Back in 2008, the Queensland and Federal Governments, and the Cape York Institute for Policy & Leadership, introduced the Cape York Welfare Reform program in four communities – Aurukun, Coen, Hope Vale and Mossman Gorge.
The idea was to find locally informed ways to address social dysfunction, alcohol abuse and behavioural problems – and the central agency in this program is the Family Responsibilities Commission.
Its job is to support the restoration of socially responsible standards of behaviour and to assist community members to resume and maintain primary responsibility for their well-being. It’s generally agreed the program has made a difference for the better, but it’s unclear how much longer the two governments will fund it.
In Coen, local people want to see the reform program continue, not just because it’s made a difference – they say it has also created new opportunities.
Billy Pratt has a role with the FRC – and as you’ll hear, he has a lot of other roles in Coen as well: with the indigenous cultural centre, the indigenous ranger group, the local school – as well as a full time job with the Shire Council, for which he won a Mayoral Achievement award in 2006.
LISTEN Click on the red arrow to hear Billy Pratt talk about life in Coen and his hopes for the future of his community
Raising kids is no easy thing – they don’t come with an instruction manual – so parents, especially first time parents, need advice, help, support. In the big cities, there’s plenty of that to be found – but in small remote communities, not so much.
Tahnee Creek is a young indigenous woman helping parents in Coen support and care for their young children. She’s passionate about helping families, and about education. Tahnee is the local child and family support services co-ordinator.
LISTEN Click on the red arrow to hear Tahnee talk about her work and the importance of education in remote indigenous communities
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We did our annual Cape York Peninsula road trip early this year, in June instead of October. It was early in the dry season, the roads were in great shape and we travelled to Lakeland, Laura, Lama Lama National Park, Coen, Wenlock River, Aurukun and Cooktown. All our interviews are up on this blog – and here’s an assortment of pictures from this wonderful part of the world.
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Pictures by ABC Open’s Suzie Cray, ABC Far North legend Phil Staley, Lyndal Scobell from Cape York NRM, and me.
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Many of Australia’s remote indigenous communities are in towns and centres that began as church missions or places to which governments re-located indigenous people from their traditional lands. People were encouraged, or forced, to move into those towns, which were often a long way from the country to which they belonged.
In more recent times, indigenous people have been looking for ways to return to their country, renew their spiritual connections with land, and have more control in shaping their future.
The “homelands movement” dates back to the 1970s – and there have been success stories of people returning to live some or all of the time on their traditional country. But it’s not an easy journey. It can be hard to access services, and almost impossible to make a living.
Here in far north Queensland, there are people working towards making living on country viable, affordable, even profitable.
Sam Zaro lives at Coen, a tiny town on Cape York Peninsula, but his family’s country is a few hours drive east of there – on the east coast at Nesbit River. Sam sees a time in the not too distant future when his people will live on country, paying their way with appropriate business ventures and an eco-lodge designed to represent his people’s totem.
If you can use your suburban block of land to secure finance, Sam says he should be able to do the same with his country, to make a sustainable life there for his people.
Sam says it’s beautiful country around Nesbit River – the right eco-tourism venture could attract visitors from all over the world. And the crocodiles in the area brought one famous visitor years ago – the late Steve Irwin.
LISTEN Click on the red arrow to hear Sam and his nana, Dorothy Short, who has just made her first visit to her traditional country since she was a child.
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Pictures by Lyndal Scobell Cape York NRM and Suzie Cray ABC Open
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If you ever visit Torres Strait (and you really should) you’ll hear people use the expression “steady steady”. It might be in response to a “how you going” or advice on how to proceed. It’s a term from the old pearl diving days, describing a way the boat might be handled to give the diver a smoother time down deep, searching for pearl shells.
And Steady Steady is the name of the just published biography of a man who spent a fair amount of his life underwater diving for pearls – Henry Gibson Dan, better known these days as Seaman Dan, the ARIA award winning singer songwriter who released his first album in 1999 at the age of 70.
Uncle Seaman was born on Thursday Island in 1929. He lived at Coen, on Cape York Peninsula, as a young lad, and then in Cairns during World War Two. Just after the war, he began diving for trochus shell on the Great Barrier Reef, and later became a pearl diver in Torres Strait and the seas of northern Australia. Seaman Dan had loved music since his youngest days, and started to perform with bands during the 1950s in Darwin. He’s had many jobs over the years, diver, drover, ice man, gold prospector, taxi driver – but he always made time to enjoy and perform music.
In January 1999, a chance meeting with music producer and academic Karl Neuenfeldt on Thursday Island led to an offer for Uncle Seaman to go to Cairns to record some songs. He had some original compositions and some traditional Torres Strait songs – the result was the award-winning album Follow The Sun. Over the next decade, Uncle Seaman made five albums, won two ARIA awards, and he’s performed for audiences all over Australia and overseas.
At age 83, Seaman Dan is one of Australia’s oldest active recording artists and performers. He still plays two gigs a week at home in the Torres Strait. He told me today music is the reason he gets up in the morning.
