Thursday, January 29, 2009

Day 14 – Saturday 17/1

This morning we had a bit of a sleep in before heading over to the yacht club to meet John Bartlem (source for yesterday’s story) and take a look at the proposed yacht club site. John told us a bit about the new facilities the yacht club will have – two metre deck facing the ocean plus two new bars – and about their intentions for the existing yacht club. They hope to turn what is the yacht club now into a live music venue which can be seen from the proposed club. It should take about two years to build the new club and it should be pretty spectacular.

We then headed over to CUCRH to check whether Rosi had emailed her pics through. There were no messages in my inbox so I gave Rosi a call and she explained that there was something wrong with her internet connection and she would send the photos as soon as possible. That meant we stayed at CUCRH a lot longer than anticipated but it was ok because we got to do some research for next week’s stories.

Waiting for Rosi’s email, I read some more information about the World Indigenous People’s Conference (as I needed another source to write the story and Helen Pianta was unavailable until Monday). There were endless keynote addresses available online and I had a skim through those. Rosi’s email came through in the afternoon and we forwarded her photos onto the Telegraph.

This afternoon I read an article about Port Hedland that was published in the Weekend Australian Magazine titled ‘Still Their Town’. It was written shortly after cyclone George (2007) and examines what life is like in a boom town. The article shed some light on the consequences of a town dominated by the mining industry – the most prominent being the chronic shortage of workers in every other area besides mining. It also covered the real estate prices in the town, drawing attention to the fact that it is near on impossible to live on a normal wage in Hedland. I had noticed this about the town, but seeing it on paper really brought it home. The article wasn’t pessimistic though, as it spoke about the ‘community spirit’ that thrives among the locals.

Tonight Nadia, James and I dressed up and went to a Bollywood party in South Hedland. It was great fun and we took photos for the ‘out and about’ section of the Telegraph.


Me, James and Nadia at the Bollywood party

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