GWF
THE LETTERS OF A NATIVE WELFARE OFFICER
1959-1961 Pilbara And Kimberley
Edited By Nan Broad
ISBN 978-0-85905-673-1 (New, 2017), 278 pages, A4, Illustrated, 700 grams
$50.00* + POST
For the indigenous population of the North West of Western Australia the early 1960s held great promise and inevitable disappointment. Social welfare systems went into practice and some of the class barriers started to crumble. Against this progression the entrenched colonial superiority of the pastoralists continued them to dictate employment methods. In this see-sawing milieu Bill Courtney takes up an appointment as Native Welfare Officer in Port Hedland and later in Halls Creek. His first brief is to remove Don McLeod, instigator of Simdan, the mineral prospecting company in Pilbara which has gone broke. He then takes over as the sole officer in Halls Creek, servicing East Kimberley. Courtney's erudite correspondence to a friend during these periods contains it all - his reactions to every aspect of the uniquely individual lifestyle practised by the 'white fellas' and, both funny and sad, the reactions of the 'black fellas.'