Operation Flinders celebrates hosting its 10,000th participant

When she was 16, Bella McInnes battled suicidal thoughts every day. But an eight-day hike in the northern Flinders Ranges changed her life.

At the tender age of 16, life had become too much for Bella McInnes.

She had been through a period of homelessness, hated her new school, lacked motivation to find friends and was suffering from undiagnosed severe anxiety.

She saw little hope for her future, her mental health plummeted and she battled suicidal thoughts every day.

But then a teacher convinced her to sign up for an Operation Flinders eight-day hike in the South Australian Outback, about 600 km north of Adelaide, and her life changed forever.

“It’s literally been the best thing that’s ever happened to me,” the now 19-year-old said.

Three years after participating in the walk, Ms McInnes has graduated from Year 12, lives independently and is about to embark on a bachelor of health and medical science.

She has also maintained her ties with Operation Flinders, signing up for its Next Step program and acting as a peer group mentor, helping guide groups of other teens during eight-days of hiking and adventure therapy at the organisation’s rugged Yankaninna Station in the shadows of the Vulkathunha-Gammon Ranges National Park.

Operation Flinders volunteer and former participant Bella McInnes 19. Picture: Kelly Barnes

She’ll be up there again walking this week as Operation Flinders celebrates a remarkable milestone – welcoming its 10,000th participant.

Founded by Pam Murray White in 1991, the not-for-profit, volunteer-run organisation has a mission of “creating opportunities for young people facing challenges through adventure therapy programs that provide demanding experiences, personal development and pathways to wellbeing and life success.”

Participants are all SA teenagers whose lives are often at the crossroads.

They might come from dysfunctional families. They might be victims of abuse. Their attendance at school might be waning. They might have already found themselves on the wrong side of the law. They might suffer from social anxiety and are struggling to find their niche. They might have been bullied, or they might have been accused of bullying others. Or they might simply have been falling behind at school.

“I could have been dead,” Ms McInnes said when asked where she would be now if it wasn’t for Operation Flinders.

“I was so mentally down, I was even thinking about suicide. I remember at one of those points in my life when I was thinking about it … something forced me to stop … I just pushed myself to not harm myself because I knew I was going to do something with my life.

“I always made a promise with myself to get through my struggles and be better, and that’s what happened, majorly because of Operation Flinders.

“Because they made me realise that I am special and that I do have lots of potential.”

Operation Flinders volunteers and former participants Caitlin Cowley 19, Bella McInnes 19, Jessica Hewitt, 18 and Taite MacDiarmid, 18. Picture: Kelly Barnes

Ms McInnes says the combination of spending time in nature and the caring attitude of the trained Operation Flinders volunteers were the secrets to helping change her mindset and turn her life around.

Less than 20 permanent Operation Flinders staff members support a legion of more than 300 volunteers who give up weeks of their lives to support the young people during five exercises every year.

Each exercise welcomes up to 10 teams of 10 students, meaning up to 500 teenagers a year for the past 33 years have benefited from the experience. The latest batch of schools to arrive at Yankaninna this week will include the 10,000th participant, a milestone chief executive David Wark describes as remarkable.

“Keep in mind that it (the experience) also has an impact on their family, it has an impact on their peers, it has an impact on their social group,” he said.

“So any organisation that has had that sort of power in a community like South Australia should be hugely proud.”

Mr Wark said the secret to the organisation’s success is its volunteers, and the fact that they take the time to genuinely listen to young people they were walking with.

“The feedback we get from the young people that we work with is that Operation Flinders leaders listen to us, and that’s a really powerful thing,” he said.

Operation Flinders CEO David Wark at Yankannina Station. Picture: Simon Cross

“I heard a young person say recently that we don’t walk in front of them, we don’t walk behind them, but we walk next to them.

“I wish I could claim that line but it came from one of our young people, and it’s just a beautiful representation of who we are and what we do.”

The young person who delivered that line was Bella McInnes, who brought the room to tears when she told her life story to welcome Police Commissioner Grant Stevens and his wife Emma to Yankaninna last month.

Mr Stevens is an Operation Flinders board member and when his son Charlie died in a hit-run car incident last year, the couple asked the public to donate to the organisation in lieu of flowers. Donations to the Charlie Stevens appeal have now passed $210,000.

Ms McInnes, one of eight former participants returning to Yankaninna as a peer group mentor this week, said she thrives on returning to help other young people have the same experience as she did.

“I’ve always wanted to be part of something that helps people,” she says. “It just feels very rewarding and makes me feel better about how I’m living my life and the values I’m holding up for myself.

“I’m helping people, but mostly I’m helping myself be a better person, and be better mentally.”

* Paul Ashenden is an Operation Flinders volunteer