Doug PollardTranscript - Daniel Witthaus in Mildura
Bruce
DOUG: We go out somewhere in Australia to find Daniel Witthaus. Good morning, Daniel.
DANIEL: Good morning, Doug.
DOUG: You have been up in Mildura, hope you’ve dried out a bit, now?
DANIEL: Ha-ha, I certainly have. I missed lots of those swollen rivers on my travels away from Mildura and Swan Hill.
DOUG: Yeah, I saw on you blog you were writing about – you know, the water being up to the level of the road in some places and so on. So, I wondered if it’d come over the road, yet?
DANIEL: I managed to escape it but as I say in my blog, after driving through the dry river beds in the deserts of northern-Australian it has been confronting to see the water lapping the road.
DOUG: Bit of a change, yes. Now, you went to Mildura to find Humpty Dumpty but he’d moved on?
DANIEL: Yeah, Humpty Dumpty was a major tourist attraction when I was a boy which is a very, very long time ago and he’s now somewhere in Queensland. But the tourist information people couldn’t locate him for me so I was very upset.
DOUG: Oh, dear, dear – what else did you find in Mildura, it sounds as though it’s a very similar story to what you found elsewhere; but I thought now that you were back over into the civilised state you’d find the situation a bit better but it seems, it’s still pretty rough up there?
DANIEL: I think you’ll find everyone talks about the regional and rural stuff I think, Victoria is leading the way compared to most other parts of Australia. But I think to be honest Mildura and Swan Hill – up that way, along the Murray River – is a pocket that’s been left behind. Almost forgotten about. I think that’s got to do with the state government regions in that its centre is Bendigo, strangely – so, you’ve got things happening in Bendigo but in terms of services, attention and focus they’re pretty much left by the wayside.
DOUG: There’s also this curious thing although they’re in Victoria they’re actually nearer to Adelaide than Melbourne. They tend to look in that direction, too – not that they get any help from them - - -
DANIEL: It’s interesting in that they’re very much like Broken Hill – most people go to Adelaide ‘cause it’s five or six hours drive. Even though we get everything from Sydney and we’re expected to take out lead and again, Mildura is the same. They’re saying, well, it’s closer to Adelaide than it is to Melbourne and by the way it’s not that busy, it’s less traffic and it’s cheaper so why wouldn’t we go there – and I think it’s an interesting thing, ‘cause so many of the places I’ve been to the old thinking that if you do this work it’s always – you know, you have to talk to your metropolitan centre for your particular state or territory. I think that we find in those, sometimes, it’s better to have conversations across those state and territory borders.
DOUG: Yeah. Sometimes I tend to feel the state and territory borders are very artificial divisions – m’mm, they don’t reflect how people really work and think. Maybe it’s time to re-think them, who knows – we’ve been told federation doesn’t really work anymore, so now that we’ve much more emphasis on these rural and regional matters and a new government perhaps we’ll be taking a new look at those sorts of things?
DANIEL: I certainly would agree and I think, in terms of [indistinct] services and resources it works for a time but again, I think in terms of a project like this what I’ve found is that pretty much we need to let go of some of those – the metropolitan focus of these projects and initiatives and start having chats across some of the lines that we never used to.
DOUG: M’mm. I was somewhat taken-aback when I was reading through your blog and I got to your piece about Mildura Rural City Youth Services and you spoke to Therese. When you asked her what was available in Mildura and she said quite blankly, that there’s no support mechanisms for young gay and lesbian people in Mildura.
DANIEL: Absolutely not. There’s zero and I guess Therese is an example of a whole range of workers in regional rural Australia in that she does her best. Whenever she goes out to schools she talks about same-sex attracted young people and that being a part of – you know, she’s supporting – m’mm, but in terms of anything formalised she’s a stand alone. Mildura’s a place with lots of priorities, lots of issues affecting young people and the community in general.
DOUG: M’mm?
DANIEL: So, it falls to people like Therese to raise the issue and to do something as an individual rather than their having a lot of people with this issue on their radar. Pretty much it’s not on the radar in terms of schools or youth organisations in the region.
