Before I come to my next , and final , recounting of my time at Dondingalong , I should make reference to my very slight social involvement in the area as a whole .

I would very much like to be able to say something about the aboriginal people of the district , the Dunghatti or Dunghutti people but I am sorry to say that I had no personal contact with any of them , though I can admire distantly many of the efforts that they were making to improve their lot , sometimes against the odds of bias . I did run into some quite prejudiced comments from some who considered them second class citizens .

There are , I gathered , many aboriginal run projects in the area, working collectively in medical and social fields particularly . But I was not permanently resident , and only saw the work from a distance as I travelled through Burnt Bridge and along the beginning of Piper's Creek Road out to the block , noting the new buildings going up in the settlements there.

As with so much of what is prejudicially known as the Aboriginal Problem , the issues are complex , and are simply not within my ability to discuss here .

Without being condescending , I must say that I took great joy in coming across so many of the musical , ear pleasing sounds of many of the local aboriginal place names , though not always sure of their pronunciation .

If it comes to that , I did not have very much to do with the townspeople either .

My major interest being drama , I did go along to the local Drama Festival , and was pleased to see some of the work done there . I wondered if perhaps I could help by taking some groups for developmental drama courses . I could not do more as I was not there for long enough periods . But I offered my services free , and could have adapted some of the material from in-service courses I had given to teachers together with other material taken from my lectures in improvisation etc..

The offer was received with enthusiasm by a couple of the younger brigade , but I am afraid that it met with a distinct disdain from one or two of the older entrenched members , who perhaps thought that I , as a blow in from the Big Smoke , was invading their territory .That disdain was enough to kill the project.

In charitable hindsight , I think that they may have had their fingers burnt when they took on the services of another person some years previously . Knowing that person's style and methods of work , I am not really surprised.

I could perhaps have offered to do the same for a couple of the smaller towns nearby who had tiny drama groups , but in the end it would have meant a lot of night travelling on ill lit country roads after long days on the block , so I simply let it slide .

Anyway , my rather blunt approach to the teaching of drama may well have put a few noses out of joint , and after all, I had my good neighbours to socialise with if I needed company . I regret just a little that I was unable to make a cultural impact in that way , but before we left Kempsey I donated a couple of thousand drama books , mostly scripts of plays , to the High School nearest to Dondingalong , so I may at least have made a difference in that way.