Department of Behavioral Medicine and Psychiatry


Transcultural Psychiatry and International Studies

Mount Isa and the Outback, Queensland, Australia

In 2002, Dr. Donald Fidler moved to Mount Isa, in the outback of Queensland, Australia for six months to work as the director of mental health and to learn about the Aborigine culture. Andrew Trumbull, a WVU undergraduate student, accompanied him. Many medical students from Australia and New Zealand worked with Dr. Fidler during his six months in the outback.

Dr. Mark Renfro, a neurosurgery resident from the University of Florida, visited both on the coast and in the outback.

Dr. Fidler flew to several small villages in the outback and on islands to the north of Queensland. Many of these places had never had a previous visit from a psychiatrist.

* Click any image to Enlarge.

Mount Isa is a mining town, mining copper, zinc, silver, and lead. It is about a four-hour flight from the eastern coast inland over hundreds of miles of desert.		The staff of mental health in Mount Isa, in a picture which had to be spliced since not all staff were ever in one place at the same time
Mount Isa Hospital		Mount Isa Mental Health Clinic
Telegraph stations built at the sites of the best watering holes, often forcing the indigenous peoples to be displaces and this was one of the starts of disrupting the Aborigine Culture.		Pubs are plentiful in the outback. As they expanded with the expansions of western civilization, beer and other alcohol drinking became an additionally quick and disruptive force in the Aborigine Culture.
An Aborigine family visits a local medical clinic		Dr. Mark Renfro, a neurosurgery resident from University of Florida, visits Dr. Fidler and the friendly Walabees near Brisbane.
Dr. Fidler with some of the medical staff at an out reach clinic on Mornington Island. This was the first time a psychiatrist had visited Mornington Island.		A view from a tower on Mornington Island, overlooking the town.
The party establishment for Mornington Island. People often receive welfare checks on Thursday evening and spend much of their money on beer that evening.		Beer cans on the ground next to the party establishment on Friday after people received their welfare checks. Sadly, this is a similar pattern found amongst indigenous people who have had their cultures disrupted by colonization, slavery, or other causes.
As is also true of many indigenous cultures, elders of the villages are eager to mentor and try to solve the many problems that follow when cultures are disrupted.		Children in the Mornington Island School pose after a presentation about how the Alutiiq People of Kodiak Island, Alaska had their culture disrupted and had developed similar problems of alcohol abuse.
Elders and adults in the Aborigine culture work to preserve the dances and story telling of their culture, thus fighting the sense of identity dissolution that comes with culture disruption.		Young people learn the dances, songs, and stories and learn to feel pride in their heritage. Many of these dancers traveled to Paris, Tokyo, New York, and other world cities to teach about their culture.
WVU student Andrew Trumbull stands before Uluru (Ayer's Rock), a reminder of what the Aborigine culture values.		The Aborigine people have hundreds of children, adult, and elder stories that are connected to the endless shapes and colors of Uluru. These stories have been passed down for thousands of years among these people who have the longest continuous culture on earth.
Mangroove Trees grow in the salt waters all around Mornington Island. They often conceal large and dangerous salt-water crocodiles.		Dr. Fidler and WVU student Andrew Trumbull visit other regions of the outback in the Northern Territories.
The Aborigine People often cook kangeroo in a pit, which acts like a pressure-cooker to soften the meat.		Andrew Trumbull tries a taste of the kangeroo tail.
Then after learning about "bush tucker," the outback food, he eats a live grub.		Here's the grub.
Station hands often ride camels instead of horses to check out the cattle . Camels were brought over in the early 1900s since horses could not withstand the heat for working in the mines.		... and many of the camels run wild today in the grasslands of the outback.
Frequently the spiniflex grass catches fire, burning with an oil-like black smoke, spreading far across the outback until the entire outback seems ablaze.		When not on fire, there is not a more peaceful and scenic place on earth.
Eric presents Dr. Fidler with his artwork, depicting many of the common symbols of Aborigine culture.		Oh yeah, and don't forget to drive on the left.