It was clear when speaking to Kylie that her life as a farmer has been incredibly hard. Both Kylie and her husband, Greg, came from farming families and have been feeling the brunt of the drought for years. “You can deal with most things in life if there is an end in sight but with …
Arnie Wierenga and Jennie Gordon are Chaplains in the Presbytery of Gippsland. Two incredibly kind hearted people who worked to support Frontier Services Bush Chaplain Rowena Harris during the bushfire earlier this year. Arnie and Jennie have been there for our remote communities supporting bushfire recovery at a time when hearts are broken and morale …
Today is International Day of Older Persons. The work that we do here at Frontier Services has a significant impact on the lives of older people living in rural and remote Australia. We have huge numbers of Outback Links volunteers who are "grey nomads", travelling the country and lending a hand where they are needed ...
Today is International Translation Day. At Frontier Services we work with all kinds of communities across Australia. And for many, English is not necessarily their primary language. This is particularly true in the West Arnhem Remote Area which is ministered to by our Bush Chaplain, Lindsay Parkhill. Lindsay’s wife Louise Macdonald, also works for an …
I was recently inspired by Merv's story, that of a kind hearted and brave 76 year old farmer, Merv, living alone on a 600, 000 hectare station near Cue, 700km from Perth in Western Australia, that I want to share with you. For many of us, COVID-19 has been our first experience of the social ...
Closing the Gap in 2020 Closing the Gap was developed in response to the call of the Social justice report 2005 and the ‘Close the Gap’ social justice campaign. In March 2008, Australian governments and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people agreed ‘to work together to achieve equality in health status and life expectancy between …
“One of the biggest challenges over the years has been dealing with people who are ill informed about the issues facing Aboriginal people,” says Lindsay, who says that a desire to improve social outcomes for First Peoples is what drew him to his ministry and to working with remote Aboriginal communities. For Lindsay, Reconciliation Week …
As part of this year’s National Reconciliation Week we’ve been speaking with members of the Frontier Services family, who work within Indigenous communities across Australia, about what reconciliation means for them. Today, we catch up with Pastor Julia Lennon, who we were extremely proud to induct as our first ever female Aboriginal Bush Chaplain late last year.
Dianne Torrens is a Widjabal woman and Githabul woman of the Bundjalung nation from the Northern Rivers. Aunty Di believes ‘In This Together’ and the pathway for reconciliation requires truth, justice and forgiveness, and simply sitting together to share a conversation over a cuppa. It is being open with each other, saying ‘hello’ and focusing on our similarities, rather than our differences.
It’s National Volunteer Week, and what better time to celebrate our incredible Outback Links volunteers! We recently caught up with two of our longest-serving volunteers, Howard and Mary. In this article we share highlights from our conversation, giving you a glimpse into their amazing, decade-long journey!
