This Adventurous Age

OUR TIME AT DOOMADGEE

Friday 9 August – Thursday 15 August

On Friday there were only about ten students at school! The weekend was the annual Mt Isa Rodeo, which meant that the Monday was a public holiday in these parts. Rodeos are major entertainment in the Qld country areas, so there was a mass exodus from the town.

We had thought about spending the long weekend camping at the coastal camp area run by Wollogorang Station, to the NW of here, against the NT border. The thought of being by the sea was an attractive one, and there were very limited places on the Gulf coast where one could access this.

However, on Friday John developed flu symptoms and he spent the whole weekend feeling thoroughly miserable. It seemed a nasty bug. It was most unlike John to be sick. Through the ensuing week he went to the hospital to try to get some medicine to alleviate his symptoms. The doctor prescribed Panadol, Vitamin C and a cough mix. The hospital pharmacy was out of Panadol and cough mix, so he was given an anti-histamine instead! Not quite the same.

On Sunday we drove to Hells Gate Roadhouse, on the Gulf Track, some 80kms to the NW. Apart from getting out of the community, the purpose of this expedition was to buy a couple of cartons of beer, having been told by some of the other teachers that having same for our private consumption, was alright.

The drive was a dusty one, through flat scrub and grassland country.

There is an escarpment of the edge of the range country, outcropping at Hells Gate. Back when the pastoralists were starting to occupy the lands to the west, with strong resistance from some of the native tribes, mounted police would escort droving parties as far as the escarpment, on the then rough track. After that, they were on their own, often facing hostile attacks. Hence the name.

Hells Gate airstrip, beside the Gulf Track

At the Roadhouse, there were a couple of other vehicles, from Doomadgee, stocking up on beer.

Bower bird creation at Hells Gate Roadhouse

Apart from the Roadhouse and its attendant little camp ground and a kind-of small motel, there was an air strip. We noticed an advertising sign for the fairly new Kingfisher Camp tourist venture, to the south of there – another place we could go for a weekend away.

By the end of the second week at the school, it had been established that I would teach Home Eco to some of the secondary boys – so that was one of the late morning time slots. The SM figured that, since I had been cooking at Adels Grove, this could be my teaching role. I figured out that being trained to teach History, Geography and Politics had really not equipped me for this!

There would be a male teacher in the room with me when I had the boys’ class.

I would deliver the TAFE VET course in Kitchen Operations for three of those time slots a week. More on that later! I would take a Mothercraft course with the secondary girls’ class for one slot a week. I would do some one-on-one remedial reading work with one of the secondary girls for about 15 or 20 minutes every morning, under the direction of the literacy lady. For the rest of my time I would act as an assistant to the SM and Deputy Principal, though they were yet to agree to the exact time division between them.

It soon became obvious that I would also fill in – for the morning literacy and numeracy sessions until little lunch – for the secondary girls’ teacher, when she was away. I was quickly to discover that she was always away for one day a week, and sometimes two.

It was also soon obvious that assisting the DP meant chasing up the classroom teachers for documentation of their courses and associated paperwork that she had not to date been able to extract from them. They generally seemed to see her emphasis on planning and the like as a nuisance and were not inclined to do what she wanted! However, given the realities of trying to operate in these classrooms, I could sympathize with them not feeling like they had the time, or need, to do her paperwork. I was certainly pretty sure that what happened in the classrooms did not match the theory she had planned!

I was allocated desk space in a staff/storage area, of sorts, close to the secondary girls’ room. No-one else seemed to use it much, so it became rather lonely, working in there.

As well as the above duties, there was also the usual yard duty at the breaks, and before school – several sessions of this a week. These were not particularly comfortable times – the students were often very unruly on breaks and it was hard for me to know just what was acceptable, here.

The SM gave me a key to the Home Eco centre, which was to be my domain. This was kept locked when not in use. There was not much point to this, I soon found, as all sorts of other people must have had keys too. The woman who ran the intermittent breakfast program certainly did – although she was not supposed to use the kitchen for that, but had a separate little room nearby. But she obviously raided the gear – and food supplies – if she got a chance. She did not return anything thus “borrowed” – or wash it up! It fell to me to go hunting for my missing equipment, and clean it.

Other locals obviously had access too. I would find that groups had come in when I wasn’t there, or on weekends, and done things like make up lots of containers of cordial for special occasions – and they would have left the floor a sticky, dirty mess – for me to clean, since there was no other cleaner.

I investigated my new teaching domain. There was a large kitchen, with benches, stoves – only some of which worked, and sinks. The drawers and cupboards at the work stations had the gear one would expect – measures, implements, saucepans – but not one had a full set of what should have been there.