Steady Steady tells the story of a remarkable and adventurous life – and there are many Torres Strait folk of his generation who lived similarly adventurous lives. But there is only one Seaman Dan, a master of island style music and a true gentleman.
LISTEN Click on the red arrow to hear my interview with Uncle Seaman and some of his songs
You’ll find the town of Yarrabah about an hour’s drive south-east of Cairns – an indigenous community of about 2500 people. It was formed in the 1890s, when Anglican missionary Ernest Gribble encouraged the area’s indigenous people to move to the site of the present-day town.
By the early 1900s, Yarrabah had its own indigenous brass band, beginning a rich tradition of instrumental music in the area that thrived until the early 1970s. The Queensland Music Festival hopes to spark a revival with next month’s Yarrabah Band Festival.
The Festival is on Monday July 22, with performances by the newly-formed Yarrabah community band and indigenous school bands from across Cape York Peninsula. Kids aged six and up have been working and playing music with QMF teams at Cape York Aboriginal Australian Academy campuses in Coen, Hopevale and Aurukun in preparation for the Festival.
I got to hear two of the school bands in action on our recent Cape York road trip. At Coen, we found the kids rehearsing through their lunch break, and at Aurukun, we were there when the band played for the whole school for the first time. It was a great day for the Aurukun school community.
LISTEN Click on the red arrow to hear the Aurukun band’s first concert performance and meet their musical mentors
We heard Queensland Music Festival project coordinator Emma Kurik and Australian jazz legend John Morrison with reporter Phil Staley. The Yarrabah Band Festival begins at 4.30pm Monday 22 July at Bishop Malcolm Park Yarrabah – it’s a free event. http://www.qmf.org.au/public/public/?id=300
As part of the celebrations, visiting musicians Darren Percival (The Voice), Thelma Plum (Deadly Award Winner) and the Morrison Brothers will take to the stage before an all-in, massed-band finale.
DRIVING ON CAPE YORK IS NO EASY THING – DEPENDING ON THE STATE OF THE ROADS, A COUPLE OF HUNDRED KILOMETRES CAN BE AN ADVENTURE, OR A GRUELLING FEAT OF ENDURANCE.
Any chance for a stop is welcome, and if there’s something to see and a yarn involved, even better. One place you’ve got to stop at, and if you’re south-bound it’s compulsory, is the Coen Information & Inspection Station. Biosecurity Queensland runs the station on the Peninsula Development Road, about 20 kilometres north of Coen, near the turn-off to the Coen airstrip.
Biosecurity Queensland runs the station as a buffer against plant and animal pests and diseases that could spread into Australia from our northern neighbours. They’re a very real threat to agricultural industries and could spread serious diseases to humans.
If you’re driving south you’ll have to stop and be checked for produce that might be carrying dangerous critter passengers. The process doesn’t take long, and you’ll find Scott Templeton & his team love a yarn and are a treasure house of information about the Cape, sights to see and road conditions. Scott has 26 years experience on Cape York, and I hope he’s going to write a book one day, because it would be a must-read.
There’s a good display inside the Centre with plenty of info about the pests and critters they’re looking for – the red banded caterpillar, citrus canker, banana skipper, foot and mouth disease, screw-worm fly and the papaya fruit fly. You’ll get plenty of tips on how to travel wisely on the Cape, and how to make sure your journey doesn’t help spread pests and diseases.
AUDIO FILE Click on the red arrow to hear Scott Templeton in action at the Coen Information & Inspection Centre, Scott’s talking to the ABC’s Charlie McKillop.
THE DRIVE FROM CAIRNS TO THE TIP OF CAPE YORK IS ABOUT 1000 KILOMETRES. AT ROUGHLY THE HALF-WAY POINT, YOU’LL FIND THE HISTORIC MUSGRAVE ROAD HOUSE.
It’s about half-way between Laura & Coen, not far from Princess Charlotte Bay, a few hours drive to Pormpuraaw. There’s fuel, food, somewhere to stay, and stories of life on Cape York Peninsula now and way back in the old days.
MUSGRAVE MAP
Musgrave was built in 1887, one of the repeater stations on the Overland Telegraph line. The line ran through stations at Palmerville, Fairview, Coen, Mein, Moreton, McDonnell and Paterson. Musgrave was named after the then Queensland Governor.One of the last original poles that supported the Telegraph line still stands near the phone box outside the Musgrave road house.
It’s been welcoming travellers for over 100 years. They used to come by wagon and on horse-back. These days people drive the Cape York road in air-conditioned comfort, and some arrive by plane, landing at the road house air-strip.
Things have slowed down since the wet season got going this month, but back during the dry, Musgrave had an occupancy rate the envy of hoteliers everywhere — upwards of 90%.
John McDowall puts that down to old-fashioned good value accomodation and the district’s many natural delights. Click the audio player to meet John.
One of the best things about working in radio is that I’m always learning. I spend my days asking questions, so I live in a constant flow of information, ideas and stories. It’s a great place to be, and I really enjoy sharing it with my radio listeners and with you on my blog.
