I had barely begun my working holiday caravanning trip in 1979, when an invitation arrived from Mornington Island in the Gulf of Carpentaria for me to take a first-hand look at an accounting job which the local Mornington Island Shire was offering me.
They operated the local store and canteen, a bank and airline agency and also acted for the Federal Government as paying agents on "Pension Day" when the whole island population lined up for their booze money.
I flew up all the way from Sydney to Cairns where I overnighted before taking "Bushies" flight the next morning, overflying Karumba on the way.
Mornington Island has been the only place where I've seen young sprouting coconuts growing under the protection of padlocked wire-cages. Why? Without that protection they would've been eaten by the locals long before they had had a chance to grow into a tree.
The Mornington Island Shire was the successor to an old church mission which had run the island in the past. Financial records were less than transparent and there was an overall impression of mayhem with lots of useless hangers-on holding positions well beyond their expertise.
The whole thing had echoes of an earlier assignment on Thursday Island except that Mornington Island was even more backward and isolated. There was not an inch of bitumen on the whole island which was flat and featureless.
The offered job itself would've been a great sinecure for some ageing accountant who had already lost his balance(-sheet) but wasn't very attractive for somebody who was still trying to leave his mark on the world. And so I said, "Thanks but no, thanks", flew back to Sydney, and continued with my caravanning trip. Next stop Mount Isa Mines at Mt Isa.
