Race to build coronavirus ‘ark’ for at-risk elders

Fearing an imminent coronavirus outbreak, a remote community is rushing to build a ‘Tamami Ark’ in a bid to protect most vulnerable.

Balgo elders and prominent artists, from left, Larry Gundora, Jimmy Tchooga, and Helicopter Tjungurrayi are among those most at risk from a feared coronavirus outbreak. Picture: Supplied

The tiny Aboriginal community of Balgo is racing to build a “Tanami Ark” for its elders amid fears of an imminent coronavirus outbreak after some locals ignored advice not to let residents return from infected areas without spending 14 days in isolation first.

Balgo, which is home to about 400 people living 500km south of Kununurra in northern Western Australia, had until Monday been striving to make those who claimed residency quarantine themselves outside the community before coming back.

A group of 17 people was due to return from Broome — where there have been confirmed COVID-19 cases — on Thursday, but the trip was scrapped at the last minute.

Amid pressure from outsiders, Balgo residents on Monday abandoned the safety measure — against the advice of their leaders and staff — and decided to let people return as they wish.

Co-chief executive of Balgo’s Wirrimanu Aboriginal Corporation Hugh Lovesy wrote in a desperate email to more than three dozen officials and stakeholders that “there is significant potential for a very serious outbreak to develop”.

“If such an outbreak occurs, it will be most likely to occur over a very short period of time,” Mr Lovesy wrote.

“About 50 people will be returning to Balgo community over the next week or so … the increased overcrowding will provide a fertile breeding ground for the spread of the virus and other illnesses. Effective self-isolation will be almost impossible to implement.”

The remote Aboriginal community of Balgo in the north of Western Australia. Picture: Colin Murty

He added that social-distancing guidelines were being largely ignored “despite intensive efforts from staff and community leadership”.

WAC chairman Nathaniel Stretch told The Australian that when the first of those returnees reached the community late on Tuesday, many of them went straight to the shop to buy groceries, ignoring instructions to self-isolate. “I had to push them out,” he said. “I’m worried that people might get infected.”

Mr Stretch said some of the cohort had begun quarantining at home but that others — particularly those he believed associated with street drinkers in Broome — were “still walking around”.

The Kimberley Region including Balgo was among the vast tracts of outback WA, the Northern Territory, South Australia and Queensland that the federal government last week declared special biosecurity zones.

Anyone entering or moving between those zones must self-isolate for 14 days, but movement within the zones is unrestricted. The Kimberley zone, which includes the service hubs of Broome and Kununurra, has had six confirmed coronavirus cases.

Mr Lovesy wrote in his email, obtained by The Australian, that there appeared to be nothing to protect vulnerable people in Balgo from returnees who might have had contact with undetected coronavirus patients.

“Older people and community leadership have asked us to concentrate on helping community people who want to self-isolate,” he said.

“We are redoubling our efforts on building an outstation where a better level of disease control can be implemented for as long as needed.”

The outstation would be called Tanami Ark.

The Australian on Tuesday revealed that health experts and local managers working in remote South Australia also believe community spread of COVID-19 in the bush is all but inevitable. A local arts organisation has called for elders to be sheltered in Adelaide.

A McGowan government spokeswoman confirmed it helped 27 people who would soon travel from the town of Broome to Balgo, a distance of 910km by road. They would get temperature checks before their departure from Broome and health checks on arrival. They would not be required to self isolate.

Mr Stretch said he was deeply disappointed in his community for overturning its safety measure.

“The first thing we did was great, but now my people put me down,” he said.