I learn something new every day,some days I learn a lot. Like the day in October 2011 I did my afternoon radio show from Coen, on Cape York Peninsula.
I learned how to deal with the unusual situation of having a large bull stampede through our broadcast point, on the front verandah of the Homestead Guest House (see the November archive on this blog for that story).
And I learned about the town’s history, starting as a fort during the gold rush days in the 1870s.How small remote communities deal with the inevitable isolation of the wet season. How you make a living in a small town with a population of just a few hundred. How you manage one of the nation’s biggest local government districts. How to run a school. How to muster cattle from a helicopter. And how to drive safely on the dusty, bumpy, corrugated Cape York roads.
CLICK THE AUDIO PLAYERS TO HEAR THE PEOPLE OF COEN TALK ABOUT LIFE IN THEIR TOWN
PETER AND SOME OF GAIL
PETER & GAIL CLARK WEAR MANY HATS IN COEN
NEVILLE MULLEY RUNS COEN’S ONLY CAFE, OWNS AN ANT-BED OVEN & DRIVES FOR THE RACQ
JO ROSS IS PRINCIPAL OF COEN STATE SCHOOL
PETER SCOTT IS THE MAYOR OF COOK SHIRE, WHICH COVERS 80% OF CAPE YORK.
A HELICOPTER LANDED NEXT TO US WHILE WE WERE ON AIR. PILOT JACK HAD JUST FLOWN IN FROM MAREEBA TO DO A BIT OF CATTLE MUSTERING
DOING LIVE RADIO CAN BE HAIR-RAISING. ESPECIALLY WHEN WE GET OUT OF THE SOUND-PROOF BOOTH IN CAIRNS AND BROADCAST FROM THE REAL WORLD. THINGS GO WRONG BUT THE SHOW MUST GO ON.
Links fail, computers freeze, batteries die. Guests don’t arrive, a thunder-storm puts the station off air. A broadcaster has to keep going, no matter how many wheels fall off the enterprise. I’ve had some challenging moments.The audio play-back system failed one afternoon, and I had to sing the ABC News theme before a local bulletin. The celebrity who turned up for an interview in a condition best described as “away with the pixies”, although I didn’t know it until we were well underway.
I’ve had all kinds of crazy moments on the radio, but none to match the day in October 2011, in the Cape York town of Coen, when a bull stampeded through our broadcast site.
We had a great spot – the front verandah of the historic Homestead Guest House. It goes back to 1933, the first building constructed in Coen, and a Cape York social hub ever since.
We were live to air, on day two of our Cape York Peninsula road trip. I was interviewing Sergeant Matt Shaw, officer in charge of the Coen police district. It’s one of the biggest police districts anywhere, and Matt was telling me about the challenges of covering such a big patch of ground. Matt’s a good talker, it’s all going well, the link to the transmitter is hanging in despite some stormy weather. Doesn’t get better than this, right?
And then the bull decided he wanted to be on the radio too. Click the audio player to hear what happened next.
THE BULL AFTER MAKING HIS RADIO DEBUT
COLIN ON THE RADIO WITH PHIL
Colin is 11. He wants to be an aeronautical engineer when he grows up. Maybe he should consider a career in radio too.
For info about the Homestead Guest House, Coen and the surrounding country go to
When you hear people use the word “country” up here, they don’t mean a nation, or the opposite of “city”.
Country means an area of land, usually defined by its natural features, rather than fences or lines on maps. The word demands an adjective – rough, magic, hard, dry, old – to help tell the story of why that place is special to you. Could be a small patch of scrub or a vast expanse. It’s what it means to you that shapes the way you use the word, even how you say it.
Indigenous people talk about “country” in a way that stretches European understanding of the word. Their perspective is shaped by an abiding spiritual connection to land. It’s full of story places, going back to creation times. Their right to live on the land and use its resources requires them to look after it, physically and spirtually.
When Europeans came to FNQ, they wanted to raise cattle, to look for gold. Their ideas of ownership were alien to local indigenous beliefs. In some places, differences were accomodated. In others, conflict resulted.
By the late 1800s, Aboriginal men were working as ringers and cattlemen, mustering and droving all over FNQ. It took a century for them to win the right to be paid the same as white workers, but few doubted their skill.
Victor Lawrence has spent most of his life working as a cattleman on Rokeby Station, near Coen. The area is his traditional country, but its current status as a national park, and his medical condition, limit his access.
In Coen, Victor told me about his life as a top cattleman, and why Rokeby Station is so important to him.
AUDIO: VICTOR LAWRENCE TALKS ABOUT HIS COUNTRY & LIFE ON ROKEBY STATION
Victor Lawrence in Coen Oct 2011
Read more about Rokeby Station and the surrounding country at
Back in 2008, the Queensland and Federal Governments, and the Cape York Institute for Policy & Leadership, introduced the Cape York Welfare Reform program in four communities – Aurukun, Coen, Hope Vale and Mossman Gorge.
The Mojowire 