Latest / Salt of the Earth / Ep 129: June Andrew _ Marree SA

Transcript

Ep 129: June Andrew _ Marree SA · Salt of the Earth

• 0:05
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to Stalls of the Earth.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_01: A young relief nurse arrives in Maori in 1982.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_01: And she's still there.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_01: Her name is June Andrew.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_01: Mare is a remote outback town in South Australia, just near Lake Air.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: It's just like living in a small town, it's just a further away from places.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_01: About 70 people call it home.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: You've just got to think ahead.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: You have to think about how much food you've got.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: You've got to think we don't get the mile every day.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_01: And Lyle, who we heard from in the last episode.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_01: People would just get in and do things.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_01: June doesn't drink tea, coffee, or alcohol, but she'll still turn up to all the local events.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_01: The music would get louder, the locals would get a bit more aggressive, and sometimes there'd be fights.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_01: And June would be there the next morning patching them up.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: I'd see them after when they had the fights and stuff.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_01: She wasn't trained for everything she ended up doing dental work, podiatry, optometry, and even looking after animals.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_01: When June first arrived, the ambulance was a two-wheel drive youth.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_01: If there was an emergency, she'd grab a local who could keep their cool.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_01: They would drive out to wherever they were needed, put the patient on the back of the youth, and June would get to work.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_01: But June wasn't just the nurse.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_01: She was involved in everything movie nights, tennis, gimcanas, the camel cup.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_01: She's part of the Progress Association.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_01: She'd even run the local newspaper.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_01: She says she's retired now.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_01: Hmm, I'm not so sure about that because she's still very busy.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_01: This is a story about the outback, the people and community.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_01: And June Andrew is right in the middle of it.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_01: Let's go.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_01: Hello, June.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_01: Hello.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_01: So nice to talk to you.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_01: I've learned a little bit about you so far.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_01: You're a very interesting and busy lady.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: I can be, yes.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_01: Take us back to 1982, June.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_01: A young nurse arrives in a place called Marie.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I had to look it up from a map first because I had no idea where it was.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: I'd never heard of it before I applied to come.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: So when I first came, I worked with the Royal District Nursing Service of South Australia, because they used to run the health service, but it was called a hospital then.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_01: Based in where?
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_01: Before Marie?
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: I was down in Keith.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: I was doing relieving to country hospitals for a couple of years after I got back from Tasmania and taking my mum and dad over to England to see where I was born and meet relatives.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I couldn't work out what I wanted to do.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: So Maury sounded interesting.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_01: And where were you born?
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um in England, in Devon, in a little village of about a hundred people.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_01: Really?
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so you you're used to small communities?
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: I was three when I came out.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: I don't remember.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: I've been working mostly apart from doing training, mostly in between in smaller country places.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_01: So So when you first arrived, what was your first thought?
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: About Mari.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um it just took a long time to get here in my little laser.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know that thing not kids say how much further is we there yet?
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: But I'd actually worked the Saturday night at Keith, drove to my mum and dad's on the Sunday, unpacked my car, repacked my car, and came up on the Monday.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: So it just seemed like it was a long way.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: It was all dirt pretty well then.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I got here and it was um the dentist was here that day and they were still here.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: And they went off on the old airstrip.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: That was the last plane that went off officially off the old airstrip.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: They were just about to open the new airstrip, so it was a bit different to start with.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: And then we had dust storms every day for the first week.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: So I was thinking, oh, this is a bit different.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: And it just took a little while for people to get used to me and for me to get used to them.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_01: You're pretty easy to get used to, though, I'd imagine.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I hope so.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: Because it was near the end of the year and school here finishes a week earlier, a lot of people getting ready to go away.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: So they had lots of barbecues at night.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: So I meet lots of people in the dark.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: And could and especially Aboriginal people.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: You can't see them very well in the dark if there's no lights around.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: So I couldn't recognise probably anybody in the daylight.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: So they say, Oh, we met you last night.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Oh, oh sorry.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not good at names anyway, but I couldn't see a lot of people in the dark.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_01: What was the population here in 1980?
