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Speaker 1: As I said yesterday, I spent the weekend at Operation

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Speaker 1: Flinder's site in the Northern Flinders Ranges and just an

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Speaker 1: amazing experience heading up there and seeing the wonderful countryside

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Speaker 1: of far north South Australia, the outback is what it's

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Speaker 1: better known as. And getting up there and spending a

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Speaker 1: night in Hawker on the way, freezing cold by the way,

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Speaker 1: the car at iced up overnight, as you'd expect at

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Speaker 1: this time of year, but anyway, being out there and

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Speaker 1: seeing the excellent work Operation Flinders does on Yankin in

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Speaker 1: a station which is an enormous place, just absolutely huge,

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Speaker 1: and you stand on mountain peaks and as far as

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Speaker 1: you can see in any direction is the station. It's

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Speaker 1: incredible depending on where you are on the property. But

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Speaker 1: ten different groups of children teenagers, girls and boys, some

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Speaker 1: mix one sex, all boys or girls, and depending what

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Speaker 1: school they're from, but they are in school groups. They

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Speaker 1: they might some of them might be good friends, others

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Speaker 1: might just be sort of nodding acquaintances, but they do

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Speaker 1: bond during the eight days of the experience as they

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Speaker 1: learn resilience and pushing boundaries and coming back hopefully as

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Speaker 1: better people and you'll recall last week at Operation Flinders

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Speaker 1: headquarters at Edwardstown, I spoke to Maddie, a girl who'd

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Speaker 1: been through Operation Flinders and the light bulb moment for

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Speaker 1: her that changed her life around, just in terms of

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Speaker 1: I can do whatever I set my mind to and

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Speaker 1: deciding then that she wanted to be a paramedic and

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Speaker 1: may get into medicine beyond that as a doctor. So

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Speaker 1: good on her. And so many kids there who have

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Speaker 1: been through return as peer group mentors. You're going to

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Speaker 1: meet one of those today in just a tick. But

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Speaker 1: started off speaking with a man who's been with Operation

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Speaker 1: Flinders since near the beginning, Mark Thompson, and I had

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Speaker 1: a chat with him while I was up there on Sunday.

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Speaker 1: Well there's somebody at Operation Flinders who's got to make

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Speaker 1: everything work. Logistics manager Mark Thompson, Tomo, how are you?

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Speaker 1: Thank you for your time?

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Speaker 2: Oh, thank you, Matt. Wonderful to have you here and

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Speaker 2: spooking the word of Operation Flinders.

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Speaker 1: You've been involved with it almost from the beginning thirty one.

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Speaker 1: I had thirty two years, I think, and it's been

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Speaker 1: going for thirty.

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Speaker 2: Three, that's correct, right back in the early to mid nineties.

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Speaker 2: I was still a serving member of the army back then,

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Speaker 2: and one of my colleagues raped me in and introduced

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Speaker 2: me to a lady by the name of Pam Murray

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Speaker 2: White who founded the program, and she just had a

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Speaker 2: magic about her to encourage people to do things. And

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Speaker 2: before I knew it, I was out team leading ten

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Speaker 2: lovely little children that had had some experiences in life

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Speaker 2: that they probably needed a bit of guidance. Not unlike myself.

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Speaker 2: I had a bit of a dysfunctional childhood, and I

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Speaker 2: could relate to these kids. So I decided what I

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Speaker 2: was missing in my early days was some positive adult

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Speaker 2: role modeling, especially male adult role modeling, and I figured, well,

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Speaker 2: that's what I was missing, I'll give to these young lads. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: it's all history since then. I'm sort of paying it

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Speaker 2: forward and back, both at the same time.

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Speaker 1: So they'd be around fifty now, those young lads.

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Speaker 2: Yeah that's right back in the nineties. It's a good

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Speaker 2: thirty years ago. They would have been in their fifteens.

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Speaker 2: So yeah, mid forties to fifties.

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Speaker 1: Ever caught up with any I certainly have.

