Communities consist of Relationships

A series of thoughts about community prompted by a recent trip through the north eastern Goldfields and Murchison. 
 
First experiences have a huge impression when you drive into a town you haven't previously visited. In a recent post I talked about the extremely positive experience we had driving into Sandstone and being welcomed with a sausage sizzle and a cup of billy tea. Nothing was further from this experience in the next town we visited, Mt Magnet.

Situated on the Great Northern Highway, Mt Magnet is like many older mining towns in the region with its wide streets and turn-of-the century stone buildings. It was a Saturday afternoon when we arrived so it is not surprising that you could roll a Sunshine Milk tin down the main street and you wouldn't hit a camel train. But if we had waited a while longer we would have discovered that the wide streets were as ideal for the massive road trains that were heading both north and south, as they may have been for the camel trains for which they were originally established.

While we found ourselves in a town, we struggled to discover community. A cold transaction at the roadhouse gave the sense that the job of these people was to maintain a service to passing traffic with as little effort as possible being given to niceties or conversation that would permit visitors to feel welcome. Strangers should remain strangers. The signs on the roadhouse window indicated that even the locals would not be welcomed if they didn't abide by certain behavioural expectations.

While our observations may not fit the reality, I couldn't help but confirm the fact that communities consist of relationships. A town, an organisation, a club or society may have all the logistics in place, as well as policies and procedures, strategies and structures, but without relationships true community will struggle to survive.