Pilbara Boys Views on the Voice

I got my first taste of a real community working at the East Pilbara Youth Centre (EPYC). That year, 2020, was freeing.  To meet pandemic demands the Shire  made our roles more fluid, allowing  entry level workers  to get shifts anywhere in town.  This was primarily so we can help social distance FIFO workers, but it also allowed me to work at the library, Events , Data  entry,  Creche, Youth all at once.
One thing that always struck be, in both reality and attitude,  was the  fluidity of workers.  Very few people stayed for long.

When People are constantly coming and going in a town that has integrated issues, There leaves little work to advocate for and solve these problems. People try, some not really, but some do.

On the "not really tried" section I would put the Nationals. Only saw them in Newman once, regarding youth crime. Their efforts resulted in pictures in front of Bordered up houses in East Newman for an ABC article, and very little else. I feel I almost did more by accident when, at 19, I made a video poking fun at that side of town.

Kevin Michell, Labor Member for the Pilbara, is probably one of the people I saw who at least tried to get some solutions to the youth crime issue going. I was lucky enough to be in town at the time to attend a meeting where he tried to get as many relevant people together to begin discussions about the issue. Police, Youth Workers, Business Leaders. You might notice one key group missing there. In spite of no indigenous leaders being present at the meeting one of the few conclusions I remember being made there was how effective temporarily moving early troublemakers into remote Aboriginal communities to prevent them falling down the slippery slope.

If Newman is to have a future, The only way is to have organised, comitted organisations that can direct programs, advocate for policies, and give informed advice based on the wishes of the people that live there. All of these factors are something a Voice to parliament could potentially do, given its emphasis on regional representation, and focus on providing policy advice.

As a Child I remember my town being on the news two times. The first time was about a legal dispute between the mining giant BHP and a family of employees, framed understandably as a David and Goliath battle. The second time was the Month of the towns only High School burning down. we recieved nationwide attention that month, as a man drove his plane to one of the local pubs.

Its always interesting how perception and attention goes about itself. Its something I have always been fascinated with. With Children, textbooks emphasise instilling a curious and thoughtful mind. In the teen Youth, your job you basically keep their focus occupied so idle hands don't become the devil's plaything. Mental health is almost exclusively about Orienting all your thoughts into the best possible directions. Politics is by far the most fascinating, as it gets all we understand about ourselves and the people in our lives, aggregates it on a near unfathomably large scale, and creates the both imaginary and somehow life-dominating thing called institutions. Its so easy to get caught up in that, and eventually lose site of the details that are only present on that personal level, when you dig into a person's habits, occupations, and background.

Newman is a remote mining town 1200km north of perth and around 600km inland. Its history marks some of the most momentous landmarks in the nation and the world's history. The town's beginning in the late 60s saw visitation from both the Queen of England and a Prince of Japan. Such regality has since left us.

I believe the establishment of Newman was a feat of the world outside the Pilbara. The dreamlike quantities of Iron Ore, written like a midas fairytail by WA's geological Survey since the 1930s, was finally tapped into. Hancock and his investors managed to take the reigns of the largest Iron Ore projects on earth both then and now. My grandfather along with other engineers invented methods of Rail support that caused Pilbara trians to remain the longest and largest to this day. Japan was able to use these resources to become a manufacturing superpower, an economy that for years was second only to America. In more recent years China used these resources to spring cities from dirt, lift hundreds of millions out of squalor and into its efforts, one which for the first time since at least a century can compete with, and on occasion surpass the USA, who's investors profited greatly from their ~73% share in BHP.
These were all monumental achivements in every field and way of life. The largest migrations, the largest industrialisations, the largest structures. These were achievements for Canberra, Tokyo, Denver, and Beijing. 

I moved to Newman from Geraldton at the age of 8, starting in yambooma Close, nicely situated near a mango tree, something coveted  in the late summer. Year after year, the ambience of transience breezed into clarity like tumbleweeds. two years would see more people leave and new ones to take their place. Every two years saw a new set of friends, a new set of strangers to be nervous about, and a new set of people I will never see again. I am grateful for this, as it taught me a level of acceptance for change that has proven helpful to myself and those around me.

This was not a settled community. It was an outpost of Perth. even at peak FIFO where our population doubles, the Pilbara would barely crack 100k, and only ~50 thousand are considered residential.

This was not innevitable. Initially there were high hopes that this new town, considered the final frontier for Australian settlement, would become a flourishing and permananent community. Laughibly, in 1970, Minister Court predicted 250 thousands people in the region by 1985. But more than predictions, Newman had the organisations that originally built gold rush Victoria into the second twin of the two major states. A powerful Union movement. Although the actions and fate of Newman's unions left much to be desired, its membership numbers and pushes for improvements for the town and the workers was hard to parralel. The importance of these unions is best explained in the tragic and toiling recollections presented in the book "The Shadow on the Hill", Following the story of the Convenor, Chris, as he dealt unrelented with the trials of working for the mine, fighting for the mine workers, providing council to the Isolated and troubled population while also dealing with his own demons and family responsibilities until it was too much, and he ended his life in the false belief of failure.

So much of the pain Caused by these incidence seemed so preventable. in 1970 while the trade and Labour council was dealing with collusion between the industrial commission and mining companies to screw over negotiations for a $56 over-award payment for a 40 hour week, BHP had a record profit of $59'796'000 due to its increased interest in the Newman Ore.

There is no wonder that Secretary of the amalgamated engineers union John Halfpenny called for BHP to be nationalised that year, and that it would become one of the goals of the Whitlam government before its unprecedented demise in what some more rizzed claims say was backed by American interests to protect mining profits. 

I live in Geraldton now. Bright white concrete, winds that unfurl in your face, and sands that stretch yellow inland to the Canola fields. By all rights it should be my home. I share the surname of a prominant 6 generation long Farming family, and my earliest memories lie in the Streets of Mount Tarcoola. But the red dirt never leaves you. There is something about the flat, red land that brings an acceptance of times passage like no other. I don't know if I will ever live up noth again, but I will always work in its interest. I want more people to love the Pilbara, not for what it does for us, but for what we can do for it.