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Speaker 2: Over the years. I bump into various people. They tend

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Speaker 2: to recognize me. Perhaps I haven't changed too much. But

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Speaker 2: I'll have a young person come up to me and

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Speaker 2: they'll have a wife and children, and hey, Tom, I

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Speaker 2: want to introduce you to my wife and my kids.

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Speaker 2: And I've got a job and they've got a really

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Speaker 2: successful life. And I think, well, perhaps I had something

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Speaker 2: to do with that. So I've probably with all the

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Speaker 2: different young people I've walked with over the years, three

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Speaker 2: hundred and fifty four hundred young people. Yeah, I like

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Speaker 2: to think I've had an impact on their life.

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Speaker 1: I'm sure you have. Tell me about Pam and why

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Speaker 1: did she think this was such an important thing to do.

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Speaker 2: Pam had various experiences. She had both a military and

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Speaker 2: education background, and she combined elements of both of those

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Speaker 2: to come up with our program the principles of it.

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Speaker 2: She was working in the education department out of b

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Speaker 2: Field dealing with some children with some issues in relation

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Speaker 2: to staying at school and studying and behavioral issues. So

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Speaker 2: she figured that no better than the great outdoors. It's

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Speaker 2: a wonderful environment. If the young people wish to be

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Speaker 2: warm and well fed, they can, but they can equally

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Speaker 2: be cold, wet, and miserable and hungry. So they do

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Speaker 2: learn that they have to be responsible for their own

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Speaker 2: actions and that in the end will give them the

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Speaker 2: overall experience of being able to do something positive in

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Speaker 2: their lives.

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Speaker 1: And that's where it all started from stem from.

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Speaker 2: Oh, yes it did. And Pam was just an absolutely

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Speaker 2: magic person. She would be able to walk into anybody's office,

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Speaker 2: no matter whether they're a politician or in the judicial system,

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Speaker 2: and she would say I need this, I want this.

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Speaker 2: She was rather persuasive. Nobody said no, we're not very often. Unfortunately,

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Speaker 2: she passed away in ninety five, but she certainly left

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Speaker 2: a legacy and something that I'm just so glad I've

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Speaker 2: been involved. I was a volunteer for the first twenty

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Speaker 2: five five years with Operation Flinders. It was only about

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Speaker 2: seven years ago I took up a full time role.

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Speaker 1: You've seen a change and this wasn't the original location.

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Speaker 1: You've been involved in a few locations along the way.

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Speaker 2: We certainly have. We were down at Mullahloo Station, then

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Speaker 2: we moved on up to war Awena Station, then we

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Speaker 2: moved further north to Angupina Station, and eventually we're here

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Speaker 2: in the northern well, just about the northernmost station of

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Speaker 2: the Flinders. Some people jokingly say, if we keep moving north,

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Speaker 2: we'll end up in New Guinea. But we are quite

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Speaker 2: lucky now that we've been fiscally in a position to

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Speaker 2: acquire the past release. So this is our home. Hopefully

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Speaker 2: this will remain our home. We've been able to put

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Speaker 2: some infrastructure in place here and indeed we've even got

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Speaker 2: a memorial here to Pam.

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Speaker 1: What's the mount called there the lookout?

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Speaker 2: Okay, so that's Moonbeam's vision. So Pam had a call

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Speaker 2: sign and that was Moonbeam and we did have originally

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Speaker 2: Moonbeams rest on Mulaloo Station where her ashes were scattered.

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Speaker 2: That we realize now that we've got our own home.

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Speaker 2: We have set up a memorial here for her, and

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Speaker 2: indeed her ashes were brought up here as well, some

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Speaker 2: of them by her daughter Carmen. She's finally made it

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Speaker 2: to the final resting place where she can see the vision.

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Speaker 2: That's we're called it Moonbeam's vision. Her vision has come true.

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Speaker 1: I don't be disappointed if you didn't tell me you

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Speaker 1: were proud of what you've seen over the last thirty years,

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Speaker 1: because you should be.