The Home Eco room during the Visiting Chef program. Note the mesh over the windows

The two fridges had been turned off for some time, but left closed, so they smelled awful, and had gone mildewed on most surfaces. I attempted to clean these.

There was a laundry area off the kitchen, with a washing machine that worked.

There was a large, locked, pantry and storage area for foodstuffs and portable equipment. This also contained a number of portable sewing machines and associated gear. There was little in the way of stored food staples though.

I was to find out that my departed predecessor had preferred to try to teach sewing rather than cookery, and had the students making beanbags. I doubt any of these that got finished would have lasted long in the sort of homes they mostly lived in! There were a number of unfinished ones in a corner of the store.

Clearly, whatever might have once been in the storeroom in the way of equipment, had “walked”. There were no mixers of any sort. There was one electric frypan, but cords and lids for several more. When I mentioned the total absence of any form of sharp cutting knives, the SM said the school had spent a lot of money at the start of the year on a really good set of chefs knives. There was no sign of these, but he hinted that he may have been looking after them at home!

I soon had to solve the shortage of equipment by taking some of my own to use – knives, electric frypan, kitchen tongs. Anything of mine was carried back and forth from the house, as I needed it – and never left unattended in the kitchen. Even left in the supposedly secure store area at school, it would soon have walked. Several times I had to retrieve the one school frypan from the breakfast lady.

The first task in the Home Eco centre was to give it all a reasonably thorough clean, before it would be fit for use. I think I was probably still in shock at hearing that there was no cleaner. It was a bloody big area, too.

Food supplies for classes were something I would have to shop for, from the Store, complete with Requisition Slip obtained from the Office Secretary. Ho hum – back to bureaucracy. There was no budget, of course. The limitations of the community store would affect what I could do.

There were no curriculum documents either. I was on my own in terms of what got taught in Home Eco and Mothercraft, and found it rather daunting. There were just no records anywhere of previous programs – apart from a few I unearthed in the school library from back in the Mission days. These clearly showed how far the school education had regressed since then!

So, with nothing to guide me, I soon decided that the practical cooking sessions would just feature things the kids might be able to do themselves, at home – i.e. of some real practical value, in combination of what they might like to eat. Apple crumble, fried rice, bacon and eggs, came to immediate mind. The food had to be able to be made and cooked within 80 minutes, too – and with the very limited cooking resources in the kitchen.

By the entrance to the kitchen was a row of hooks with some aprons on – but these were not often worn. There was also the shelf of assorted school shoes, as dictated by OHS requirements.

I did find some course outlines and work booklets for the VET Kitchen Operations course, stuffed in the store cupboard at the back of the kitchen. In theory, some of the girls had been doing this course since the start of the year. In practice, my predecessor preferred to have them sewing! The SM was so well organized that he could not even provide me with a list of the students the school had paid for to do the course! And, of course, there were no results for the first semester. Wonderful! I should just have to start at the beginning, and see how far we got.

I spent some time during this week, trying to get some help/information. I walked to the local AbHealth Office to see some of the local ladies to try to get some idea about what they thought would be acceptable, culturally, in the Mothercraft class. I didn’t want to repeat the mistakes made by S, when she taught some very explicit sex education to the girls, without consulting anyone in the community. I did not get very far. The ladies were polite, but totally vague and non-committal. They probably found the idea that mothercraft needed to be taught, rather mystifying – or even that it was a “craft”. Many of the local children seemed to be bringing themselves up!

John was allocated a room for his literacy work – but with no furniture in it. No-one was much help to him. Eventually he found a store room with a few tables and chairs in, and got the students to help him move them in and set up the room. It was not ideal conditions for teaching, but what was, in this place?

Our fellow workers:

Including us, there were eleven resident staff when we began. Another couple had arrived by the time we left. There were also five builders living in. So that was sixteen staff to feed, for starters.

The man boss was an accredited member of the Savannah Guides Association – a group of local experts from across the northern Gulf country – formed to promote tourism. The previous owner of Adels helped form this group. Adels Grove was a Savannah Guide Station. The boss ran the half day tours to the Riversleigh fossil site, that Adels offered.

His wife ran the accommodation side of things and it was she who hired us.

There were three couples of similar ages to us, basically retirees too. They were here for the season. Previous experiences with backpacker workers had led the owners to prefer retirees – they said we had a better attitude to customer service.

One couple had a caravan parked down in the Grove, like us, the others were staying in the staff donga.

Two of the ladies looked after the reception and shop. One did the laundry for the DBB tents, and the housekeeping for same, helped when needed by one of the others. She only had a couple of domestic washing machines in the laundry; the innards of these had been ruined by the calcium in the water, so she had to manually fill the machines with a hose.

