Jellybeans in the Jungle - Rookies

Off the Beaten Track

For the last two weeks I've been working a little off the beaten track.

Posted is a montage of shots taken here and there during these trips. It's an attempt to capture the humid energy of the bush that hits you in the face during a real wet season. Double-click on the images to see them full size.

Open road - green grass, and lots of midges. (Near Augathella)







North of Teelba - some of the best cattle country around - especially now.






There are places where the map loaded in the GPS isn't up to the task, and it gets confused and the little arrow marker floats around in the ether. I use it mostly to keep track of arrival times at the next job.






Mungallalla hotel - the power pole spoils it a bit. This is a very old pub - grey nomads can camp in the grounds for free. This time of the year they're generally still in Mexico (Victoria).




On approach to Roma. The creeks are up. The flight was smooth once above the weather (aircraft is pressurised) but there were lots of corrugations and potholes on approach and departure. There's plenty of heat-generated energy around.








On the ground at Charleville. The Aero Commander on the left is the mail plane. My plane is the Piper Cheyenne Turbo on the right. The fence with a PIN number providing access is to keep the terrorists out. It's conceivable that a small plane could be stolen and flown to a city airport to access the flight line. 9/11 has tentacles everywhere.

Waiting for the off at Roma. It's wet. There are sandflies. I'm allergic. I have aerogard.




Storm building up near Mitchell.

It won't look like this again for between five and ten years.

Frogs

Gotta love the bush.....

Collateral Damage

This term has come into our language via the military. It is used to refer to unintentional consequences (usually casualties) as a consequence of the actions of the great and powerful, usually in connection with a struggle converting ideological intent to military action.

The victims are often the innocent and helpless – those without power or the means to escape or defend themselves. The phenomenon is not confined to military activity.

Sometimes damage occurs through government policy. An example of this has become obvious to me as I support kids with disabilities in bush schools. Some of these schools have as few as ten students enrolled. The performance of one student assumes a significance way out of all proportion to reality when NAPLAN* results are posted on (for example) the myschool website.

This is not an issue if the student falls within the percentile rankings common to most kids, but suppose – just suppose - this kid has a significant intellectual disability. He will need to perform more poorly than 75% of the population before he is excused from being tested using the NAPLAN process, and there are many who just squeak over this mark.

His results then will have a disproportionate negative affect on the whole school performance. If he were attending a large (or even moderately sized) metropolitan school, this result would be far less significant, as it would be lost amongst a large group of average or near-average kids.

So now, not only do these kids have to deal with the dearth of support available in the bush, they are seen as “problems” who pull down the reputation and achievement of their small-school peers.

They and their families become collateral damage, casualties in a flawed effort to gain political advantage in the name of accountability.

It’s pretty poor – and will make the task of bush principals just a little more unattractive. Recruiting in the bush will become more of a problem.

I guess it seemed like a good idea at the time……

* National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy

Jellybeans in the Jungle - Prologue

High Tide and Green Grass

Despite the title, this post has nothing to do with the 1966 Rolling Stones Compilation of the same name.
It’s about the transformational capacity of rain in the bush.
I’ve just come back from a few days’ work in the St George, Thallon, Dirranbandi area – cotton country. It rained after Christmas, and last week they had some really heavy downpours.
Prior to that, the Beardmore Dam (pictured) was at its lowest level in ten years, and things were looking grim for the irrigated cotton crop. Some farmers had sold out, and there didn’t seem to be any hope of a crop this year. Now they have enough water for two years and the place is humming.
Water is cascading over the spillway and will be for a few more days. This happens rarely, and I was lucky to be in town to see it.
There’s a whole new vibe in the town. Conversations in pubs and newsagents are invariably about the weather, but they have a cheerful cadence usually absent out here. Everybody swaps details of how much, when, and who got bogged. The vehicles have red/brown mud stains and great globs of dried mud litter the streets.
Car and tractor dealers are dreaming of sales and profits.
There’s a downside of course – there always is. Clouds of sandflies (midges) will make a meal of you if you’re not careful, and I have to be. I’m allergic to their bites and was hospitalized once with blood poisoning after 160 bites (I counted) scored on an ill-advised canoeing trip down the Black river near Townsville in the wet season.
I happily put up with the sandflies this trip.

Courage

Today I had the privilege of witnessing pure unadulterated courage.

I spent most of the day in the rehabilitation ward of the Royal Children’s’ Hospital with my brother and his twelve year-old son.

This lad had a medulloblastoma cerebral tumor removed on Anzac Day 2009, and after months of chemotherapy is now well enough to begin a period of intensive therapy to help him rehabilitate.

He is beginning to regain speech; his muscles, wasted after months of enforced inactivity are being made to work again, and he is setting off down the road of regaining maximum independence.

His absolute focus and dedication to the task is breathtaking. If determination and sheer dogged grit have anything to do with it, he will get there. It was an absolute privilege to witness the beginning of this journey.