About OVAHS
OVAHS
is a community based and controlled primary health care service. It
provides culturally appropriate curative
and public health services
for people around the Kununurra township in the East Kimberley.
Kununurra is the main administrative centre in the East Kimberley. Located on
the Ord river, it has a population of approximately 4,500, half of whom are Aboriginal
people.
Industries include tourism, the Ord valley irrigation scheme and mining. The
town has modern amenities including two supermarkets, schooling to year 10,
a sport and aquatics centre and an outdoor picture theatre. Weather is fine
and
mild in the Dry (May-September), hot and dusty in the "buildup" (October-November).
The Wet (monsoon) is very hot with drenching tropical rains and electrical
storms.
Kununurra is surrounded by the spectacular gorge and escarpment country of the
East Kimberley and is famed for barramundi fishing.
OVAHS History
Health has a social and historical context. Compared to the rest
of Australia, the history of European colonisation in the Kimberley
is very recent. Twenty-five
years ago, Aboriginal people in the Kimberley required permission from the
native protector to marry or travel below the 26 parallel, were
not counted in the national
census, were bound by a curfew, and could not own land. It is only 7 years
since Aboriginal people who were not landowners have been able
to vote in local government
elections.
The first Europeans to visit the Kununurra region were Alexandra Forrest and
his party in 1879. They were part of an exploration program of the Kimberley
in search of pasture land for cattle. European settlement began in earnest
over the following 10 years with the establishment of Lissadell, Argyle and
Rosewood
cattle stations followed by Ivanhoe and Carlton Hill. There were a number of
documented massacres of Aboriginal people as a result of cattle spearing.
At the instigation of station managers, police action to round up "wild
bush blacks" was stepped up in the 1920's. Men were taken to Wyndham and
Halls Creek jails, women and children to cattle stations. Through the 1940's,
50's and 60's, "half-caste" children were seized by police and
raised on missions. One in 10 Aboriginal adults alive today were taken from
their
mothers.
Kununurra township was founded on Miriwung land in 1961 to service the Ord
valley irrigation project. The 1969 decision by the Arbitration commission
to award
equal wages to Aboriginal stockmen resulted in the expulsion of Aboriginal
families from station homes and the drift to town fringe camps.
Local Aboriginal people identified deficiencies in existing government health
services and formed a community based action committee in 1983. The East Kimberley
Aboriginal Medical Service was incorporated in 1984. The fledgling service
ran out of a fibro cottage in the town and employed 4 Aboriginal health workers,
a nurse and later a doctor. BRAMS provided a support role for the EKAMS governing
committee during this early period of establishment. East Kimberley Aboriginal
Medical Service changed its name changed to Ord Valley Aboriginal Health Service
in 2001.
Today, OVAHS provides a comprehensive primary health care service to Aboriginal
people in the Kununurra region. Preventative and public health programs include
maternal and child health, women's health, chronic disease, sexual health and
mental health. Specific health program management is integrated with curative
clinic based work through the application of the Healthplanner computer data
base. Staff include doctors, Aboriginal health workers and registered nurses.
Outstation clinic visits by a doctor and AHW are conducted to Doon Doon, Glen
Hill and Molly Springs. First aid kits and basic pharmaceuticals are provided
to many of the outstations. OVAHS manage specialist appointment notification
and transport needs to facilitate access to specialist services.
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