As well
as the chance of a kangaroo hopping out into your path, the even
more seriously damaging chance of whacking a cow is a distinct
possibility if you travel when visibility is low. So even though
these huge straight tracts of road are amazingly boring to drive,
it requires a lot of concentration to keep your eyes peeled for
suicidal critters.
So Kalbarri was reached after a pleasant drive and we pulled in to
Tudors caravan park. We did the obligatory visit to National Park
and had our photos taken at Natures Window, although the views are
impressive, the Murchison river below was
dried up in a lot of places
and the flies were a real pest. Heaps more enjoyable were the coastal
walks to the natural bridge and mushroom rock. There was always the
possibilty of spotting a whale or a group of dolphins in the waters
below. It was on one such occasion that an elderly aussie couple told
us that they may have spotted a whale off the coast. We stared hard
for several minutes, but couldn't distinguish the telltale jet of
upward water anywhere. We got to chatting with John and Janice straight
away and didn't realise how time had got away on us until our stomaches
started to rumble an hour and a half later. John and myself had ambled
through a wide range of subjects from global warming, to the importance
of history and the aboriginal situation. Since he is a white farmer in
his seventies from the wheat belt of southwest Australia his views were
particularly interesting. It's hard to believe that there are so many
people that still believe that global warming is just some sort of green
propaganda, dreamed up to scare everyone out of their consumer addiction
and damage the economy. John assured
me that a lot of his peers held this
conviction and he was one of the few dissenting voices. I didn't agree
with his opinion that the nuclear option is the only viable alternative.
The aboriginal situation in Australia remains a very sensitive and polemic
topic whomever you talk too. John appreciated as a farmer how these people
had lost their focus, dignity and let dissillusionment set in after the
settlers had taken away their land. He himself knew every corner of every
field and every single tree on his huge farm and couldn't imagine being
told that he was no longer allowed to walk around his property. Although his
son now manages the farm and Janice and himself have retired to Mandurah,
he still visits in his battered up ute at least once a week. But they
original inhabitants have even more to deal with in the widespread racism
all over the continent. John told me how his neighbour had threatened to
come down and shoot him after he had signed a reference for a black fella in the 80s.
We had been listening to the radio as we drove along and mostly we could
only get reception for
ABC, which broadcasts national current affairs
programmes. THe big discussion since our arrival was the federal government's
intervention in aboriginal communities in northern WA where widespread child
abuse had been uncovered. They had actually sent in the army, but this proved
to be toted as a piece of sensationalist journalism, since their role was to
logistically support the local police with supplies, tents, vehicles - not
crack heads. The whole situation is suitably complex, as the abuse is believed
to stem from drug and alcohol abuse by the perpetrators, which is rampant in
these communities because of the nearly 100% unemployment. The government's
reaction was to unilaterally ban alcohol from these places (which sometimes
aboriginal communities decide on and enforce themselves) and so this resulted
in a lot of these people changing location to try and acquire their alcohol.
A bottle shop - the places where alcohol is sold in Oz - in Alice Springs had
to shut it's doors because of all the unfamiliar faces who suddenly appeared
out of the bush and preceded to drink their purchases on the pavement outside.
The A borigines are prone to alcohol abuse not only due to their sometimes
hopeless situation, but
also because their natural diet before the arrival of
Europeans contained hardly any sugar. This also means that their bodies are
less able to cope with the sugars and fats in soft drinks and fast food.
Ironically enough, on the few occasions that Agnes and I had a breakdown in
discipline and ended up in a fastfood restaurant, the percentage of aboriginal
clientele was notably high - sometimes more than half! So it would appear that
government handouts are not the answer and actually make these poor people more
resentful of the "pay us off and forget about us" attitude of the white fellas.
There are some rays of hope on the horizon, however. Some aboriginals do integrate
into the white society and lead normal and happy lives. This may appear that they
are abandoning their culture and traditional way of life, but who can blame them
if they choose to be happy. A lot of the natives find employment with the national
park authorities around the country. I talked to one discontent angler in Monkey
Mia who claimed that the CALM was actually biased towards employing aboriginals
first - I hope this is true! In several communities in the
northeast, Noel Pearson,
an aboriginal lawyer, has managed to introduce a system where each individual has
to commit to contribute something to various community projects where their
collective social welfare entitlements are invested. It is still in the early stages,
but it may be the way forward. Every white Australian whom I discussed this with
thought that the government intervention had been necessary because as John said
also "they had to do something". Our contact with aboriginal people has been very
limited so far during our visit, so the views of that section of society on the
subject are still unknown to us.
Meanwhile ..... Agnes and Janice had been swapping personal and family histories -
how we met, how they met, their children and grandchildren from their earlier
marriages. Both had the misfortune to lose their lifelong partners to cancer and
then the good fortune to find each other. No wonder women are less stressed than men
and know the really important things in life to get to grips with! We arranged to
meet our new found friends that evening at the famous Finlay's Fish BBQ. As we picked
our way back along the rocky clifftops to the campervan
where we could put an end
to the growling emanating from our bellies with a tasty salad, I was once again struck
by how easy-going, talkative just downright friendly the Australians are. During our
first days in Perth it had been somewhat disconcerting to have waitresses and shop
assistants strike up friendly conversations with us without any angle, like we
constantly experienced in Asia. They just wanted a chat and the women especially
were probably more than a little curious how an odd couple like us got together. So
after nearly 2 weeks here I was beginning to enjoy giving "G'Day!" to everyone whom
I came face to face with and giving every second car on the road a friendly salute
which was nearly always returned. We had already completely let our guard down, we'll
be in trouble when we return to Asia.
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