‘Auto’ Is Not Alone

Abstract

While I was living in Alpurrurulam I moved several times as my housing allocation was, like all others, dependent on the general fluctuations of the community and the availability of space. One of my lodgings was a two-bedroom flat, comprising half a duplex that had been converted from a prefabricated office which had once housed the council offices. This flat was located on what I often call ‘White Street’, as there was one street in the community, on the most northern boundary, on which all the workers from outside the community lived. This included residences for teachers, council workers and health officers. As of my visit in 2008 the street was also the residence of those persons who had arrived as part of the Australian Government’s ‘Intervention’.² This street was the quietest place in town during the evening, because of its removed location and its occupants. In most of the community the evening and early night are the most social and exciting times to be about. People wander between ‘camps’ (houses), telling stories, playing cards and generally mingling. It is also a very loud time. Young men race up and down the streets showing off their cars. Dogs bark in response to the ruckus and music is played at full volume. It was a wonderfully social atmosphere.

We used to think that if we knew one, we knew two, because one and one are two.

We are finding that we must learn a great deal more about ‘and’.

Arthur Stanley Eddington¹