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Speaker 2: Oh look, I'm chuffed. And all the people who make

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Speaker 2: this work, especially the volunteers. They it wouldn't have happened

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Speaker 2: without all our volunteers. It's a volunteer driven organization. We

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Speaker 2: do have a few full time people to keep the

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Speaker 2: wheels rolling, but you're very much a volunteer driven organization.

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Speaker 2: And yet ten thousand young people out there who hopefully

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Speaker 2: had a positive experience.

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Speaker 1: And I know you love it out here and you'd

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Speaker 1: happily stay in care take the place three hundred and

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Speaker 1: sixty five days a year when there's nothing else going on. Well,

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Speaker 1: what's the appeal? What's the matter? Yeah?

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Speaker 2: Look, I do love being up here. I probably spend

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Speaker 2: the best part of six or seven months of the

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Speaker 2: year in total up here. It's just the environment, with

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Speaker 2: the people, with the challenges. It gets you out of

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Speaker 2: that city hustle and bustle and rat races. Some people

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Speaker 2: would call it. It's a whole new environment out here,

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Speaker 2: and the environment is conducive to positive living.

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Speaker 1: And I've heard too, I've heard it said about you

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Speaker 1: that if your job disappeared tomorrow, you'd still volunteer here

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Speaker 1: seven days a week.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Look, it's a fine line between having a full time

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Speaker 2: job and being a volunteer. Once upon a time I

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Speaker 2: had another regular job and I volunteered. Yes, it's a

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Speaker 2: fine line. I'm not too sure where to draw it,

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Speaker 2: but yeah, for me, it's a twenty four to seven experience.

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Speaker 1: Operation Flinders that needs volunteer, needs donations and people can

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Speaker 1: go to Operation Flinders dot org dot a and help

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Speaker 1: out there, but it needs volunteers. So what do you

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Speaker 1: say to anyone who's hearing some of the interviews I'm

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Speaker 1: using during the week and thinking I'd love to do this.

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Speaker 1: I'd love to be like Tomow and give back. Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Look, there's two streams of volunteering. We have what we

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Speaker 2: call our field volunteers. They generally are a bit of

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Speaker 2: a younger, fitter cohort and they will do some additional

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Speaker 2: training so that they can go out and work with

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Speaker 2: the young people directly in the field, leading them as

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Speaker 2: team leaders. They will go through our process of becoming

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Speaker 2: an assistant team leader, so they will have a little

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Speaker 2: bit of extra training before they will go out with

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Speaker 2: the young people. And then we have another cohort of

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Speaker 2: volunteers we refer to as our foundation volunteers. They may

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Speaker 2: be some fuel volunteers who are aging out. Myself, I

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Speaker 2: gave up walking with the teams a few years back,

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Speaker 2: and they help with all the behind the scenes, whether

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Speaker 2: it's packing rations, work parties up here on the station,

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Speaker 2: putting in plumbing or buildings, or repairing our equipment. So

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Speaker 2: there's something for everybody. We've got a broad range of

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Speaker 2: skills and if people want to become involved, we do

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Speaker 2: have a website and people can go in there see

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Speaker 2: what it's all about and if they like, they can

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Speaker 2: make some inquiries and you never know, I might see

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Speaker 2: them down the warehouse and we can show them around

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Speaker 2: and introduce them to some other volunteers.

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Speaker 1: So'mo good on you, well done on what you've done.

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Speaker 1: You deserve an absolute metal for it. Thank you and

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Speaker 1: have you got many more years to do this?

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Speaker 2: I certainly hope so, Matthew, and thank you for coming

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Speaker 2: up and having us spread the word.

