Gulf women are forthright, outspoken and don’t take kindly to being told by outsiders what they can and cannot do, or should or shouldn’t think.
But what they can do is love their soul country, manage the challenges of isolation, the Wet, and the totally unexpected.
The voices of 55 of them, from all walks of life, will soon be shared with the world through an eagerly-awaited anthology to be launched at Burketown’s Morning Glory festival at the end of September.
Bronwyn Blake, herself the author of 13 young adult, crime and general fiction novels, facilitated the 343-page Gulf Women: Voices from the Remote North West compilation.
Formerly living in Mount Isa, she was a regular visitor to Gregory through her partner’s work with the RFDS, and was amazed by the stories she came across.
“We went to the funeral of a 94-year-old woman who’d lived all her life in the Gulf and were listening to family stories – I thought, we just can’t lose these,” she said.
Not only that, but the world knows all about the histories of the stations and the men who “somehow managed to have four strapping sons”, a reference to the often-silent partner in history books.
“I thought a book could be a good source of income for community projects,” she added, noting that all contributions, including hers as editor, were voluntary.
Stories of managing distant stations and stock camps, handling terrible accidents, floods, bushfires, and killing droughts, are given a voice.
So too the words of nurses, teachers, and mothers whose essential supplies are weeks away from delivery, and who rear families and educate their children through the Mount Isa School of the Air.
“There are stories of new mothers on properties isolated and inaccessible for months in the Wet, women giving birth at home with only neighbours to assist, reminiscences from last century and World War II, and accounts of fishing in the Gulf in sometimes unimaginable conditions,” Bronwyn said.
A core group of women began writing under Bronwyn’s tutelage and through four workshops, for a “solid year”, suggesting other names to join them.
Half of them live and work on the vast cattle stations of the remote north west as owners, managers or stock and station workers, and the others live on country, work in businesses, tourism, education, health and aviation, or live and work on fishing boats out in the Gulf.
Bronwyn said that as their editor, she felt closely connected to the women who “gifted me windows into their worlds so different from most”, saying she was fortunate enough to be told the story of their lives, “warts, joys, terrors and all”.
“They told me that there was nothing to write about, really. It was brushed off with, ‘So ordinary it’s boring’, ‘just what you do,’ ‘just life’.”
“What a rich vein of gold we tapped into, and in writing their stories, I hope these women see in print, for all time, just how extraordinary they are. How proud we are of them.”
She added that they had to stop somewhere but that there were hundreds of stories still out there.
Gulf Women, which is filled with colour photography, will be launched on Saturday, September 30 at 11am.
Book orders can be made by contacting thegulfwomen@gmail.com
Sally Gall
Based at Blackall, CW Qld, where I've raised a family, run Merino sheep and beef cattle, and helped develop a region - its history, tourism, education and communications. Get in touch at 0427 575 955 if you've got a story idea for me.
Based at Blackall, CW Qld, where I've raised a family, run Merino sheep and beef cattle, and helped develop a region - its history, tourism, education and communications. Get in touch at 0427 575 955 if you've got a story idea for me.