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: Uh about 150.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_01: So it's got smaller.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the GAN had finished in 80, so that was all gone.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: It was just the goods and freight train that still came.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: So there wasn't only the one train a week.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: And there was State Liner bus, so there was actually public transport when I first came.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: So that was a bit different.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: And all the the mail used to come, some on the bus, and some used to fly in on the Sunday.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: So I used to get two mail deliveries a week, but then they stopped the one on the plane, and then State Liner bus stopped in 86.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: The same year, the train stopped, and um so there was no public transport.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: Because Australia Post had were on, they came with State Liner because they had the contract, they had to work out how the mail was coming, so then it started coming by by um contractor.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: So to get as far as Lee Creek and then have to come up.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: So a bit different.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_01: How long did you expect to stay here for?
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: I came four, five to six years because I was sick of living out my suitcase and I thought I'd go somewhere and stay a bit longer while I was trying to work out what I wanted to do.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: But everybody said I came for six months.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: I was on six months probation with RDNS because I never worked for them before.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: But I actually came intending to stay for you know five or six years.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_01: Was there a certain point when you thought, yeah, this is home?
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I think the years just seemed to flash by.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: And the more you get involved with the community, it's a very friendly community.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: And um got involved with other things that sort of sort of became home.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_01: I want to learn about those other things in a sec, but um finding your place in a remote community can be a bit difficult.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: I actually started going to lots of meetings to meet people because you'd only see them at the health service when they weren't well, and you need to you need to meet people when they're not sick and stuff.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: So I actually got into lots of going to lots of things to meet people because it wasn't always the same people.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: Now it might be all the same people because the town's got smaller, but um was a lot you know, a few more people, and then you'd sort of go to things, but I wouldn't stay late because I was always on call and I don't drink alcohol, so I didn't want to be there when they were all drunk.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'd see them after when they had their fights instead.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um sometimes I always said a slim dusty was playing, I wouldn't worry.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but they had that had banging music, there'd always be a fight.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and it's still the same now.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_01: Is it?
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, between the locals?
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: Well, they're all related, so you know, family things, dynamics can be a bit touchy anyway.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_01: And you've got to patch them up at the end of it.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so I but um so that's the my way I met people, so it didn't feel like that I was anywhere apart from a small town.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_01: You only knew their nicknames for a little while, is that right?
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: Uh no, I knew all their nicknames and their proper names.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: So I go to the post office and someone would say, Oh, who's this person?
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Oh, that's so and so.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: That you'd I say by their nickname, I said, Is that their name?
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Yeah, that's their name.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: So, but that's what nobody got called by their proper name, but I had to know their proper name for the work.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: So I could rem I'm good at remembering things that are written down, yeah, but I'm not good at remembering names for people when you get introduced a lot.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm terrible, I've always been terrible remembering names.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: I have to write it down ten times and say it a few times towards.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_01: Are there things that people have got to do differently in a remote community to help one another?
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um, well, you have to think ahead a bit more because it's not like you you get um groceries and stores, you know, stuff all the time.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: When I first came after the pup, you know, to train at the bus stop, a lot of people didn't have cars that could really use to go out of town.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: So you had to add people that were talking to each other so they could give each other rides.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: You could have to, well, you have to be confidential anyway with the work.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: But um, you get told things that you couldn't tell anybody else.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_01: So um and you were more than just a nurse, really.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_01: Like you're a a psychologist sometimes and a a carer and uh I think even a dentist at some point.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: Uh did do some dental things.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: The dentist told showed me how to pull out a tooth, but it's really hard to pull out teeth if you haven't got the right height and the right strength.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: So but I I did temporary fillings, the dentist showed we had stuff for doing temporary fillings, the dentist left and showed us how to do it, we showed me how to do it, and the podiatrist showed me how to do feet, and the optometrist showed me how to do things, the doctor showed me how to get things out of people's eyes.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I had a doctor doing my train that said all nurses should know how to suture.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: So we got to all that when I was down in Adelaide.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, and then I did a lot of vet things.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_02: Did you really feed animals?
