Hiya unprecedented fellow boat occupants,
(from the “we are all in the same boat” and “this pandemic is unprecedented” virus clichés)

Many young people will not believe me when I assert that I grew up with the stereotype of unarmed policemen as friendly bobbies who helped old ladies across the road.

Roger Miller’s 1960s hit: England Swings: Bobbies on Bicycles (two by two)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoPdVOMXX0w

Some years ago a number of Yuendumu vehicles headed up the Tanami Road to Lajamanu to attend a Royalty Distribution meeting. Unfortunately one of the vehicles struck a camel (camels have a bad habit of unexpectedly crossing the road) resulting in two Warlpiri fatalities plus a number of wounded. The accident happened between Chilla Well (Jila) which is 110 km north of Yuendumu and the Granites Gold Mine which is another 150 km further.

The next morning a group of anxious people gathered at my office. They’d heard there had been an accident. They knew all the people who had set off in the vehicles (all friends and relatives) but had no further details.

I rang Yuendumu Police Station and the policeman who answered the phone had come across from Nyirrpi (150 km west of Yuendumu) that morning. He was in charge of the station because Yuendumu police had to attend an accident. No, he couldn’t tell me anything because relatives had to be notified first. I pointed out there was a good chance that the relatives were standing in my office. This didn’t sway him, so I asked could he at least tell me where the accident had happened and when; so the people in my office could work out which vehicle was likely to have been involved as they knew in what sequence the vehicles had set off. Turns out he’d never heard of Chilla Well and didn’t know how far the Granites was. I didn’t bother to enlighten him, he told me nothing, so why should I tell him anything?

So next I rang Bruce Farrands at the since closed Rabbit Flat Road House. The previous day Bruce had received a call from Emergency Services (Darwin?). They asked him if he’d heard anything about an accident in his area so he told them he hadn’t but down the road towards Yuendumu there was the Granites Gold Mine which had an emergency mine rescue crew on 24 hour stand by and he gave them the mine’s phone number. Until Bruce had told them they weren’t aware of the mine’s existence.

The following morning Bruce rang the mine to find out what happened. The mine had been instructed not to give any information out to anybody (the next of kin had to be notified first). They told Bruce nothing.

Later we found out that the mine rescue team had picked up a number of wounded people, took them back to the Granites and put them on the Flying Doctor plane to Alice Springs. The police and clinic staff picked up the bodies and some less seriously wounded passengers the next morning and returned to Yuendumu in the afternoon. A crowd gathered at the clinic and started wailing as soon as they found out who had died. I don’t know if the police knew who the relatives of the deceased were, but there was no need for them to notify the relatives. Almost instantaneously all of Yuendumu knew what had happened and who the victims were.

So a couple of days ago I went to Alice Springs Hospital for a routine “procedure” (have my plumbing checked).
On the Stuart Highway, a few km south of the Tanami Road turnoff 15 km north of Alice Springs, there was a roadblock manned by two police and a soldier. I was made to slow down and was then waved through.  I had to stay overnight in isolation at a motel in Alice Springs and on the way back I had to once again go through the roadblock but this time had to stop and hand in two forms which exempted me from having to go into quarantine for 14 days before being allowed to return to Yuendumu. This time there were two policemen but no soldier.

There was no possibility of me confusing the pair with Bobbies on Bicycles two by two. They were dressed as ninjas and had guns and much other paraphernalia on their persons so that even if they’d had bicycles they would have had difficulty mounting them.

I had to help my interrogator with spelling ‘Yuendumu’. I don’t think he knew were Yuendumu is.
Maybe just as well.

¿Que te ha pasado justicia? (What has happened to you- Justice?)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCpsN7c0Xmc

…Y al policia que era amigo, lo tengo como rivál…
(… the police who was my friend, is now my enemy…)

Chau,

Frank