Guest Speaker Tony Rumble. Conditions experienced on Christmas Island and at Weipa  in northern Queensland, whilst working for the Department of Immigration during 2009-2012  were presented to us by former member and President of Albury Hume, Tony Rumble. Tony indicated that Christmas Island was a thriving community with readily available facilities, serviced by air and sea from Perth and Malaysia … a location of unique and raw natural beauty in the middle of the Indian Ocean  with a diversity of plants, national forest, whale sharks, crabs and abundant bird life… also, recreational swimming, diving and snorkelling are popular with the locals. Although the housing of refugees and processing them for eligibility for final transfer, is the main focus of its existence in the public eye, Christmas Island is home to a wide cross-section of the community.  Tony enjoyed the friendship of many locals, including many of Chinese and Malay origin and appreciated the many challenges they have in providing for the needs of the current increasing number of refugees. All supplies come from external sources as no food is grown on the island.  Housing of the refugees is an on-going challenge resulting in the growth of an unsightly ‘container city’. Tony was also stationed at Weipa in far north Queensland for nine months. The present town of Weipa was constructed mainly by Comalco (now called Rio Tinto Alcan), the large aluminium company, which began making trial shipments of bauxite to Japan in 1962.  The bauxite mine is the world’s largest with expansions increasing the margin over other mines in 2010 … most definitely a mining town.  However, Weipa has a public library, visitor’s centre, swimming pool, bowling green, golf club, tennis and squash courts. There are netball and basketball courts as well as football fields. At Nanum the shopping precinct has a Woolworths supermarket, bakery, coffee shop, travel agent, clothing shop, post office, newsagency / sports shop and butchers. There is also a chemist, camping and fishing store and within walking distance is a gift shop, furniture and whitegoods store, credit union and Centrelink office. At Evans Landing you will find a hardware store and a number of mechanical workshops. No swimming or surfing due to presence of numbers of ‘nasties’, including saltwater crocodiles !