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: Jump a lot of when sewing up a horse, I have to jump quick.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yep, that was that in the paddock.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I saw quite a lot of animals horses, cats, dogs, swans, ibis, mostly usual things, but occasionally you get a different animal that you weren't expecting.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_01: What does a normal day look like for a nurse in a remote areas?
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: In remote areas?
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it's a bit different now because all the things have changed, but you'd um you'd have lots of paperwork to do still.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: So, but you'd you'd plan your day as much as you could.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: You'd you'd have some people coming back for appointments, you'd have people you'd need to ring up to arrange appointments to either come to the clinic or to see the doctor, or we did a lot more home visiting then because it was actually through district nursing, so they did do home visiting.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: Plus, the used to be actually registered as a hospital with short-term stay facilities.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: So you might keep somebody overnight occasionally while while the bus was running to catch the bus, or to wait for the plane the next day if they were somebody who didn't have family in town.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: But you you'd do mostly ordering medications, extra dressing, you know, dressings that you have to keep on couple of your stock.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you'd have people coming in, you know, that had fallen over, um, had cuts and stuff, so you'd do all your sort of first 80 things and then worked out if you needed to talk to the doctor about what to do.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_01: Snake bites?
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: Not a lot.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: Most people avoid snakes.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: From snakes, usually avoid people.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: Had a couple of people that um I didn't really have a lot of people with snake bites.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: Occasionally, if I was away, there'd be somebody who'd come in, but they were usually pretty well always dry snake bites.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: And one fella who bit the snake's head off.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_02: Oh.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: Because it bit him.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: I wasn't here for that though.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I heard about it.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um so you really didn't know what you're gonna get through the door, but you still had your paperwork to do, and it was all paper notes then.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: You didn't have the computers and stuff, so now you've got to do the computer stuff on the computer, which is you don't actually talk to the person, you're not looking at the person quite as much sometimes.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_01: And time consuming, isn't it?
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's more time consuming with the computer than it was when you were writing.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, okay.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_01: Was there ever a normal day?
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: Well, what's normal?
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: You can't say what's normal because everything's every day's usually different.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_01: Was there a moment when you thought, I definitely didn't learn this at nursing school?
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I didn't learn about the animal stuff because I definitely didn't do vet stuff.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: And we only ever had one cat that we didn't have for long and one dog.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, my brother had pigeons, but they were outside.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: We didn't actually have a lot of animals, so I didn't have a lot to do with animals.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't have a lot to do with drunk people.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, this was because I didn't drink, I didn't go out a lot to the hotel.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I had to get used to people being drunk and the different tones of voices when they're a bit more violent drunk than just noisy loud drunks.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: So it didn't take long to work that out.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: I worked out about the music.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: Didn't really hear a lot of talking to people, letting people talk.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: I had to get used to talking a lot more.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: But I didn't do some of that before I came up here because I was doing mothers and babies for a while when I did my child health in Tasmania.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: So I did home visiting, so I used to have to talk a lot more because I'm actually pretty shy.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_01: So did you deliver babies here?
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: Uh only one.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: Flew out lots of people in Labour, but only one.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: The last one born in town was in '93.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_01: And you would have a connection to the Royal Flying Doctors too?
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: They were the doctors that come in the whole time.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: And that the the only thing used to be two doctors and you used to see them sort of still did clinics twice a month.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so it would be one of those two doctors, and one of those two doctors that would be on the plane when you had people that you needed to fly out and when you rang up to talk to them.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_01: So is there an ambulance in town?
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: There, the health service has an ambulance.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: When I first came, it was a two-wheel drive with a canopy.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: So, and because we didn't have sealed roads.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_01: A two-wheel drive Ute with a canopy.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: So you couldn't actually drive it anywhere because you got bobbed out the front.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_02: And then we yeah.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: And then we went to the first four-wheel drive.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: So that was much better.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: At least you could get around town if it rained.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_01: And would you go out on your own?
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: No, depending where I was going.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um, if I was going, I'd usually get someone that I knew could drive and wouldn't get freaked out if there was something, lots of blood and stuff.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: So that I might they might need to drive back.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: So I knew who was around, who wasn't drinking, who didn't panic, and um who would be helpful.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: So you worked it out after you'd been here for a while.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and you could call on people, some friends and so forth too.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_01: Talking about some of the tough moments, remote nursing must come with enormous responsibility.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_01: What were the moments that tested you most?
