Ingham

Maggie life in the days before the new commuter ferry companies built a new pontoon and tourists landed on the island on the other side by the old pier must have had a little more character and life to it. The pier is a long stretch of wooden slats and looks toward what once would have been a welcoming strip of bars full of joviality and warm lighting. George, one man of many who believe that having the boats come in on the other side of the island has killed a lot of old island trade and ruined the magic of arriving and taking the slow walk down esplanade had designed a T-shirt with a drawing of the old Maggie life and presented us with one each. We said our good byes to George and Pen, to their organic peat toilet, the freezer full of toads, the koalas, and the crocodile and jumped on the ferry back to Townsville. The sea faring Australian flag containing the Southern Cross and Union Flag but with a red background flapped over the Cheeky Van on the lower deck and pointed in the direction of the South Easterlies which come every year.

Putting the CD George had given us of Magnetic Island Beats we realised only then and there that it was a compilation of music put together by residents of the island just recently and that George had not only contributed to many of the songs but that he had written some and was singing one of them. What a surprise, we had no idea George was so full of hidden talent, a newspaper editor, a permaculture enthusiast, a lantana weed eradicator, an artist and a singer-song writer. Just Stay Awake, one of George’s songs, has become quite a frequent vibration through our speakers, we sometimes find Gareth singing it to himself as he work or potters around the van, for those who are interested in Magnetic Island music, please feel free to email the editor of Magnetic Island News by visiting Magnetic Times. Back on the main land we made our way slowly to Ingham, stopping at Rolling Stone Road house where Gina and Duane Davis informed us that they didn’t have any work but donated $20 (13.5 litres) of fuel. Thanks guys!!! We had a little time to kill before our next WWOOFing hosts were expecting us so we decided to take a look through a book we had borrowed from the library 1015 things to see and do in Australia by Bruce Elder and found that there were a few things recommended around the around the area, one of which caught our attention was the Italian Cemetery so we went to see how Italian bury their dead. Ingham, which is famous for having a large Italian community, preserving the old Italian ways so much so that linguists have come to study old Italian dialects which have died out in Italy, now surviving in this part of Australia alone, imagine that. I had never seen such elaborately tiled mausoleums before. Many of the immigrants, who came over to work on the cane fields here buried side by side in their brightly decorated tombs, plaster flowers adorning the boxed tiles and birds of song flittering between the angels and iconic religious busts. There was an immense calm among this vibrant cemetery, we each walked down a few of the rows of mausoleums, taking the time to look at the faces of those long gone but not forgotten, with fresh cut flowers in vases around plinths, it was a happy place to be, the sun shining although the clouds dripped rain in light showers giving the air a dramatic summer calm. I couldn’t help stopping at those tombs build for two, only being occupied on one side, the other side bare, ready in waiting for the reuniting of a separated couple. How strange it seemed to me to see a vacant space in this busy town of the dead, and how impenetrable the tiled box seemed, to be to have opened again, allowing for the coming together of soul mates once more. I never thought I would say this but it really is a truly wonderful way to find peace, spending half an hour with the Italian dead.