January 7:
“…police were summoned to investigate…”
One of our white staff, a self-ordained “mechanic”, was supposedly running the garage and training Aborigines to take it over. They have a fully-equipped workshop with very expensive equipment. Anytime I visited the garage I saw the Aboriginal trainees sitting around doing little or nothing and their trainer was sitting around with them, chatting, drinking, playing card games.
It came to my notice that almost every mail delivery included a package for the mechanic.
“Another car part,” he always said. “We always need new car parts.”
When the police were summoned to investigate, they learnt that the mechanic had a spare parts business running in Adelaide, managed by a mate. Our mechanic was purchasing new and good used parts with Aboriginal funding and sending the merchandise down to the city to be sold in his shop. The police also discovered that he had purchased (with his training funds) two houses in Alice Springs (which were rented out). The Aboriginal organisation in Alice Springs responsible for our funding decided to dismiss the mechanic. After they had done so, another Aboriginal community on the vast Pitjantjatjara lands straight away gave him a job as their “mechanic.” Nothing was said to prevent this. Neither, to my knowledge, was he ever charged, prosecuted or fined, much less instructed to reimburse the misappropriated funds. He was merely moved to another locality where, I am sure, his corruptive practises continued.
When I last saw him, he boasted: “It was the best thing that ever happened. At the new place I am getting a lot more money. I have a house, fully furnished. Free gas and electricity. My own four-wheel-drive. Free petrol …”
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