Jul 2008

Today it was all systems go for the arrival of the Sun Princess cruise ship. Broome has been requested to make the 2000 visitors and 900 crew welcome to the town. They wanted them to spend up as much as possible!

Two of the said passengers were in fact Terry’s parents, who along with 8 friends were off on Terry’s Bus Tour of Broome. First stop (which we were involved in) was a Champagne & Orange on Gantheaume Point beach. We parked up the van, released the hounds and started preparing the champagne flutes and van for their arrival.

Meanwhile, Banjo, our new visitor who was visiting while his mum was up in Kununurra for work for the week, decided he’s go off and chase anything and everything on the beach. He then decided he was going to chase every car that drove up and down the beach. The last of which was leaving. I called and called and called, and he was just in his own little world. He was then heading up onto the main road, faster than I could find a lead and chase after him. He disappeared up around the corner out of sight. I was running as fast a I could and as I got close to the turn, another car was driving down to the beach. Luckily the not so bright Banjo was in toe. I caught him before he had a chance to see what was coming and he spent the rest of the morning tied up to the van.

Meanwhile, Midget had received her new squeaky rubber football. She was running up and down the beach squeezing and squeezing. She’d then stop and drop it and start digging a hole pretending to look for it.

It was a busy start to the morning. Terry and Ange arrived in the PCYC bus laden with restless holiday makers. Midget continued to request attention by continually growling and squeaking her new toy. Anyway the cruisers were happy to be on land, after high seas prevented them from alighting at both Exmouth and Geraldton. They were most disappointed. They really enjoyed their terra firma beach visit, followed by a tour of the Japanese & Chinese Cemetery, Relationships Exhibition at the Sisters of St John of God convent, Town Beach, then a walk around China Town.

Terry and Ange had to head home after their busy day for a nanna nap!

We finished our beach visit by polishing off the left over champers and orange, followed by a walk over the rocks with the dogs round toward Gantheaume Point. We lost Banjo again, but BJ came into his own. He lived up to his nickname of Daktari on Safari. He had a great time clambering over all the rocks and exploring the pools and crevices along the way.

One interesting fact for today is that Broome’s minimum temperature last night was 13oC and Perth’s maximum temp today was also 13oC. I know where I’d rather be!

We finished off the night with Terry and Ange's friends Sunny & Sandy from the Oasis B&B in Broome. We had a great night again at the ever so friendly Matso's! Unfortunately they were missing some ingredients for their Ginger Beer, so we settled for Cider. They even allow dogs (that's must unBroome) as its growing as a dog-unfriendly destination, so we were really happy that Midget was able to find a great spot under the tree. She heard what she thought was the sound of possums, so it kept her amused for hours (see pic)!

Today was a day of relaxing and cooking. Nothing much to report, so thought I’d share a bit of info on the 2008 Kullarri NAIDOC Patron, Maryanne Martin…

Nominated by the BRAMS committee as the first Aboriginal nurse/midwife in the Kimberley region.

Maryanne was born on 18th February 1941 at the Beagle Bay Mission. She was one of 9 children born to Ursula Grace and Vincent Martin. After several years her family moved to Broome where Maryanne attended St Mary’s Primary School where her teachers were the St John of God nuns.

From an early age Maryanne’s interest in health was encouraged and became a reality when the Matron of the Broome Hospital (Sr Allie Evans) commented ‘I want you girl’ and arranged her recruitment into Enrolled Nurse Training at Mt Henry Hospital for the Elderly and the Merridin District Hospital. Graduating in 1959, Maryanne returned to the Kimberley for a short stint at the Broome Hospital, before deciding to undertake her General Nurse training in the Victoria District Hospital in Geraldton. Completing this in 1964, Maryanne further graduated in Obstetrics at St John of God Hospital in 1969.

Maryanne worked at the Broome Native Hospital where leprosy was still a common condition. Her nursing experience developed further through working as an emergency relief nurse travelling from hospital to hospital, she worked at Laverton, Wongan Hills, Kellerberrin, Southern Cross, Onslow and Derby hospitals, living out of a suitcase. Maryanne is a strong and determined woman; she refused to obtain her citizenship papers and through her nursing work cross boundaries and allocated curfew times.

Her professional and personal experiences as an Aboriginal nursing sister ignited her commitment to help Aboriginal people to gain control of their own health needs.

