Curtain falls on Woomera

Sydney
23 March 2003

Helping the world’s kids to a new start

One in five kids living in poverty

ACU model for rest to follow: Beattie

Transsexual ‘marriage’

Refugees ‘destitute’

Curtain falls on Woomera

Expo peek aids hospital

Call for inquiry into needs of low-paid staff

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Pope’s 25 years in stamps

New mysteries on pocket cards

CD to help East Timorese kids

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Conference celebrates the faith

Medicare principles ‘must be safeguarded’

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Editorial: The poverty line

Letters: Tabernacle

Conversation: Dr Henry Pang, GP and aid volunteer - Dead people all around ‘changes your life’

Voice of Youth: ‘O’ - what a feeling! We’re Catholics

Plea from the bush: Come and see us

Waverley’s 100 years of ‘bright stars’

Young train as catechists

Lay ministry great, says jubilee priest

Curtain falls on Woomera

The remote Woomera Detention Centre in South Australia is about to close down and its 77 remaining residents moved to Baxter, near Port Augusta.

Woomera parish priest Fr Jim Monaghan has welcomed the decision to close the controversial Woomera facility, where he has provided pastoral support for refugees over the past 3½ years.

The living quarters at Baxter are expected to be more comfortable than Woomera, and will provide better access for visitors.

It is expected that 25 refugee children - 10 of high school age and 15 of primary school age - will be enrolled to attend state schools in Port Augusta.

Woomera, which has a population of 250, will face a difficult transition period with the detention centre closing because of the loss of jobs.

The town has relied on the detention centre for employment.

Woomera is “full of anxiety”, says Fr Jim. “I’m hoping the town will hang in there,” he says.