Local stories strengthen connections

Even the locals of the Gascoyne, in the north-west corner of WA, admit their region is one of the harshest environments on earth. It covers 600 kms of coastline and stretches more than 500 kms into the vast outback. Remote sheep and cattle stations are peppered by tiny towns that are the heartbeat of the sparsely populated region.

Even with generations of experience living in this harsh terrain, residents needed help to better prepare for drought in the face of escalating climate challenges.

Executive Officer of the Gascoyne Catchments Group, Krystie Bremer, recognised this and, after extensive consultations with locals, Connections Across the Gascoyne was born.

“It hadn’t rained. In fact, the conditions across the Gascoyne for that two-year project were probably the worst that the region’s seen in a long time,” Krystie said.

“It was really tough. It was really, really hot. There hadn’t been the rainfall in ’23, it didn’t really break in ’24 and we’re on track to be the lowest rainfall in my backyard for nearly 40 years.

“So, to get people in the paddock, for them to be able to see that it’s not just their backyard, was actually quite empowering for people.”

From a pastoralist forum in Coral Bay, to a drought resilience workshop in Carnarvon and a week-long grazing management course, Connections Across the Gascoyne brought together the fragmented population to gain practical knowledge about adaptive thinking, and drought and leadership resilience.

“For people to realise that they aren’t actually alone and even if it’s because you’re having a mental health first aid course or you’re doing a plant workshop, you’re pulling people together for a reason and it just gives them that opportunity to debrief and go, ‘we did it. We survived the 500 million days straight of 47 degrees’,” she said.

And as often happens, some of the longest-term impacts have flowed from the simplest ideas provided by residents themselves, of what they needed – a ready reference for who to call on in times of stress.

“We developed a magnet, with a list of simple tangible resources for support during times of stress. People have got them in their workshop or on their fridges … It’s got Lifeline Kids helpline, the local government, adult mental health service, rural Beyond Blue Men’s Healthline, suicide Callback, RFDS, Headspace. For the younger generation it’s got some websites and then there was the QR code, which would let them link direct to the website.”

A podcast, Voices of the Gascoyne, was also produced, capturing the important oral history of six pastoralists, sharing their experiences, which helped build the sense of community.

“Anyone who survived the pastoral industry prior to 24-hour power and air conditioning is resilient in my mind,” she said.

“People who have seen flood and drought, they survived, they managed pastoral businesses through the war and before washing machines were a thing and before fridges. To be able to collect that history but have that available all the time to listen to – well, it wouldn’t have happened without the FRRR funding of $205,000.

“It has been great, not just for our organisation, but I think for the region in general, that Gascoyne’s now on the radar, whereas it’s often a very forgotten area and it’s only known for those World Heritage areas out on the coast.”

The long-term impacts from such a range of locally developed projects are already clear.

“Those mental health conversations that used to be like a dirty word, and people didn’t want to talk about it, but they’re more receptive now to that and realising that it is actually okay to have a conversation,” she said.

“Realising that a lady doesn’t just have to go to the mental health stuff and a man doesn’t just have to go to the grazing stuff for example. It’s excellent to see that it’s not that stigma around who should be doing what portion of family learning, for example.”