The voluntary administrator of the emerging Broome Regional Aboriginal Medical Service (BRAMS), Kevin Cox approached Maryanne and invited her to come on board on a voluntary basis. This she did for several years, working long hours of 3 shifts, 5 days a week and Saturday mornings. Her work at this time was both receptionist and nurse.

Maryanne continued working at the service for the next 25 years and when retired became an active member of the BRAMS committee.

Steve celebrated the arrival of his new ladder by taking his kayak down off the roof and heading out for a spot of kayaking and fishing. He took off from Port and paddled in with the tide into Dampier Creek and just drifted with his kayak and line in. After catching a ton of fish and throwing them back in, he returned triumphant in the fact that he can actually catch a fish!

While Terry, Ange and I decided that a pub crawl was in order. We started off at the Mangrove Hotel, and Terry cleverly included the binoculars which we spied Steve in his bright yellow kayak drifting into Dampier Creek. We then moved on to the Surf Club where Terry instantly joined the club once we discovered their fabulous facility high overlooking Cable Beach. As the grounds started to fill up with the evening gathering of sun-set-watchers, we then ventured down to Zeebar (the hip and happening bar with the most upmarket backpackers I’ve ever seen). We took in some interesting Indian style music and then completed the night with a final pint at Murphy’s back down at the Old Continental Hotel.

Steve finally arrived home after us, had caught tons of fish, but didn’t know what they were so threw them back in.

We started the day with Bacon Butties, Terry’s favs. I had to say they were most enjoyable! It was then decided that we’d go fishing. Terry suggested we head out to his favourite Crab Creek in search of fishing delicacies. We found the tide right out when we arrived at the beach. Midget and BJ went straight to work getting in a mess. I wish I had the camera with me as Midget looked a shock. Actually she looked like a Blue Healer after running what looked like in slow motion around in the mud. In some parts she sank up to her tummy in the thick grey mud. The moist mud was full of Mud Skips about 5-10cm long. Midget being the fisherdog that she is, thought this was Christmas. Given there was just a inch of water or so, she ran here and ran there, until she was grey all over with mud, and totally warn out. BJ not one for getting his feet wet, also had a ball rolling in dead fish and generally going out and exploring and enjoying his new nickname we’d given him “Daktari” – the great white hunter.

We walked several kilometres along the beach mesmerised by the many different types of shells and rocks scattered in the sand. We collected what we believe are fossilised tree roots and possibly fossilised mangrove root bulbs. They have an iron like appearance, and are really heavy.

Ange & Terry picked us up further up the beach and we drove around looking for the entrance to Dampier Creek. We then decided that it was so hard all this non-fishing stuff that we should head over to the Fishing Club (that they’d just joined) and enjoy a quiet drink or three.

We finished off the evening polishing off the millionth meal provided by Kev’s donation of stunning steaks, French lamb cutlets and sausages from his favourite Mandurah butcher! Yummo. Ange turned the last of the steaks into marinated gourmet delights topped with caramelised onions and mushrooms on a mash. What a delight!

Today was the start of NAIDOC Week (National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee). Well actually it has moved on to a much larger community event now (from our Port Hedland days of 11 years ago), and now runs for 15 days! So today we joined the happy crowd taking the Reconciliation Walk through the central streets of Broome and out to the Town of Broome offices. Along the walk all the traffic was stopped. Lots of holiday makers and locals honked their horns to support the walk. It was great fun. There were also many dogs taking the walk including Midget! We also walked past the Broome Prison enroute to the civic hub of Broome. I was surprised to find all the Aboriginal inmates were proudly standing in a nice line out the front of the jail with a guard watching them. Fabulous speeches were made by Maryanne Martin, (I think she’s sister of Carol Martin, the state member), who helped start BRAMS (Broome Regional Aboriginal Medical Service) and its their 30th Anniversary this year. A very humble dynamo in this reach mulitcultural community. Another famous Broome local, Pat Dodson also gave a fabulous speech, as he always does! After enjoying the proceedings’ we stayed for morning tea then wandered back into town. Since our arrival, we’d done a great job of helping Ange procrastinate being at work. So this time we escorted her back to work, to make sure she actually turned up!

We arrived home to find our ladder finally arrive not long after! Steve celebrated by going fishing on the jetty with midget! Didnt catch a thing!