Reflections on Bourke
I spent three years in Bourke. A few people said to me when I’d announced my next career move was going to be Bourke, ‘have you heard about Bourke?’ …’It’s got problems’ … ‘It’s dangerous.’ For some people, it might be. I had been around, but I had never seen anything like it. I said I would be there for three years. And I was, give or take a week or so. I have nothing short of respect for the people I met in Bourke. ---------- I ran a crisis service for kids in Bourke. I was backed up by a big quiet, unassuming and purposeful guy, and it wouldn’t have been possible to live and work there without him. My 14 to 17 year old clients were what the locals called the ‘bad kids’. The kids who were not going to school, who were in and out of the courthouse and juvenile detention, who caused trouble in the street, and who didn’t have access to safe and secure accommodation in Bourke. It hadn’t been my first choice of a job. I’d been approached three times a...