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: I think when you have car accidents and people get killed and the people from town that you know.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: Or the family that you know, I think that's probably the hardest because you you do know everybody, and even if they're not living in town at the time, you've probably met them a few times.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: So I think that's the hardest.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_01: And would it be up to you to tell a family?
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_00: Not necessarily, it might be the doctor, but if sometimes it was me.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_01: That's tough.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_01: How do you handle the pressure?
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I think my brain compartmentalises and um once I've done something, it shuts it off.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_01: Do you switch off when you come home?
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: That's partly why I got into lots of community things to get me because I used to live in the health service, so you had to actually get out.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: You read, I like reading my Mills and Boone because they're very brain, you don't have to think about them.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_00: And they switch my brain off.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_01: And was there times you just have to rely on instinct alone?
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: Well, sometimes.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: Is this what you think it is, or is it something more or less than what you think?
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: But if you're not sure, you went up and talked to the doctor.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_01: But you must have thousands of stories from these locals who call Maury home.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, but you can't really say them because they recognise who people are.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: So he said, write a book, June.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: I said, No, even if I write it and don't put the same name, they'll know who it is.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_01: Any stories you can share?
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um some of these characters in town?
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I had one fella who decided that he wanted to give up drinking and he actually went down and dried out and he was away for a while and came back and he was really good.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: But unfortunately, his family all and he went down again and tried again, but he came back and then unfortunately he'd start drinking again.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: But he really did really want to give up.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: I um used to have lots when I first came, lots of kids had runny ears.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: So Northern Territory were doing lots of health programs then on ears, and they used to get all the information, and they were saying vitamin C and ear toilets, which is really easy to do.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: So we used to have lots of vitamin C tablets.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: We used to have vitamin C tablets because we didn't you couldn't have fruit, oranges, lemons, and you know, citrusy fruits all the time.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: So they used to all come in every day, get their one or two vitamin C tablets, and if they she did have runny ears, we'd do their ear toilets.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: And after a few months, we didn't have to do any ear toilets.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_01: Really?
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_01: So vitamin C is a little secret there.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't dry out the ears, they don't clear up.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: So and some of them would be on the antibiotics as well because they weren't very good ears, but yeah, but a lot of them don't really get a lot of ears.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: They eat pretty well here, so yeah.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_01: What makes outback people different?
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: Well, they realise that everything's not just around the corner, and you know, you're gonna go closest places like Linthurst is 80 kilometres, so but you couldn't go shopping there.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: If you wanted to go shopping, you go to Lee Creek, so that's 120.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: And when it was dirt road, it was took about a half bit longer, depending on the road.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: And if you want to go to Roxby, that's two and a half hours each way, and the road, depending on the road, it'd be a lot longer.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_01: Dirt road, yeah.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: And if you wanted to go and do business stuff, you'd have to go to Adelaide or Port Augusta.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: We say, Oh, we're just going to might be away just for the day, or maybe two days.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: I used to do lots of day trips.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_00: I was lucky I had a couple of ladies in the district who were registered nurses, and they would come in and just work for the day, and I do day trips.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_01: What's Maury taught you about resilience?
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, that everybody's more resilient than they think they are.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_01: I often say that too.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_01: You're stronger than you think you are.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yep, definitely.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what you tell other people, and they say, I think, well, and you you go back and say, Look, you did this, this, and this.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: That's pretty clever.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: That's pretty good.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: You didn't think you could do that, but you did it.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so you just have to be positive, I think.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, thank you.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_01: Is there something that city people would never understand about living remotely?
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it's just like living in a small town, it's just you're further away from places.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: That's what I say.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: It's just like a small town, but you're further away.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: You just gotta think ahead.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: You have to think about how much food you've got.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: You've got to think you don't get the mail every day.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: You've got to think about if you've got to go somewhere, you've got to plan a bit longer than just I'll just do it today.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: So it's a bit more planning.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_01: And you've played a big role in this community.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_01: Why is that important?
