Townsville, No room in the inn, no food and no luck but the IGA come to the rescue

After spending about a week slowly making our way through the many gorgeous waterfalls and lush beauty spots between Deeral and Townsville we finally made it back to civilisation. So far the trip has been going particularly well but I guess we could call this day our day of frustration, knock backs and general unhappiness. With little to no food in our bellies we tried to find somewhere where we could pitch our tent. Trying all the camping and caravan sights, asking if we could pitch our tent there for a night so we can get some rest before we started work the following day. We were greeted with "no room", "not interested", "The boss isn't here", "there ain't no work for you here", or "we support our own charities". All valid and fair enough replies to our pleas but non the less very disheartening. We asked if there was anywhere they knew of where we could park the van up and sleep in for the night without getting moved on and the answer was always "no". the cherry on the top was when we were just on our way to ask another camping sight out of town if they could help us out and the cheeky van started put putting, coming to a full stop as the last few drops of petrol evaporated. We were hungry, hot, sticky, dirty, had nowhere to lay our heads and the winds were picking up. After draining what little dregs we could find in the jerry cans we manged to get the van to the shore front and parked in a public car park hoping upon hope that the police wouldn't move us on. We eat! Yippee!

Finding a few twigs and sticks we made a fire in one of the free BBQs and fought the wind to heat up enough water to muster some condensed soup. The ashes from the fire filmed the soup with charred flakes but we were too hungry to care.
Not everyday is as fun on this journey as we would like it to be. Some days we don't have any luck at all, and with people who either don't believe we are genuine or simply don't care we sometimes struggle to maintain a positive outlook.
Sleep that evening was difficult and we found it hard to keep our chins up for the first time.

Funny how a little sun can change your mood. The grey cold facade of the day before seemed to have disappeared and we went to see John MacDonald from the IGA, who we had been in touch with through our friend 'Crazy' John Maclean from Bowen. The IGA are the Independent Grocers of Australia, a franchise chain of stores throughout Oz, owned and run in each place by different people. This allows local people to take over a store, or in the case of the Townsville stores, a few, owned as they are by the Walters Group, local businessmen. The IGA, being independently owned source their produce locally, all their meat and dairy and contribute to the community donating groceries and money to local charities. With open arms we received a warm and tremendously pleasing welcome at the Independent Grocers. John MacDonald, a local hero who supports many charities gave us a real hearty hello over a cup of tea and biscuits. Biscuits of which we were ever so grateful for, scraping up every crumb which fell on the table, not wanting to waste a single dot of crunchy tasty goodness. Talking to John then, we found him an engaging, softly spoken man. He told us of his love of music, particularly Elvis, of his wish to record some songs he had written, and of his plan for retirement, the Dumb Dog Tree Factory. This plan he thought up one day while driving through Central Queensland and, seeing there trees felled during a storm, came upon the idea of using the trunks.

“Again it was obvious really. I took one home, and started to make some chess pieces and a chess board from the trunk, then thought why not make a grandfather clock, or carve animals. I’d get a few old fellers like myself together, a carpenter and retired tradesmen, and we’d knock these things together, and all we’d need was the wood, some time and a little practice. And I’ve lots of wood, believe me”

John arranged for us to do some work with a charity called Camp Quality, Camp Quality is a non profit organisation that is committed to bringing hope and happiness to every child living with cancer, their families and communities through ongoing quality recreational, educational, hospital and financial support programs. In return for this work we would be given a budget to do a supermarket sweep and some petrol, a fantastic deal when we were in dire need to get some supplies to keep our morals up.

Arriving at the office we were greeted and welcomed by Mark McGregor, the affable Area Manager for North Queensland and Nikki, his administrator, who between them both run the office. They showed us some pictures and told us exactly what they did.


At heart, Mark told us, they operate to bring some hope and happiness to every child living with cancer, and their families. “It’s tough living with cancer, it’s harsh and an ordeal, for the kids as well as for their family, and it’s pretty amazing to be able to offer them a ‘week off’, and to see them relax and start laughing and enjoying themselves when they come to our Camps”.

