In 1964, in my first year of teaching, I got posted to Halls Creek, a God-forsaken outpost 3500 kilometres north of Perth. Isolated, dust-storms with no air-conditioning, no TV and no telephones.
You made your own fun ... or you had none. The major social event each week was the outdoor picture show using a Bell & Howell 16mm projector on a 3x3 metre metal screen. The 'gold class' seating was plastic chairs on powdery red dirt. No-one could sack me as I was the only projectionist in town.
The handful of white girls who arrived in Halls Creek voluntarily were there for just one reason - this was their last-ditched chance to snare a husband. And it wasn't just the 40 degree temperatures that made them perspire. The geologists from PMI and the sinewy, saddle-smooth stockmen from nearby Moola Bulla and Koonji Park cattle stations kept the girls running slim.
The next year, 1965, the Catholic Pallotine order opened new buildings at Balgo Mission 300 kilometres south of Halls Creek on the edge of the Great Sandy Desert. Compared to Balgo, Halls Creek was a five-star tropical oasis. Balgo was home to the most remote school in the world, a stark desert landscape and the harshest environment for human existence.
On the day of the official opening a DC3 arrived with the Bishop, the Minister for Education and six hundred rounds of sandwiches. The priests and brothers had shaved, the St John of God nuns found flowers for the alter. Women donned hats and heels as if they were going to the Melbourne Cup; the headmaster Bill Lee and myself wore white shirts and ties.
I took just one shot on Kodachrome on my Canon FP of Billy. I'm sure he would rather have been fishing somewhere else.
Tour to Budapest, Croatia and the Dalmatian Coast with Dale in 2015.
or
Join one of my UWA Extension Photography Workshops.
You made your own fun ... or you had none. The major social event each week was the outdoor picture show using a Bell & Howell 16mm projector on a 3x3 metre metal screen. The 'gold class' seating was plastic chairs on powdery red dirt. No-one could sack me as I was the only projectionist in town.
The handful of white girls who arrived in Halls Creek voluntarily were there for just one reason - this was their last-ditched chance to snare a husband. And it wasn't just the 40 degree temperatures that made them perspire. The geologists from PMI and the sinewy, saddle-smooth stockmen from nearby Moola Bulla and Koonji Park cattle stations kept the girls running slim.
On the day of the official opening a DC3 arrived with the Bishop, the Minister for Education and six hundred rounds of sandwiches. The priests and brothers had shaved, the St John of God nuns found flowers for the alter. Women donned hats and heels as if they were going to the Melbourne Cup; the headmaster Bill Lee and myself wore white shirts and ties.
I took just one shot on Kodachrome on my Canon FP of Billy. I'm sure he would rather have been fishing somewhere else.
Tour to Budapest, Croatia and the Dalmatian Coast with Dale in 2015.
or
Join one of my UWA Extension Photography Workshops.
