Gg: Robinson River

Gg: For an exchange on behalf of Carey High School, mum’s cousin’s husband was teaching in an Aboriginal community, Robinson River’s, primary school. His name is John, and his wife is Lyn, and Lyn found work at the local clinic as a nurse. They were obviously very popular around the community, which was well populated with friendly kids who smiled and smiled and seemed to do nothing else.

Upon arrival, mum and I went in to see John in the school, where he introduced us to the classes and the classes to us, and also where I found out about the kids’ smiling and giggling habits. After he’d shown us the school, John took the whole family over to see Lyn and then back to the house they were living in. It was so air conditioned that often I felt genuinely cold.

That afternoon, at five o’clock, some kids came to pick some vegies from the vegie garden John was growing. So, when they came, they asked me to come play a game they called ‘batting’. We played at the school, where I learnt the names of Nova, Trilby, Cohen and Kathy. When some other kids came along, we took photos of them because it was the first time on the trip that we had even had proper conversations with Aboriginal kids or people.

John and Lyn led the way to the river that evening, to show us. We took more photos of the kids, and, as far as I know, none of the scenery.

Sleeping in an air conditioned house was one good thing, but unfortunately, as Lyn was on call, a woman came in the night knocking on the door because she was going into labour. Nobody heard, so we assume she walked home and brought money to the phone box and called from there. Noah said he heard the phone ring (I didn’t though; I slept through the flood in Fairfield in 2003), and maybe he heard Lyn get up, take the call and take her to the clinic. She must have called Air-med, which is just like the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia but it reaches Robinson River, unlike the RFDSA, because later on in the morning we watched the plane come in. The woman gave birth to a boy.

That day, Noah and I went to school. I met another one of the kids: Claudia.

Our temporary teacher, Malcolm, came to dinner that evening and we had a delicious BBQ.

Robinson River, our first, and probably last, Aboriginal community of the trip, was one of the most friendly places I think we’ve been to.