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Speaker 1: It's Tomo Mark Thompson who's the logistics manager for Operation

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Speaker 1: Flinders and as you heard, just loves it. Justin is

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Speaker 1: one of the team leaders. So I was taken out

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Speaker 1: from base camp. The kids walking around, they cover over

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Speaker 1: one hundred kilometers while they're there and they never see

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Speaker 1: base camp. They don't go to it. They probably don't

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Speaker 1: know unless somebody tells them it's there, they wouldn't know

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Speaker 1: it exists. But they're led by a team leader and

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Speaker 1: assistant team leader. There's peer group mentors there as well

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Speaker 1: to sort of be the bridge between the kids and

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Speaker 1: the team leaders. There's a couple of teachers as well,

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Speaker 1: or at least one usually from the school that is

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Speaker 1: involved in each particular group. And Justin is one of

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Speaker 1: the team leaders. I caught up with him out in

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Speaker 1: the field as they say, what are the team leaders

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Speaker 1: here on one of the different camps. They've broken up.

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Speaker 1: All the kids here in their schools are broken up

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Speaker 1: into different groups and they are in different parts of

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Speaker 1: this massive station. Yankan in a station six hundred and

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Speaker 1: thirty four square meters. Just unreal. And Justin leading your team.

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Speaker 1: You've got a South African accent number one? What brings

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Speaker 1: you out here? How did you come to be a

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Speaker 1: team leader?

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Speaker 2: Oh?

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Speaker 3: Well, I did in twenty twenty walk the Kokoda track

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Speaker 3: with my school, Voden Bromson Community School, who's had a

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Speaker 3: really good relationship with off Flanders since they start in

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Speaker 3: their nineties, and the then training manager Lina I met

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Speaker 3: her on the track and she talked about about off

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Speaker 3: Flinders and it's something that tweaked my interest. So I

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Speaker 3: just started then in twenty twenty one, I've now done

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Speaker 3: eight exercises and I can't stop.

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Speaker 1: Fantastic. So how does this group compare?

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Speaker 3: This group is really well, they came really bonded together

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Speaker 3: from a smaller community. They're walking really well, really strong,

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Speaker 3: and we've had a few challenges, but overall they've been

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Speaker 3: really good crew.

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Speaker 1: They've been telling me about the high mountain peak they've

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Speaker 1: climbed today, and that's obviously challenging in itself. I've seen

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Speaker 1: it from halfway up, but not from the top. It's massive.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I think a few of them really struggled up it.

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Speaker 3: But we've been saying all along along the way that

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Speaker 3: you just got to have a go and like the

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Speaker 3: Operation Flinder's motto, one step at a time, and I

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Speaker 3: think they really drew from that that they can just

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Speaker 3: and after conquering haigh ropes, they know that they can

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Speaker 3: conquer anything, I guess, and that's it.

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Speaker 1: One of the boys told me that was all about

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Speaker 1: conquering his fears and he did it. He didn't want

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Speaker 1: to do it, but he pushed himself to do it,

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Speaker 1: found those boundaries and pushed through, which is what it's about.

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Speaker 1: Isn't that the resilience part of that?

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Speaker 3: One hundred percent? It's all about just finding that fear

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Speaker 3: of yours. And everyone's got different fears and everyone can

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Speaker 3: push themselves in different ways for different activities. So it's

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Speaker 3: finding that fear and just taking that next step to

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Speaker 3: be able to go that when I'm scared, I can

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Speaker 3: actually just overcome it and move forward.

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Speaker 1: How important do you think this program is? Then? Overall

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Speaker 1: eight times you say you've been team here to run it,

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Speaker 1: and that's brilliant. So obviously it must resonate with you.

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Speaker 1: You said so anyway, but it really must have struck

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Speaker 1: a chord for you to keep coming back.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I think you know, everyone's got their own trauma

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Speaker 3: and laugh and I've got my own traumas. That actually

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Speaker 3: helps me just as much as it helps the participants

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Speaker 3: being out yet so and the change you see with

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Speaker 3: them over the eight days, it gives me real joy

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Speaker 3: in my heart that you can see that they came

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Speaker 3: in acting certain ways of talking, certain things and art

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Speaker 3: here with no distractions, we get to discuss so many

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Speaker 3: different things we've got our bush television the fire, and

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Speaker 3: that brings out people talk more than they normally do,

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Speaker 3: so people.

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Speaker 1: Tend to open up a bit more.

