Bourke was a fascinating place to visit: an extraordinary history of glorious past days, now in decline in the middle of a drought!
The Bourke Visitor Centre Exhibition has a great story to tell and does it in fine style!
Henry Lawson is exhibit number one!
From there we went to visit the Missionary Sister of Charity (Mother Theresa's sisters.)
They shared with us the immense challenges of working with the indigenous community whose cultural values have been stripped from them, resulting in drugs and alcohol fueling domestic violence, etc. They do their best to work through various programs for the children.
Their former home for homeless and aged men has had to close down due to govt. regulations and the lack of money to appropriately upgrade, etc.
John Shallvey MSC is the parish priest of 5 years, having come to fill in for 3 months! It's a tough unrelenting gig he enacts, with harsh conditions in every aspect of ministry, not least of all the large distances in kangaroo infested territory.
His analysis that the indigenous people he works with, ministering in the midst of much tragedy, look back to the Dreaming, but lack hope for the future. What can one do but be there with compassion - and he does that well.
His simple, faithful lifestyle impressed us both and left cause for personal reflection.
An afternoon jaunt on the Jandra cruising the Darling was next on the agenda! Having lived for many years where the Darling meets the Murray, it was now fascinating to be on its upper reaches to where riverboats sailed from Wentworth.
"Under the shade of a Coolibah tree ......." - roots washed away by the river flooding.
Fred Hollows is a big name out here, especially among the indigenous people.
He was originally buried out in the bush under a Coolibah tree, buts use to flooding they moved his remains to the Bourke cemetery. They have set up a highly symbolic site with allusions to his eye surgery with this special stone representing the pupils he operated on.
"Poetry on a Plate" was a wonderful evening's entertainment under the stars, around the fire, with the poetry of a local bard! How good was he!!!
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