WEDNESDAY 2 JULY     ADELS GROVE

John was on canoes, I was on reception.

It was mail plane day. Friend M would be on the plane. She was doing the tourist trip the aviation company  offered – to go out on the plane and thus see a lot of the Gulf country, as it delivers mail to about ten properties over a fair expanse of NW Qld.

This week, the mail plane was scheduled to land, with our mail, at Lawn Hill Station, as it alternated weeks between there and  here, so she would see that place close up.

We heard a plane fly really low over us, about 10am. There was panic for a short time, as we thought there was a fly-in group that hadn’t been recorded in the bookings book. But the plane flew on. We concluded that it may have been the mail plane, though it did not usually buzz us on its way to Lawn Hill.

The bosses had been on the phone about the plight of the aborigines – who were still sitting about on the front lawn. Phoned the Doomadgee police – they told her they were not a taxi or breakdown service, and they were not going to do anything about the group. Boss said they should have told her that two days ago, when she phoned. She was steaming!

R phoned a senior lady he knew in the community, to see if she could organize some help. He had to be rather diplomatic about this, not knowing the relationships or family status of the ones here.

Next time we had time to look, the group had gone, presumably to suss out the situation at their camp and wait there.

Late in the afternoon, the broken down vehicle was towed back to Doomadgee by someone from there, and the stranded ones went too. Finally! However, there was some talk about that the berserk one was missing, when the group went back there, this morning.