A Model Town, But Where's The Pool?
Sydney Morning Herald
Monday February 19, 2001
It was a little like the arrival Santa Claus, bearing a bag of gifts of everything except the present that you really wanted.
Yesterday, the NSW Premier visited a model Aboriginal community, Walhallow, near Tamworth, and announced a $20,000 State Government grant to make a video alerting the world about what a model Aboriginal community it is.
Mr Carr threw in another $10,000 for sporting equipment, plus a couple of cricket bats signed by the NSW team. But Walhallow, home to about 180 Kamilaroi people living in 42 neat homes, is also a community with the same sort of basic needs and desires as any other, black or white. And they told him so, politely and unambiguously. As Mr Carr was speaking, with onions sizzling at a barbecue to mark his visit, someone interjected: ``What about a pool?"
A teenager later said that bored local children were starting to dabble in drugs because there was so little to do.
But to be fair to the Premier, Walhallow is a story that deserves to be told. It may be sans pool, but its streets, houses and gardens are in such an impeccable state of repair that the village has attracted the attention of the Tidy Town committee.
Yesterday, looking not unlike a Tidy Town judge, in a straw hat and with a stately gait, Mr Carr toured the community. He was the first NSW Premier to do so.
``Any community in Australia would be proud of the community organisation, the neat and tidy streets and the support for its people, the respect for the elders that exists here. A lot of things stand out about Walhallow," he said. ``There's a lesson ... not only for other Aboriginal communities, but for all of Australia, for all our communities, in the suburbs and in the cities, country towns the way a community looks after its streets, its young people, its respect for itself."
The town's unofficial mayor, Mrs Annie Taylor, attributed the community's success partly to a strict waiting list for accommodation in the former mission settlement that was declared an Aboriginal reserve in 1895. This had avoided overcrowding, a problem that could lead to the degradation of homes.
Alcohol is permitted, but it's not considered a problem. Nor are drugs. Apart from diabetes and heart disease, especially among elders, Walhallow's superior living conditions have rendered non-existent the sorts of diseases found in other Aboriginal communities.
Unemployment remains high, but attendance rates are strong at the school, run by one of NSW's few Aboriginal principals, Mrs Karen Clark.
Mr Carr yesterday announced a new plan for the Department of Aboriginal Affairs, ``Partnerships: a New Way of Doing Business with Aboriginal People", which includes a rating system on Aboriginal issues for assessing the chief executive officers of State Government agencies.
© 2001 Sydney Morning Herald
