Nineteen-year-old Lilly Knight lived in Port Hedland with her sister Bella and BCA Field Staff parents Philip and Elke from 2006 – 2020. She was just six months old when they arrived and fifteen years old when they moved back to Melbourne where Philip now serves as the Minister at St Mark’s Forest Hill. Living in such a remote community had some joys and challenges as Lilly explains…

Living remote meant that we were quite isolated. To put it into perspective, here in Melbourne we could drive maybe five minutes to settle a KFC craving, whereas people in Port Hedland would drive 2.5 hours to the next town, Karratha, for the same fried chicken. Being that far from surrounding towns meant holidays would often involve very long 16-hour road trips to Perth. However, being in the Pilbara also included access to pretty rivers and gorges, so there were both positives and negatives.

At Hedland Senior High School there were approximately 900 kids with junior students taking up a large majority of that number. There were maybe 100 students in my cohort from Years 7–9. But out of that I had no Christian friends, which at times was very lonely. However, in that loneliness I was joined by my older sister, Bella, who also didn’t have any Christian friends, so that really allowed us to become as close as we are now.

The main highlight about living in Port Hedland which I will forever rave about is the weather in winter, 25°C every day is my heaven on Earth as we were able to enjoy 4WDing, going to the beach, rivers, and gorges without sweating profusely. But on a more serious note, I think my highlights and difficulties in Hedland are intrinsically intertwined with each other. In all honesty, at some level I think I thank the transience and isolation of Port Hedland as while it was difficult especially as I got older, it allowed my family to truly develop a strong bond with one another. I have also gained a lot of thankfulness and gratitude for the long-term friendships that I have now, as I didn’t really get that growing up. I also gained exposure and insight into Australia’s injustices, particularly around the gap between White and Indigenous Australians.

The primary point of difference between Port Hedland and St Mark’s Forest Hill is the stability of the congregation. Because of the nature of the mining companies in Port Hedland, the congregation almost had a two-year cycle of people, with a few exceptions of course. Whereas, in Forest Hill there are people who were born into the church or started coming at a young age, who still attend every Sunday. This definitely facilitates the development of connections and long-term friendships.

I’ve said this before, but my advice to BCA Field Staff kids is that members of your family are truly some of the only people who can authentically empathise with, and understand, the difficulties of living in a more rural location. Since I am the youngest in my family, a lot of the difficulties and challenges that I faced in Hedland, Bella had already faced or was facing at the same time. It was a similar story with my parents – you’d be surprised at the wisdom and knowledge your family members hold.