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Isolated Koori community looks for opportunities in its own backyard |
 NRAHS Aboriginal health coordinator Mavis Golds, Peter Wapples-Crow, who is writing the Aboriginal health strategy plan for the NRAHS, and secretary of the Malabugilmah Aboriginal Corporation Mary Randall, check out the new playground across the road from the community centre.
For the last few months, NRAHS Aboriginal health coordinator Mavis Golds has been doing the 4.5 hour round trip to Mulla every four to six weeks to yarn with the community about their health and other needs. The open meetings are relaxed and informal and conducted in the community hall or outside on the verandah.
Mary Randall, secretary of the newly incorporated Malabugilmah Aboriginal Corporation, is motivated and enthusiastic about the possibilities for the community, which is currently developing a five-year plan. Robyn Ferguson, Aboriginal project officer with the Casino Aboriginal Business Enterprise Centre, is helping the community with the business plan and application for a start-up grant.
The community wants to establish an Aboriginal and cultural heritage tour guide business. They would provide bush tucker tours, including kangaroo hunting and eating, and cultural tours of the surrounding area to the tourists who camp near the river, as well as schools and day trippers.
They also want to set up a small general store. Currently, to get such food staples as bread and milk means an 83 kilometre drive to Grafton or about 70 kilometres to Tabulum on a dirt road. It’s a long way to go for basic groceries and besides, a lot of people don’t have their own transport.
The isolation and lack of both transport and employment mean it’s almost inevitable young people gravitate towards the larger centres for work and social opportunities. Mary herself lived in Grafton for some years, but eventually moved back to Mulla. “My kids like it here and they like the bush,” she says, but they need a future and this business venture could be just the thing to provide employment and a sense of cultural pride for the community’s children.
Mulla is three kilometres from Baryulgil and was developed about 20 years ago because of concerns about Baryulgil’s proximity to the asbestos mine. It has 17 houses and a population of about 70 people. There are not many elders out here - in the region, only about 2.2% of Kooris are older than 65 years.
Transport and lack of adequate access to employment, health and other services are the main issues in Mulla. Bulgarr Ngaru Aboriginal Medical Service in Grafton does regular outreach clinics to Baryulgil for both communities and it is hoped that in the future, there will also be a small clinic in Mulla.
There is a community based pre-school and primary school at Baryulgil, but high schools are more than an hour’s drive away in Grafton. With not enough children in Mulla for the school bus to make the detour from Baryulgil to collect them, they have to be driven to Baryulgil to meet the bus.
The school bus is the only public transport available. It leaves early and returns early, so residents can’t make appointments in Grafton after 2.30pm. There has been talk of improving the bus service for some time – it is a recommendation in the Clarence Valley Social Plan, first published in May 2000 by the area’s councils. The community now plans to invite Federal MP Ian Causley to come and see for himself the isolation they face and to lobby him for improved services. It would be a start if the bus collected the children from Mulla and dropped them back in the afternoon.
Another project that has sparked community interest is the Health for Housing initiative, which improves and renovates ageing buildings and trains people in the community in the trades needed to carry out the work.
Mavis believes these meetings are important to start empowering the community. She sees her role as helping the community jump through bureaucratic hoops, telling them about projects such as Health for Housing, offering advice and explaining the jargon. The amount of jargon is a source of irritation to her and is an area she would like to see improved.
Mavis has seen big changes in local Koori communities in the last five years or so. One thing she has observed is that they are more empowered and proactive about putting themselves forward. More funding has come into the area and there are more outreach services and culturally appropriate health services available. The Koori-run Aboriginal Medical Services in Casino and Grafton are well accepted. The Jali Health Post on Cabbage Tree Island and clinic in Tabulum have also contributed to improved access to medical services.
Lismore-based ENT specialist Stephen Prince and paediatrician Ian Lennon are now doing regular outreach clinics, a direct benefit of the two bus trips to Koori communities organised by the Northern Rivers Division of General Practice to bring doctors to meet the communities on their own turf. Both GP and specialist outreach services are operating successfully. This doesn’t happen anywhere else in the State, Mavis points out and the area should be proud of these achievements.
Now she reckons it’s the turn of Mulla, the most isolated community in the Northern Rivers Area Health Service.
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