Member Marc Luther B asked me on another thread last week to post about Conways Kids and today seems the right time after reading a story on news.com
HERE
We visited
Kings Creek Station in the Northern Territory, about 35 k's east of
Kings Canyon Resort. Ian and Lyn Conway run a great station here, very tourist friendly with many ways to spend your days. The staff are a great lot too, especially a fellow named Leroy, what a character! If you're travelling the
Mereenie Loop, consider
Kings Creek Station, even if it's just a camel ride or a quad bike ride, some fuel or a cuppa. They do a beaut Camel Burger too!
We paid to see a show that is run nightly, put on by the staff and revolving around stock
camp life and the life and times of Ian and Lyn, in particular Ian's family tree. Ian is proudly of aboriginal
heritage, and these days, as
well as running his station, he and Lyn have devoted a great deal of their time and also their money to helping out the people of a local aboriginal community. The clan is known as the Ukaka (pronounced "Oo-karkar") How do you help a remote community like this and be reasonably confident not only of success for this generation, but instill a sense of commitment to future generations? Education of course! So Ian and Lyn are tackling this on two fronts.
At present they have five teen-aged children at boarding schools in
Adelaide, these kids could barely speak English when they arrived at the schools, most city people would consider them illiterate for that, yet they speak fluently in 3, 4 or more aboriginal languages. That puts a new twist on the illiteracy thing doesn't it? These kids are excelling at their schools, and have plans and goals just like the rest of us, except that those goals are very much important for the future of their people. It's a big effort and is costing around $40,000 per
child per annum to fund! This is mostly being funded by the Conway's, along with help from donations. There is little or no government funding as far as I am aware at present. I am happy to be corrected on that.
The other part is that Ian is teaching the Ukaka to run a self sufficient camel
farm. Australia has the highest
population of camels in the world at present and
Kings Creek Station sell camels to the middle east, Europe and America. Ian is teaching the Ukaka men to
farm camels, sell them to the market, run their business properly and pay their taxes. It's creating a new hope in a place that previously had little!
Their story can be see at the following web sites....
Conways KidsKings Creek Station
And the video on this site is
well worth watching, from Australian Story on ABC
Unfinished Business
Gayleen and I have donated, and are at the moment putting together a self published book of our recent outback adventure. Primarily the book will be for loan out to our 4WD club mates, (
Gold Coast Four Wheel Drive Club) for a donation to the cause, but a few clubbies have asked to buy a copy, so I am working out a fair price that will cover the costs involved and add a small donation to Conways Kids. At some stage down the track I might advertise it here on EO, as a means of generating some much needed help for this worthy cause.
In closing, I realize that this is a drop in the ocean as it were, that there are many clans out there that need a helping hand. And please don't confuse the people on the streets of
Alice Springs and
Coober Pedy etc etc, with clans like the Ukaka. They lead a different life, these genuine bush communities are the ones Ian is trying to help. We often see ads on TV of the wonderful work that is being done for starving kids overseas, but we have kids living in third world conditions in Australia! We should tend to our own first IMHO
Every little bit helps, it's just giving a little bit back to the outback!
Regards
Brian