The men did the outside work. One of them ran the canoe hire service at the National Park, so he was away all day. His little work area overlooked the creek – a great place to work.

The canoe hire – a really scenic “office”

The final staff member was the cook – a lass in her 20’s, a friend of a family member of one of the owners, and a lovely person. She had not cooked before, but thought this sounded like a novel experience and a bit of an adventure in the outback. She was on a steep learning curve. Her existence was somewhat lonely, with no other staff of her age. My brief was to assist her, as the place got busier, and try to ease out some glitches that were appearing.

The protocol here was that, at the evening meal, guests were served first, and builders and staff after that. There were beginning to be rumblings that sometimes not enough food remained for staff, and I was to try to improve that.

Visiting “staff” came with the once or twice weekly company tours from Mt Isa. The regular guide was a local Waanyi aboriginal elder – highly educated, outgoing and a fascinating man.

Our work

The office ladies made sure there was always someone there to book in visitors, take phone bookings, do sales of any shop items, keep that area clean and tidy. They helped out with tent housekeeping if needed. When the weekly supply truck came in, they helped unload it and check the delivery.

The weekly supply truck from Mt Isa

The outside men did the cleaning, tank filling from the creek, and donkey firing already described. They fetched loads of firewood – mostly snappy gum – and chopped it. As well as pumping water from the creek, there was a water tanker truck that was filled and driven around to water the campground tracks when it was particularly dusty; as the season went on, this became pretty constant. It also was used to water the airstrip to reduce dust. There was some garden watering.

Watering to reduce dust

The campground – and other – rubbish  was collected in the dump truck and taken to the tip pit, which was periodically burned. Then there was general tidying and upkeep of the camp ground, where vacated sites were checked and raked, and fire pits emptied.

Fly in tourists had to be collected from the airstrip and driven to the camp and National Park.

One of the men would serve fuel as tourists wanted it, from the bowsers. They would do basic mechanical repairs, if they could, repair/change flat tyres, fill travellers’ gas bottles. There were canoe repairs to do, too.

The men assisted with the dishwashing after the evening meal – their own dishes, and the pots and pans, serving dishes and the like. Given the limited power, there was no dishwasher.

By the time we joined the staff, the other men were in quite a routine for the basic jobs, so John had to carve out his own niche. He took on the neglected vegie patch and assumed responsibility for the outdoor dining area – hosing off the tables, tidying the area, helping us hose out the kitchen each morning. He was eventually entrusted with helping us cook BBQ’s and fish. He fetched the containers of special drinking water filled at Louie Creek – it had less calcium than our own creek water. As the new building progressed, he worked afternoons at painting that.

John at work in the vegie garden

 The work in the kitchen:

The kitchen was open air – essentially a roof and a cement floor, attached to one side of a coolroom donga. For some reason, there were no flies here, so open air worked fine.

The kitchen

There were a couple of chest freezers and ordinary household fridges lined up along the back wall. Electrical power came from the generator, which was turned off about 10pm each night. In theory, a battery set up maintained power for the fridges and freezers, but this did not work well. However, they seemed to hold cool well enough through the nights. The only electrical appliance we could use was a small, hand-held electric beater; anything else required too much power. Hot water for drinks was heated in large kettles on the gas cookers.

Metal shelves were stainless steel or lino topped to form our work benches. Two single bowl sinks had cold water taps only – hot water for washing up was fetched in buckets from the nearest donkey water heater – a fair distance away. Bringing these was another task that often fell to John. One sink was towards the front of the kitchen area -this was to be used by guests and staff to wash up their own eating plates and utensils; we put heaps of teatowels out for them to dry same. So they did not need to come into the kitchen area itself. The other sink that we used for prep was against the donga wall.

At work in the kitchen

There were two old industrial gas cookers lined up on one side of the kitchen space. Only one of the ovens worked, which limited what could be cooked for an evening meal – if it was roast meat and vegies, then dessert had to be something that did not need the oven. Not all of the stovetop gas burners worked, either, which sometimes necessitated some juggling of pots.

The stoves were supplemented by the big BBQ plate, on a wood fire, outside the kitchen, when we were having BBQ or fish.

The boss lady did the breakfasts each morning, served from 7.30am. These were buffet style for guests and staff to help themselves. There would be cereals, toast and something hot like baked beans. The builders would eat something light, then.

I started work at 9.30am, with my first task to make a substantial, cooked “smoko” for the builders, to be served at 10am. I often based this on leftovers from the previous night e.g. corned beef fritters.

Often there was a big cleanup to be done, from breakfast! In theory, everyone washed and dried up their own dishes and utensils. In practice, most of them just got left in and on the sink. Not a great way to start my working day.

