CHEERFUL TRAVELLER IN AUSTRALIA

New Zealand Listener, Volume 28, Issue 725, 5 June 1953, Page 16

CHEERFUL TRAVELLER IN AUSTRALIA

BRIGHT-EYED testimonial to missionary work, Billy, the young Australian aboriginal depicted on this week’s cover, was brought to the Finke River Mission, Central Australia, a mere bag of skin and bones. He was nursed back to health, taught to walk, and stayed on to become the pride of the ‘mission. The story of this lonely mission in the desert is told by Ngita Woodhouse in a series of talks entitled Traveller’s Joys, which will be heard weekly in the

Women’s. Hour from ZB stations, beginning on Monday, June 8. According to Miss Woodhouse the mission was established 75 years ago by a group of Lutherans who had left Europe to escape religious persecution. As a gesture of thanksgiving for their new-found freedom they undertook the task of helping the aborigines to adjust to European ways without losing the good qualities they already possessed. An experienced broadcaster — she conducts 2ZB’s gardening session-

Miss Woodhouse has an eye for the revealing detail, and a dry sense of humour, In "Northward Journey," a talk on the trip from Adelaide to Alice Springs, she gives this description of the scenery: "A hot sun shone out of a bright blue sky, and, if the whole truth must be told, it glittered unceasingly on the broken beer bottles that seemed to line the track the whole way from Adelaide." Having deliberately planned her trip to take in places as different us possible from New Zealand, Miss Woodhouse is able to give listeners glimpses of such places as Palm Valley, where grows a species of palm known as "the living fossil,’ because it is one of the oldest surviving forms of plant life; of Parramatta, which she describes as "the cradle of Australia"; of the inland towns of Orange and Bathurst; and of Paddy’s Market, the section of Sydney which ,was once a hay market, but which now sells "everything imaginable under the sun, from. fur coats and fountain pens to turnips and tambourines." One talk, entitled "Tutti-Frutti," is of special interest to cooks and gourmets, for it describes the fruit -industry of Mildura and the making of the popular "glace" fruit. Other talks deal with Central Australia’s Flying Doctor Service, and with the growing artistic contribution of the aborigines. The movement started by the aboriginal painter Albert Namatjira pas reached the stage where 17 artists are exhibiting, Having learnt to use the white man’s colours they are now demonstrating the black man’s talent.