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: I think I just um I wanted to feel like I was helping or I was doing, I was involved, and and it's just sort of snowboard after a while.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: I was involved in things because of the things I wanted to do.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_01: Tell me about some of those clubs and organizations.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I like playing tennis.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: Not that I'm a very good tennis player, but but we weren't um doing much sporty stuff because the town, you know, the population went down.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_00: And then we started doing tennis, and everyone would come along with, you know, and drink and stuff, and then we thought maybe we better maybe we need to give them some food when they come.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_00: So we started doing barbecues and people would still bring their drink, but they'd come and sit and talk, and some more would play.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_00: We had a few that were helping the kids, and then we'd have adults playing after the kids.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: Not so much now, but then it's different.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of people have got older.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: We can't run around as well as we used to.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: But there's a few more younger ones now, so hopefully we might get back into a few more people playing.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: And there was like other things like darts and I got into darts, um, only because it was something different.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I go, was it well it's always been at the hotel, and it's much nicer now you don't have smoking in the hotels where you don't have to go home and put all your clothes in the other room and have a shower before you went to bed.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_00: But we went from doing games that finished at half past two, three o'clock in the morning because you had more and more people wanting to play, to a game now that you can finish in a couple of hours.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, good.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_00: Which is a nice, easy, really fun game that lots of people get involved with, and then the tourists get involved quite easily with that.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I don't go to the hotel to drink.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_01: You had a movie night too?
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: I do movie nights.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: They used to have films that used to come on the train, I was told, and they used to have films at the hall.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_00: When I first came, they weren't having movies, and then and I had a DVD, no video player, not DVDs then video player.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: So I would I was about the only one in town who not many people then who had players for film.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_00: So the kids would all come around and sit in the lounge at the hospital and watch the movies, and then it got to a lot too many people in my lounge.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_00: So then we used to go to the hall, we got a Progress got some equipment and we could have a projector and stuff, and we used to put the movies on.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_01: This was the Progress Association, was it?
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, yeah.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_00: And this is like a is it ran like a small local government or uh it's a volunteer, yeah, but we don't have local government or council, so it's like kind of not well, you do the things that a council would do.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_01: Um it's tough when you don't get much funding.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_00: No, it's mostly grants and a bit of and local fundraising.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_00: So the camel cup is fundraising.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: The gym carners never been very big because they've been not the one that progressed in, but we haven't had a lot of horses around for that, so we've been doing family fun days instead.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: The kids, lots of kids don't have horses now.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: So you could do all the same events but without the horse.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_01: And you were involved in some of those the gym carners and that too, yeah?
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_01: Did you ever say no?
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think I ever did.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_00: Occasionally.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_01: Tell me about when you had a popcorn machine arrive at one point.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_00: Uh yeah, part of the random acts of kindness program that I was on when they set up the cinema at the youth centre.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: You still got it, still use it every week for the films.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: Used to have just those little portable ones.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_00: So you'd have to have about four going to keep up with all the popcorn.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_00: So it's one of those big ones like you see in the in the cinemas.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_01: But those events that you were creating, like they're important for people to come together and maybe talk about the problems they're having, or the might be a drought, or just to vent a few things that are.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, just and social, social where it's not um necessarily alcohol in included.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um, there are a few people.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Around town who don't drink.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: There's a few that used to drink that don't drink now.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_00: And it was things to do that were more community and family oriented, probably.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: I could go to those sort of things, but I liked I like the movies.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_00: Quite happy to do the movies.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_00: I like going to the movies.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: I like playing tennis.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: I like playing dance.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: Jim Carners and things like that.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I was always this first aid person and the person with the ambulance, so you kind of had to give you always on call.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: So I've kind of enjoyed them, but not always.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_00: I hated Rodeos.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_00: I still don't like Rodeos.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: Too many people fall off of things.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_02: That's right.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: They hurt themselves more.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: And because they think people that go to them all the time, they could have been hurt a couple of days before and they're not supposed to be doing what they're doing, and they'll still do it, and then they fall off of them.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_01: And the nurses there watching.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_01: I told you not to be on that horse again.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_00: Or the bull or whatever it is.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: Right, they are a bit different to Jim Carners and stuff.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_00: But um what's harder?