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Speaker 3: They're being challenged, they're more emotional, so you get to

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Speaker 3: have deeper, more meaningful conversations without any distractions.

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Speaker 1: At their relatively tender age of roughly about fifteen sixteen,

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Speaker 1: they will look back at this and maybe one day

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Speaker 1: realize that it just helped make them better people moving forward.

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Speaker 1: Perhaps I don't know that now.

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Speaker 3: Yes, one hundred percent. I mean some people take some

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Speaker 3: of them might realize at the end of it that

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Speaker 3: they've had a great change, or others might not realize

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Speaker 3: anything now. But looking back when that add out their market,

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Speaker 3: oh that was really good for me.

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Speaker 1: Wonderful. Well, keep up the good work. You've got another

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Speaker 1: few days to go. What's in store for them tomorrow?

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Speaker 3: Tomorrow we are going to a camp card follies. We're

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Speaker 3: going up another peak card yat Lamora. So we would

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Speaker 3: have done three peaks in three days, which is really fantastic,

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Speaker 3: and I'm trying to prime them to do another peak

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Speaker 3: on the last day Extension Hill if you get them

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Speaker 3: into some record books.

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Speaker 1: I don't know. Four big Mountains. Good eight. Thank you

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Speaker 1: for your times afternoon. Thank you, So Justin one of

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Speaker 1: the team leaders. Nick is a peer group mentor. He's

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Speaker 1: been through the camp before as a teenager. He's still

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Speaker 1: a teenager, in fact, he's in year twelve, but his

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Speaker 1: second time back, so third in total. As second time

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Speaker 1: as a peer group mentor. Nick is a peer group

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Speaker 1: mentor one of the groups out in the Operation Flinders

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Speaker 1: here at Yankininna Station. Nick, ye're seventeen, year twelve. Your

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Speaker 1: second time is peer group mentor. Tell me about the

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Speaker 1: very first time you came on the camp, not as

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Speaker 1: a peer group mentor as one of the kids initially,

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Speaker 1: didn't you? Yeah, yep.

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Speaker 4: I had a walk in mid twenty twenty two, which

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Speaker 4: was my first walk. It went pretty well. I was

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Speaker 4: pretty crooked for a lot of it, but I was

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Speaker 4: just wrapped with the whole experience.

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Speaker 1: It helped me a lot. How did it help you? Really?

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Speaker 4: Just my mental state wasn't great then and just getting

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Speaker 4: out for a week, getting to go just escape everything

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Speaker 4: was a really good experience for me. And I mean

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Speaker 4: I came back two more times now.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, well this is your second time, so it's okay.

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Speaker 1: You would have been fifteen roughly then and now seventeen,

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Speaker 1: you're in year twelve. You're taking weeks out at a

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Speaker 1: time to do this. How does that work for you personally?

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Speaker 4: My year twelve has been pretty easy this year, so

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Speaker 4: I just trying to deep dive into it a bit

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Speaker 4: more this year, hoping to do maybe another exercise again.

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Speaker 1: Why do you come back? Like, what do you You've

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Speaker 1: obviously feel you've got something to offer now to the

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Speaker 1: kids coming through behind you.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, I really, I really enjoy the experience, and I'd

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Speaker 4: like to think that I could help some other young

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Speaker 4: people improve their mental state and get out of it

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Speaker 4: what I got out of it.

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Speaker 1: And again, that was a a light bulb moment for

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Speaker 1: you the first time you said about your mental health, Like,

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Speaker 1: did something just click in the place.

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Speaker 4: Probably about the fifth day I was I got really

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Speaker 4: I got really sick the first three days and I

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Speaker 4: couldn't talk. And when it when it came back and

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Speaker 4: I could speak and I could I was doing a

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Speaker 4: lot better. It kind of unlocked in my brain that wow,

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Speaker 4: I'm actually a lot stronger and I can do a

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Speaker 4: lot more than I previously thought I could. And yeah,

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Speaker 4: that was not ever an experience of that, because it's

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Speaker 4: not I had quite a hard walk. Yeah, but after that, Yeah,

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Speaker 4: it just really opened up my mind to what the

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Speaker 4: possibilities were.

