Angels in the Outback by Max Griffiths

Author:Max Griffiths
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rosenberg Publishing

17 The New Challenge of ‘Instant Towns’

The image of the outback which most Australians had during the first half of the twentieth century was made up of wide open spaces, clear blue skies, a burning sun and a stockman hunched over his saddle as he drove cattle across the empty landscape. But from the beginning of the second half of the twentieth century that scenario began to change dramatically. There were several reasons for this, and briefly they were as follows.

The first was the explosive growth of the mining industry.

The second was the dramatic exposure of the heartbreaking plight of Australia’s Aboriginal people.

The third was a greater ease of access to the continent’s remote areas and the consequent growth of tourism.

And the fourth was a growing recognition that all Australians, no matter who they were or where they lived, were entitled to the same rights to be educated, and to receive adequate medical care and social welfare support.

All of these factors necessitated a radical rethink on the part of the Australian Inland Mission as to how it would direct its energies and resources in the years that followed the death of John Flynn. And yet it must be noted that the underlying issues of isolation and loneliness which had been the focal point of the AIM’s concern right from its beginning would remain its focus in the new era.

If a symbol were needed to demonstrate the beginning of the new era it would be the fact that thirty-six years after the first AIM nurses began to work in an appallingly deficient building at Halls Creek, a new hospital was finally opened in the new Halls Creek town in 1954. Around the same time as the nurses took over the new hospital, the AIM staff there was setting up another project which marked the beginning of a fresh field of service for the AIM. Fred McKay, now superintendent of the AIM, had during his time as a patrol padre demonstrated a keen interest in the welfare of bush children. Together with some of his padre colleagues McKay used to round up children from the pastoral homesteads of the outback and take them for a holiday at the seaside. The new children’s hostel at Halls Creek took this care to a higher level. Its aim was to enable children who lived on the remote cattle stations in the West Kimberley region to attend school in Halls Creek and be looked after by a caring and dedicated staff.

About the same time as the Halls Creek children’s hostel was opened the AIM initiated another important venture, this time in the field of children’s health. It was called the Far North Children’s Health Scheme. This project had its beginning in 1931 when the Reverend F.H. Patterson, later to become an AIM patrol padre, decided that it would be beneficial for outback children including Aborigines to have a holiday by the sea. The idea proved successful and further camps were held in the following years in a variety of settings.

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