PhotographAyr …

Day 13: Thursday 5 April (9pm, Ayr)

Gudjuda's soon-to-be cafe!

Very quiet in the office today – ‘Sorry Business’ (funeral) for one of Michaela’s aunts, so the painters and Michaela finished around 11am and Lynette took the day off to help prepare food. Before she left, Michaela and I had the task of running around town to photograph the various work initiatives that Gudjuda has running or in plan. So I’ve finally got a picture of the new dining area to show off – looks like a gorgeous old Queenslander when looking up from the park.

There is also a Bush Tucker walk in the park, so we headed over to the entrance to add a photo to our collection. After the cyclone a couple of weeks ago and the storm that followed, some of the park was underwater and the walk has been badly damaged. The Aunty’s warned me that there would be mosquito’s and maybe snakes too, so Michaela and I were a bit tentative about heading in too far. We soon realised that there was no point in taking photo’s as everything was covered in mud. A few steps in and I heard a big ‘plonk’ in the water. I turned to Michaela and asked if there were crocs here. She hesitated and gave me a timid ‘maybe’. A millisecond later we had turned and started running back towards the car, when …                  … I could turn this into a fantastic story or even just let you think it was a really smart move to fly out of there, but with the benefit of hindsight, it was ummm, probably, ummm, a frog. L

I spent most of the quiet opportunity today putting together an action plan to achieve the Reconciliation Action Plan. It’s likely to take longer than my five weeks here, but things move at a different pace in FNQ anyway, so I’m not taking any chances that the Group won’t achieve their goal! I asked Eddie how quickly we might be able to get the stakeholders together to talk through their expectations and ideas. He suggested that it might not be for a couple of weeks, so my back up plan is to pull together a variety of ideas, using my new understanding of the Group’s objectives and other RAPs as a starting point. I’ll also try to catch up with the stakeholders individually over the next few weeks to gather as much as I can, as quickly as I can. I guess it’s easier for them to critique than create, but I don’t want to stymie the creativity of these remarkable people, so will be very careful in my sharing of ideas. 

We had an early finish to the day, so I took Steve for a drive over to Home Hill to see the Burdekin Bridge and the views from Inkerman Hill. We found a turnoff to an old WW2 site, so curious about what could possibly be there, we followed the road and came upon a couple of bunkers. Apparently they housed alternators to power a radar station that provided an early warning system in case of enemy aircraft. Don’t know if they ever tracked anything but an unexpected surprise for us anyway!

Back to Ayr for dinner at the local tavern – won’t see any vampires tonight after a delish meal of barramundi in garlic sauce - mmmm :)