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Speaker 1: Did you see that with the kids on your at

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Speaker 1: least this is a bit early the second time, but

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Speaker 1: your first time is a peer group member. Did you

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Speaker 1: see that the first time that kids did realize that

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Speaker 1: they can do whatever they set their minds see.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, Actually we had one boy last year that

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Speaker 4: was he'd had a tough week. The whole week he

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Speaker 4: foot problems. He was a bit of a larger boy.

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Speaker 4: And yeah, on the second last day we did Mount

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Speaker 4: Rose and it was he was struggling the whole way out,

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Speaker 4: But once he got to the top and saw the

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Speaker 4: view and saw that he could make it. I just

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Speaker 4: watching him the joy, and I think that unlocked a

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Speaker 4: bit in him as well, so on how strong he

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Speaker 4: can be when you push yourself.

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Speaker 1: Sounds like you'd recommend this to anyone.

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Speaker 4: Absolutely has been a great experience for me, and I'm

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Speaker 4: sure a great experience with many other people.

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Speaker 1: One of the peer group mentors on the journey and

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Speaker 1: one of the kids themselves. I had to chat with

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Speaker 1: this young man at the end of a very hard

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Speaker 1: day's walk. Tell me about what you've done over the

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Speaker 1: last few days. Walk, walk bass all. That's basically what

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Speaker 1: we did. And we did high ropes. You climbed mountains too,

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Speaker 1: Oh yeah, we did two mountains, the mountains, one of

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Speaker 1: them super high.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that one there was that hurt me.

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Speaker 1: Tell me about high ropes because I know you were challenging.

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Speaker 1: You said earlier about having to confront your fears. What

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Speaker 1: was that about, Because I'm bad scared of highs.

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Speaker 4: I'm actually scared of highs because when I got up

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Speaker 4: there was my legs were shaken and not there, but

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Speaker 4: I pushed through it and did it.

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Speaker 1: Finished the whole thing. High rapes for people listening, so

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Speaker 1: big poles, I don't know how high five seven meters high,

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Speaker 1: twenty something, not really thirty something to thirty something, all right,

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Speaker 1: really high and you've got to walk along. Yet you're

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Speaker 1: held up with a rigging system so you're not going

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Speaker 1: to fall and people that you're relying on people down

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Speaker 1: below to kick you up. But pretty scary, I mentioned.

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Speaker 2: It is that is really really scary looking down.

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Speaker 1: It is just so what do you think now that

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Speaker 1: you've done it? Like, what does that to you about.

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Speaker 4: Yourself, that you could push through anything, push through all

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Speaker 4: my fears, and that I'm not scared of nothing.

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Speaker 2: Yep, basically all.

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Speaker 1: And you've got a few days of this to go.

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Speaker 1: Yeah about what four? Now? Three? Now? Looking forward to it?

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Speaker 4: Yes, I'm walking forward to the next mountain tomorrow, make

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Speaker 4: free mountains in a row.

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Speaker 1: You want to be good as and have sailing too. No,

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Speaker 1: we didn't do I wanted to, Okay, I wanted to.

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Speaker 1: All Right, Well, good luck with whatever's coming, and good

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Speaker 1: on you for pushing through.

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Speaker 2: Yep, thank you for that.

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Speaker 1: Thank you. Operation Flinders will bring you more tomorrow morning.

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Speaker 1: I spent the weekend there chatting to people about what

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Speaker 1: they do and it's just eye opening. Go to their

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Speaker 1: website and help them out if you can, and if

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Speaker 1: you want to be a volunteer. They'd love to hear

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Speaker 1: from you because ten thousand kids in thirty three years

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Speaker 1: that have been through the program. They want to get

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Speaker 1: to the next ten thousand far more quickly, in many

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Speaker 1: fewer years than the thirty three it's taken so far,

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Speaker 1: So donations, volunteers, they'd love to hear from you on

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Speaker 1: Operation Flinders dot org dot au