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_01: Running a health clinic or a community event?
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it depends.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: It depends on what's happening at the health clinic.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, if it's um emergencies and stuff, that can be quite daunting sometimes, depending on what it was.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_00: The others is more getting it organized, which is you know it's coming, whereas the health clinic, you don't always know what things are going to happen.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: So probably the health service was harder.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_01: So you're not working at the health service now?
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: I no, I kind of retired in 21.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_00: Just as we turn changed over to the new health service.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_00: I haven't actually worked in the new one.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not sure whether you know about retirement because it sounds like you're still very busy.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I'm still busy.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know how I fitted it all in while I was working full time.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_01: I know.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_01: What's your favourite MARI community event?
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I think I like the camel cup the most because it's it's different.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_00: And it's you get a lot more varied crowd probably than you do for the gym carners, and we used to have the horse racing.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_00: When I first came, the long weekend in June was really busy.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_00: We didn't have the camel cup back then, but used to have Friday night would be the health service, the hospital night.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_00: Then Saturday you'd have races all Saturday, Saturday night would be the school dance, Sunday you'd have the gym carnage all day, Sunday night would be the race ball, and then Monday morning they still had some events, and then Monday night the bus would come.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_01: And you were part of all that.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_00: I was kind of part of all that because I used to get the medications on the bus, so so I used to um always go to the bus, help unpack and the mail came as well, so you used to unpack and help unload and stuff.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_01: And was there a paper, a little local paper you were printing?
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we used to do the Herget Herald, but it kind of got to other things take over.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_00: And then the printer doesn't work, or you can't get the computer to connect to the printer and and who would write that?
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_00: Some people would send in articles or they'd send in stuff and then you'd kind of have to write it.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_00: Some people would send in things all fully finished, but not always.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_00: But it just gets a bit busy.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_00: You know, run out of time after a while.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: So at the moment it's not going, but we're hoping to get it started again soon.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_01: So after more than 40 years of being in Maury, are there still moments that make you smile?
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_00: Uh yeah.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_00: People are always different.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_00: They can have their moments.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_00: And you think about what's happened over the years and how things have changed, and it still makes you smile when you think back sometimes.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_01: And there's been some tough times too.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: There has, yeah, been some nasty things while I've been here as well, is the nice things.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_01: You want to talk about any of those?
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_00: Not particularly.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_01: No.
• 25:32
  unknown: No.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_01: Let's stick to with the good things.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, gotta think positive, not on the not the negative stuff.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_01: Was there a birth or a rescue or a conversation that you'll never forget?
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I said 83 is the last birth in town.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_00: I think she'd been having pains a bit longer than she told me.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_00: So she didn't we'd run the doctor to say that she was in labour.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_00: She was a bit quicker though, but that's all right.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: They came in, pick her up afterwards, so check everything out.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_00: But no, she was good.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_00: Baby was fine.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_01: Would have been some interesting rescues, perhaps.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_00: Motorbike people with motorbikes, so you see them in the dark and you can't recognise them in the daylight because they have mud all over them when it's raining and they've slipped over with the bike.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, had one fella I couldn't see in the dark.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't take all his things off because people tend to spint themselves anyway, and it was raining and it was muddy.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_00: And um I said I made the decision, no, we're not going to try and take off.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_00: We took his helmet off, but I wasn't going to take off all his leathers and all that stuff.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: And then got him back just as the plane got to Mari.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_00: And then he actually did have a broken neck, but we hadn't moved him.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_00: We treated him like something like that.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_00: And he walked back in the next year and came and said hello.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_02: Did he?
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_00: I couldn't recognise him, but I could recognise the people with him that had driven up, bringing him up because I could recognise them because I saw them without mud all over them.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_00: But um, that was nice.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_00: And then you'd have people come back a couple of years after you'd sewed up their faces and they say, Yeah, look, look, we've got a little tiny scar here, but you can hardly see it.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_01: Well done.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: Things like that.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_01: What happens when you know you need the royal flying doctors and they fly and land in here, but you've got a patient that you can't move, such as someone with a broken neck.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_01: Who picks up the raw flying doctors from the airstrip?