B started at 10am. In theory, we worked a split shift, to allow for the fact that we often did not finish the clean up from the evening meal till 8pm – or later. In practice, it was often hard to take the time off in the afternoon, depending on what we were cooking, and how many for.

Boss set the menu for the evening meal. She grew up in the bush and the menu reflected this – and the origins of Adels’ dinner, bed and breakfast offering in the Riversleigh bush camp.

We would check the relevant meat for that night had been put out in the coolroom, the night before, to defrost, or else put it out in the morning. I made it my task to ensure there was enough put out to feed all – leftovers could always be used for the builders’ smoko.

The menu was a set two courses: main and dessert. Mains were roasts – mostly lamb or beef. The boss ordered whatever was on special from Woolworths in Mt Isa, each week, and that was frozen. Spag bol usually featured once each week. Whenever there was one of the two-night company tour groups in, corned silverside would be served one night (“salt beef” in the tour literature, which promised “Gulf cuisine”) and barramundi the other night – this came as a boxed and frozen import.  Despite this, it was amazing how many guests told us we’d cooked “the best barra I’ve ever eaten!”

Cooking corned beef

We staff did not like the weeks in which company tours came twice!

BBQ was another regular – chops, sausages, meat patties. Sometimes there was curry (mild) with  rice – which only boss man was allowed to cook, by his absorption method. It still stuck to the pot! Savoury mince, chicken in apricot nectar were other offerings.

We served potatoes – roasted, mashed or as “chippies” (cubed potato and kumara, oil sprayed and baked). Other vegetables were the standard frozen varieties. Cabbage went with the silverside. As time went on, I was allowed to make coleslaw, or a mixed salad as a change from the frozen vegies.

Desserts were in a similar vein: tinned fruit salad with custard we made from custard powder. Bread and butter custard was a regular to use up the large quantities of leftover crusts. Trifle. Frozen bought-in apple pies with ice cream. Creamed rice. Again, after some time, I persuaded the boss to order in the makings for fresh fruit salad, occasionally. We always had a supply of icecream in the freezers.

B and I would put out the makings for lunch and staff and the builders then helped themselves to those. There were the basic salad materials – lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber; cheese slices, tinned beetroot, pickled cucumbers, bread. Sometimes there were leftovers from breakfast, or the night before – often cold silverside! I considered lunches nicer than the evening meals, much of the time!

The company tour guide made up his lunches for his clients, to be taken off with them for the day. Mostly, he brought the makings for these from Mt Isa, where he had a couple of “aunties” who produced good cold picnic lunch foods.

As I got more into the routine of the place, I often tried to have some cake available – only basic, like carrot cake. There were always sweet biscuits for staff smoko. Sometimes I made a zucchini slice – for the builders’ smoko and for some staff lunch variety. I made carrot cakes for any staff who had birthdays.

Birthday cake

Once the morning smokos were done, the breakfast and smoko cleanups done, the kitchen hosed out, we would have our smoko break – about 15 minutes. Then we would start prep for the evening meal. Potatoes would be peeled and put in buckets of water. Desserts prepared. Lunch makings put out. Then would come the lunch cleanup – mostly, the staff men were good at washing up their own plates and cutlery. B and I tried hard to take an hour for lunch.

If it was a silverside day, the large chunks of that would have been put on, in the morning, to slowly cook in drums on little open fire stands out in the dining area. John came to be responsible for lighting the fires under these, and keeping them stoked.

Roasts – big cuts – would go in the oven to cook. Then vegies for roasting – potatoes and pumpkin.

General cooking supplies were kept in the air conditioned coolroom donga, so we were constantly going up and down the couple of steps to it.

Most nights, we fed 40-60 people. The most was 78 and that was a corned beef night.

The evening meal was served at 6.30, so the later part of the afternoon was fairly solid work to ensure all was ready for that, and to clean up as much of our prep gear as we could.

The evening meal was served from the benches at the front of the kitchen. Guests would line up and receive a plate of food dished up for them, then take it off to the tables to eat. Dessert was served in the same way. Condiments, bread and so on, were on an accessible nearby side bench, by the BBQ stove.

After the evening meal was eaten, we would have a greater or lesser quantity of washing up to do, depending on how good that group of guests had been at washing their own. There usually ended up being a heap of cutlery in the sink for us to do! And always lots of pots and pans and serving dishes. We appreciated the way all staff pitched in and helped do that, usually being pretty tired by then.

While the washing up was happening, boss lady would put out the breakfast things.

Having the two of us working in the kitchen was a great set up because we really got on well. I thought that, before I came, it had been a lonely working day for young B, by herself in the kitchen.