Arnhem Land, in the Northern Territory of Australia

I am now in Arnhem Land, in the Northern Territory of Australia. First impressions: it’s HOT, HOT, HOT and HUMID, and therefore a physically demanding place for MAF pilots to work. Thankfully the MAF houses and offices have air conditioning. The land is pretty much flat – flat, red and covered in thin bush land with spindly trees. A complete contrast to PNG.

The programme in Arnhem Land is presently MAF’s biggest, but it’s quite different to other programmes. Part of this relates to the partnership with Laynha Air – an aboriginal company that owns seven small aircraft to service the Yolŋu homelands (settlements) - MAF pilots fly their planes. There is one MAF plane based at Gove (the programme’s base) and additional MAF planes located at outposts throughout Arnhem Land.

Friday afternoon I flew with a team to Baniyala – a homeland on the edge of the sea, about a 35 minute flight from Gove along the coast. The first thing that strikes me is how small the homeland settlements are – there seem to be only a handful of homes, and Baniyala is one of the bigger ones. As we flew I saw a number of airstrips below. Unlike other programmes, the airstrips don’t service a widely dispersed population – just the small community in the immediate area.

Another noticeable difference is that no crowd gathers to meet the plane upon arrival – no excited children come running – in fact no one at all met us when we landed.

Our visit to Baniyala was to hold an outreach event in the evening, following meetings last year at Christmas and Easter. With two aboriginal Christians from Yirkala (near Gove) the MAF staff provides support with travel, equipment and one pilot speaks for a short while from the front of the meeting. Perhaps more importantly, staff have developed close relationships with the aboriginal Christian leaders seeking to reach their own people with the Gospel, investing time outside their duty hours in Bible study and discipleship. In many places, since earlier missionaries were all expelled in the 1970s, the practice of Christianity has included much of the traditional beliefs so many still live in fear of sorcery and witchcraft. Helping to ensure clarity over what is Biblical teaching and what is not is an important part of what the team does here, and recognition of this side of the role has increased the job satisfaction that many of the staff now have – many pilots joined MAF with the specific desire to be ‘missionary pilots’, and sometimes struggle with the absence of overtly sharing the Gospel in their day to day jobs.