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, sometimes you'd meet them out there because you might have them on the stretcher and you don't want to move the stretcher too many times out of the ambulance.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_00: If you're in the clinic, you'd get someone from around town to go out and pick them up and bring them in.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_00: You'd know who was around.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_00: You'd know who was around.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: And now they have more staff, they have two nurses all the time, so they've got someone to is there a funny moment in the clinic that sticks with you?
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_00: No, sometimes you don't hear what people say properly and you say that something that's really strange back to them.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_00: But um, not that I can really think of.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_01: So you when you arrived, you were only planning to stay five or six years.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_01: What do you think's kept you here?
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I found the work really interesting.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, because it was always varied, and I got involved with the town, and the people were always friendly, and the years just kind of fly by.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_01: What are you most proud of, June?
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_00: I think that I fit it into the community, and people appreciate me, and I appreciate them.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_01: I bet.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and you go down to Port Augusta, where there's a lot of people who used to be here, and they'll yell out across the room road, hello, Sister June.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_00: And even though I'm not working, everybody still calls me Sister June.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_00: And even the new doctors and the new nurses that come still call me Sister June.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I keep saying to people, you know, people say, I'm not a I'm not a nun.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_00: They say, Oh, you're a nun.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_00: I said, No, I'm not a nun.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_01: I did question that on the phone with you, actually, I wasn't sure either.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no, I say I'm not a nun, no.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_00: Just a nursing system.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_00: You don't get called sister now.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_00: But it used to work years to get called a sister.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, might be a little bit behind with terminology out this way, but if you appreciate it and they'll come and see you, you can work with what you've got.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_01: Well, Jean, if you could sit down with that young nurse who drove into Mauri in 1982, what would you tell her?
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_00: I would say you're gonna be doing a lot of things you hadn't thought of doing.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_00: You're gonna be there a lot longer than you expect, and you'd be sort of become part of everybody's family.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_01: What's the most Mari sentence you've ever heard someone say?
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure that they actually say a sentence.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, suck it up, buttercup.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_00: No, no, I don't think they did, no.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_00: No, I don't think that I've never really sort of thought about that one.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_01: So, over 40 years being here, how many cups of tea do you think you've had while solving someone else's problems?
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_00: Uh none because I don't drink tea and coffee.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_01: Really?
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_00: But I made I've made lots of tea and coffee.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_00: And my life for other people who don't drink tea and coffee.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_00: Hundreds, thousands?
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_00: Thousands?
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_00: Would be thousands.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_01: What's one sound that instantly reminds you you're in Mari?
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_01: It could be the raw flying doctor plane, it could be flies, a train, silence.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_00: No, some of the birds.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of bird noises sometimes.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I was surprised we're different, different sorts of birds.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_01: We're out at 6 30 this morning too on sunrise.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_01: That was beautiful and there were lots of birds.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_00: If when we do us um Anzac Day service, the birds start singing and making noises as soon as the sun comes up.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_00: It's really special, it's because it's so quiet.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_00: The birds, I think the birds.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_01: So when you finally hung up the nursing uniform, what was the very first thing you did the next morning?
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_00: Slept in.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I don't know whether you would have slept in for too long.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_00: Well, a little bit.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_01: It would have been a community event, probably.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_00: I used to always start at eight o'clock, Monday to Friday, and then um I'd have people sometimes come in on the weekend for dressings and stuff, which we'd make a little bit later.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_00: But um, I wasn't on call.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_00: I think I slept in till about nine o'clock.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_00: That's a sleep in.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_01: Now, June, uh during some of my research, I believe you might have an OAM.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_00: That's correct.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, somebody locally, I believe, nominated me, and I got that thing saying, Would I be interested in actually being nominated?