DOUG: Yeah ‘cause as I said, I was quite taken-aback by her response and also her reasoning, she said simply because the people who hold the power and the money are heterosexual. So it’s not a priority for them?
DANIEL: Yeah. I think she makes a good point – like, so many people it just doesn’t come up for them. I spoke to a few people up there, they said ‘we work with disengaged young people in schools’ – and – ‘sorry, we don’t deal with gay and lesbian kids’ and I’m like - - -
DOUG: Excuse me.
DANIEL: - - - gobsmacked. It’s about taking a deep breath and giving people some research, I’m gently challenging that thinking – again, it’s not coming across their desk and so therefore, they think it’s not an issue.
DOUG: This is a bit like some of the schools you’ve been to, they say all very well and good but we don’t have any homosexuals here.
DANIEL: (and)So often it’s – like, yeah, we had one of those once. That was five years ago and he moved to Sydney.
DOUG: M’mm.
DANIEL: It’s that old thinking, there’s no benefit in challenging homophobia for all students in general but also for those young people who aren’t ready to come out. Or who won’t come out.
DOUG: Did you manage to crack your way in, so to speak – in Mildura, do you think you’ve planted a seed now that will start something?
DANIEL: Yes, certainly. I spoke to some people who were higher up who are influential in the networks who run email groups and network meetings and thing. They’re going to put this on the agenda, this is something they’re clearly going to do now. As with so many places that I go where there is a seed planted it will be on the agenda – whether it’s a quick agenda item or whether it resonates with people, remains to be seen. But what I find is the biggest barrier to this stuff happening in regional rural Australia is going to these network meetings or organisations and schools and saying, look, here’s something I want to talk to you about. Once people go: oh, gee, now that you say it yeah it’s about bloody time. ‘Let’s have a conversation about that and see what we can do’ and then people get information and resource hungry; so, all I can do is cross my fingers. As I remind people I’m one gay man in a gay truck and we’ll see how it goes.
DOUG: [laughs] Yeah, how is Bruce?
DANIEL: Bruce is going well – m’mm, he’s loving Victoria ‘cause everything’s so close as opposed to driving one or two days, straight. To get between locations as I have, across Australia. Victoria is so, so close so – you know, m’mm – we don’t face those barriers, the distance – you know, the tyranny of distance that we do in other parts of Australia. So that’s one thing we’ve got working for us.
DOUG: Well, that’s good – where are you heading off to, next – where are you now, actually?
DANIEL: That would be central Victoria and the wonders of the gold-rush city Ballarat – or one of the two, just chatting with some local teachers. Some great teachers here, actually. Also the LGBT youth support people here, as well – so, yeah.
DOUG: They’re somewhat on the ball in Ballarat, I think.
DANIEL: As I said, Victorians can give themselves a pat on the back. There’s still a lot of work to do but certainly in terms of what’s going on around regional Australia we’re doing all right.
DOUG: How many more weeks have we got to go, Daniel. You must be running - - -
DANIEL: Week 30 of 38.
DOUG: Another eight weeks to go.
DANIEL: Seven weeks to go and I’m – yeah, that’s all fast approaching. So - - -
DOUG: M’mm.
DANIEL: - - - people ‘round Victoria will be seeing my face and Bruce - - -
DOUG: [laughs]
DANIEL: - - - coming – yeah, about the streets. Really soon.
DOUG: We’ll look forward to that, we must have a drink when you get back.
DANIEL: Looking forward to it.
DOUG: You can tell me all the things you couldn’t say on air.
DANIEL: Oh, yeah.
DOUG: [laughs] Okay Daniel, thanks for your time this morning.
DANIEL: Take care, everyone. ‘Bye.
DOUG: “Bye, ‘bye. That was Daniel Witthaus. Currently in Ballarat, reporting back on his time in Mildura. Which seems to be a bit of a black hole as far as GLBTI programmes are concerned, that’s a pity – let’s hope Daniel managed to kick something off? You never know, he’s pretty good at that sort of thing.
