Oenpelli Mission 1953/85

OENPELLI MISSION
1953 - 1985

Alf Wilson

At right Alf Wilson, Oenpelli c1972 - NTL PH0245-0016

Government criticism of the Anglican CMF's failure to develop Oenpelli's resources & services led to 5 years of sustained effort at the start of the Welfare Era.

In November 1953 the agriculturalist Alf Wilson and wife Helen were transferred across from Numbulwar and the following images are from his collection.

The text is drawn from his biography 'The Changing Scene 2005 - Acacia Printing.

Arts & Crafts

Aviation

Buildings

Cahill's Crossing & the River Landings

Paddy Cahill crossed about half a mile up-stream on the bend where the large sandbar affords some relief. It should be Wilson's Crossing.

The cutting was put through the bank on the southern side by hand - women on one side & men on the other there was a memorable race for the glory of breaking through. Local people build the crossing and the roads up to and out of Oenpelli. They were are great source of pride and personal achievement that turned into a great deal of ill-feeling when the West Arnhem Shire let out a roads contract in 2010. The mud comes up the river late in the year and appears to be related to the tide cycle that periodically removes & returns sand to the coastal beaches. The result being that the tide in the river takes longer to go out than it does to comes in which deposits the silt progressively higher up-stream. The shifting mud banks are a nightmare for river craft.

The GMC stalled in silt on the crossing on the 7th of November 1959. One of Alf's assistants, Stephen Lungguy, managed to restart the motor using a crank handle, although needing to turn it underwater and in the silt. The clutch was already damaged by then though, so the truck could still not be moved and all had to walk on to Oenpelli. The following day, after a failed attempt to pull the truck out with a crawler tractor, the unloading commenced. Alf rigged up the 'flying fox' but the men considered it too slow and unloaded most of the goods by hand, as other photos taken by Alf at the time show. The GMC was hauled out on Tuesday the 10th using two tractors and towed to Oenpelli where it sat until the following year, when one of new mechanic Cam Cooke's first tasks was to get it going again. It was back on the road on 23rd of June 1960. (Cameron Plastow - From Alf Wilson's memoir, 'The Changing Scene' (2005).