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_00: So I said yes.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_01: Well deserved.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it was it was, I think it's a privilege to be nominated for that.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know who nominated for the Blender Max of Kindness program.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_01: Tell me about that.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_00: That was Scott Cam and on the channel, channel nine, I think it was.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_00: That's when they'd just they'd been doing one of those gardening shows, and this was a new show starting that hadn't started.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_00: And the RFDS people said, Oh, we've got these people coming up that are going to be doing an article on the RFDS, and they were coming on the plane.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_00: And then when the plane got in, well, Scottie Cam came over and said, No, this is you, I'm rather max of kinus.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_00: But I didn't see much of him, I saw the other people who were doing the filming and things.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_00: He went round and saw everybody in the community, and then I had to go out of town for 24 hours or overnight or something while they did stuff.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_01: What did they do?
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I got a whole lot of cooking things, I got a whole lot of nursing things.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_00: I had a thing for videos and DVDs, a free subscription to one of the ones that you could get them through, but they're closed now, didn't actually quite get my 12 months out of it.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_00: And then they did the cinema over in the youth centre with the surround sound and the big screen that comes down and the popcorn machine, all these jars with lollies in, and cinema seating.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, so that was a bit of a surprise.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_00: But going down for the OAN was nice.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_01: June, I've got some rapid fire fun questions.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_01: Sunrise or sunset?
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_00: Sunset.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_01: Dust storm or flies?
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_00: Dust storm.
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_00: I hate flies.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_01: Favourite place around Mari?
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_00: There's a favourite place.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_00: There's lots of places that you can sort of sit and just watch the world go by.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_00: And if you want to watch the sunset, you go sit out and watch the sunset.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_00: Not one favourite spot.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_01: If you could sit down and have a meal or just a chat with one person, dead or alive, who would it be?
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, good question.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_00: I did talk to one of the old fellas who used to do the camels.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_00: I'd love to sit down and talk to him longer because they used to they walk the camels and never rode them.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_00: So maybe maybe armor.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, best cook in town.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_00: Well, depending on what you want to eat.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_00: One of the older fellas, Czechoslovakian, he did very lovely beef stroganoff.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_00: So you go to him for beef stroganoff.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_00: Lyle does some nice roasts.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_01: Well, Lyel's invited us over for a roast tonight.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's Friday nights, always roast Friday, most Fridays.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_00: Sue maybe for she makes little pasties, they're really nice.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_00: So it depends what you want.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_00: Sweet, not so much sweet things.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_00: Carolyn maybe for jelly slice.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_00: So depending what you want.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_01: You're a good cook yourself?
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_01: No.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_00: I'm in these one pot things.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_00: I'm trying.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um well part of my plans for my retirement was I would try a different dish every week and I cook a different dish every week, but that's not working.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_00: But the idea wasn't I wasn't going to retire here, I was going to retire down a bit further south.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_00: But I've got a well, my mum and dad left me in the house.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_01: One word to describe Maury.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_01: Biggest myth about outback life.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_00: That you never do anything and you never see anybody, because that one of the questions that tourists ask is, How can you live here?
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I think you've solved that question now after this chat.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_01: Finish this sentence.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_01: Maury isn't just a town, it's a community.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I think thanks to you.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I think it was a community before me.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_01: When people stop you in the street today, and what do they thank you for?
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_00: For helping them in the past a lot.
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_00: Being around, being available, being me.
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_01: Don't stop.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, don't stop.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_01: If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_00: I could say Mari, but I don't know that that would be my answer.
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_00: Even though I've now bought a house here.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_00: I've got two houses.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, probably MARI.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_00: But I said when I'm not driving anymore, I'm moving.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_01: Right, okay.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_01: June, I hope you find the meaning of retirement soon.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_01: You're very busy.
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_00: I haven't actually given up my nursing registration fully yet, so I've gone to registered but not working.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_01: Well, it's been fascinating talking to you, June.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_01: And um to be able to have this time with you this afternoon.
• 35:29
  SPEAKER_01: I really appreciate it.
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_01: And thanks from the community for what you're doing and what you've done.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um that's been interesting talking to you too, Darren.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you, June.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_01: Well, what a story.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_01: June Andrew, one nurse, one tiny outback town, and a lifetime of looking after people.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_01: That's MARE.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_01: It's the people who make these places what they are.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_01: And there's more MARE stories to come, so stick around.
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_01: And please follow us on Facebook and Instagram.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_01: This is Top of the Earth.