North East Goldfields Parish

North East Goldfields Parish

Try to imagine an Anglican parish more than twice the size of Victoria (pop approx 4.5 million), or if you prefer larger than California USA (pop approx 31 million) In physical area the parish is 470.000 sq. km's. with an approximate population of only 6000-8000 people. Put another way. Victoria has approx 20 people per sq km. California has approx 67 people per sq km. The North East Goldfields has approx 67 sq km per person.

Most of the parish is semi arid taking in large parts of both the Great Victorian and Gibson deserts. These deserts however, while receiving very poor rainfall, are not just sandy wastes but contain a vast array of flora and fauna and support an (almost) viable wool industry together with some cattle.

One has to credit God with a sense of humour in these parts. The bulk of industry and therefore population is in mining. Gold, nickel, cobalt, and other rare earths being the most common. It seems that God has said, "You can have these resources but you are going to have to work for them. I'm going to put them in the most inhospitable, isolated, difficult parts of the planet."

Because of these resources men and women come from all parts of the globe to "make their fortunes". Many working from isolated mining camps with few facilities and flying in and out of Perth for their 2, 3 or 4 week shifts of 12 hour days before returning to Perth for R & R. Most leave their families, husbands/wives and children behind in Perth causing many relationship problems. The absent father syndrome is very common.

Some are fortunate enough to live in one of the three established towns in the parish, Leinster, Leonora or Laverton, and are able to keep their families together. Even then problems arise over schooling once the children reach High School age.

Leinster (1,400 pop.) is a well established company town operated by Western Mining Corp. Leonora (1,000 pop., 140 km south of Leinster) and Laverton (700 pop., 130 km east of Leonora) are both shire towns.

Because of the nature of the work the population is very transitory which creates enormous problems for ongoing ministry. It is very difficult to train future leaders to take on responsibility in the parish. As soon as they are trained they leave for another mine or back to the big smoke.

To give you some idea of what that means in practice. In our first four years in Leinster with a regular congregation of 15-20 adults each week we had 100 farewell presentations to members of the congregation. It is not unusual for the congregation in any one town to go from 20 to 0 overnight. But then it sometimes goes the other way too - Praise the Lord!

Currently all congregations are very small 4-12 in each place. Our constant prayer is for God to bring the people living here into his kingdom and to bring committed Christians into these towns and mine sites to act as witnesses to His Glory.

Alcohol, drugs, gambling, materialism, loneliness, domestic violence and isolation characterise the parish. Most are city folk still living as city folk trying to survive in the bush without the saviour.

Vacant

PO Box 88
Leinster WA 6437

Tel.

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