Based all over Oz Camp Quality conducts hundreds of camps and activities each year, all entirely funded by themselves, at no cost to the families. For kids aged 4 to 18, who are all assigned a mentor, for the duration of the camp and afterwards too, they offer anything from horse riding and archery, to a weekend in the snow or a fishing trip, maybe putt putt golf or a trip to the zoo. Their North Queensland branch, Mark was telling us, have 4 major camps each year, all at least one week long, as well as other events and activities, like going to see a movie, playing basketball, seeing a football game, or going for dinner or a picnic, with Mothers and Fathers Day and Christmas parties to organise too. They also offer financial support, with welfare payments to families struggling with bills or funeral expenses.

We were blown away by the kid's capacity to laugh and enjoy themselves despite their trauma, their bravity and their support for each other. It is a simple thing to laugh and have fun, even simpler for kids, and the time away from the routine of the hospital and the sickbed was an invigorating time for everyone, Mark added.

We were more than happy to get stuck into some work and bid Mark point the way. He showed us the lawnmower, the beds that needed weeding, and the flowers that then needed planting. There were palm leaves to pick up and the yard to sweep. He left us to it and we busied ourselves and worked away. I cut the grass, Phil and Anne weeded and soon, the beds were cleared and the lawn mowed.

The flowers then planted, everything was spruced, cleared and ship shape, ready for inspection. Mark came back, we offered our services if he had any more jobs. He thanked us and told us that was that, and to come up for a drink and to sign their notice board. We chatted some more then and Mark told us more about Camp Quality, particularly the educational program offered to the kids who have missed school due to their illness, with tuition in numeracy and literacy.

It is a wonderful organisation and we were more than happy to do a few odd jobs for them such as weeding and mowing.

Camp Quality staff members Mark and NikkiBack in Johns office we looked around the walls to see the many newspaper articles of him holding cheques for large sums written out to various worthy causes. Among them was plaquard dedicated to John, from the Leukaemia Foundation, thanking him for the $100 000 he’d managed to raise through auctioning off the Queensland State of Origin Team shirts, signed by the players. “What I like about that cheque, more than the amount even, is the fact that everyone told me I’d never get the shirts. I got them, no worries. It’s a such an obvious idea, and one guy paid $25 000 for one. That’s pretty amazing, really”, he told us afterwards.The IGA, it seems, really are what they say they are, a community store. they certainly pump a lot of profits back into the community and the community spirit can be felt amongst the staff, everyone knows each others names and we were always greeted with a friendly welcome. It certainly beats some of the larger supermarket chains.
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We carefully pick out the most economical food items we could for $100 and the IGA shouts us the bill!
Mmmmm... Food!

After hearing about our difficulties finding accommodation the previous day Janine, another member of the IGA staff instantly offered us a place to rest our heads that evening. After doing various chores that day we turned up to their pleasant home to be greeted with the sumptuous aromas of Darrens delicious curry. Yummm. Thank you so much for inviting us to your home and giving us a welcome which completely changed our opinions about the people of Townsville after our unfortunate first day.


Anne with Ethan and Janine

Phil, Gareth, Janine & Darren Stauton with their son Ethan

The Optus shop donates phone credit
The Vodafone shop also give us phone credit

The next day we were woken up with fresh mango smoothies prepared by the wonderful Ethan, and then a phone call from the local extroverted radio show presenter who introduced himself as wacky, exclaiming we were nearly as wacky as he.

Back in the IGA office we said our goodbyes to John. On asking him why he has been so willing to go out of his way to help us out he stated that he likes to support a good cause and enjoys people who think outside the nine dots. It was with this sense of having fun with life and seeking new adventures and exciting projects that saw John enter into the spirit of our trip.

It is an honour to be acquainted with such folk and it reaffirms our faith in the world.