How can a town (if it can be called that), with a population of zero, each year organise a race meet that attracts hundreds? The outback Queensland ghost town that is Betoota, even boasts a newspaper, the Betoota Advocate, but there is a story to that!
Is it the resilience of the outback that makes what appears impossible, doable? Or is it more than that. Does one loose ‘it’ as their town gets bigger? Or is ‘it’ an internal quality that one develops living in a more demanding environment.
I was in town called Mundubbera, population around 1200 people, couple of weeks back to shoot a video. I met the local athletics coach. Being polite I didn’t ask her age, but the higher side of seventy (70) is my guess. On their property about five (5) minutes out of town she regularly trains up to twenty-three (23) kids in shot-put, javelin and discus. Some of the kids have made state squads and one even got a third placing in the nationals. Husband, Ken, is present, but remains fairly quiet as Gwen starts the kids through their stretches, paced sprints then demonstrates the throwing techniques. In the shed, behind the shot-put slab, records of the kids pb’s and achievements are all recorded. As Gwen say’s the kids, ranging in ages 6 to 17, are like extended family. I’m pretty sure she knows in her head each kid’s pb’s for each throwing event. On Friday afternoons it is a role reversal, Ken takes voice as the local tennis coach and you see many of the athletic kids swinging a racquet. Part of the reason Gwen is not as vocal at the courts was that a discus hit her ankle some time ago. The scar remains, as I imagine some unsaid pain in the bones. In the litter free tennis shelter the honour board sits there unprotected listing past champions and committee members. The camera operator remarks how clean the town is, hard to spot one un-kept premise, commercial or residential. Census data indicates the town is actually growing in population, something I feel would surprise many, which in part is due to the number of Pacific Islanders going there for the seasonal citrus picking jobs. A few of these deciding to make Mundubbera home relocating their family there. Mundubbera struck me as a resilient town, possessing that ‘it’ factor.
While I got the usual ‘good luck with that one’ to last week’s column pushing for a special ‘musical’ Spirit of the Outback train service in this the Year of Outback Tourism, it was a guy in Longreach that wanted to discuss the logistical issues of doing overnight stops at Emerald and Alpha, as well as indicating he’ll talk to a couple of people in QR (Queensland Rail) about the idea. He didn’t ask for a business plan or say that it would be too hard to do, just thought it was a great idea and what one would possibly have to do next in progressing the idea.
There is, I believe, something about living in the outback, that makes people more inclined to get on and just make things happen. Like organising a race meet in a ghost town (imagine writing a business plan for that). What is ‘it’ and can ‘it’ be bottled?