David Brownlie – Longreach LCC Chairperson
Chairperson of the Outback Chaplaincy Committee – now the Longreach LCC – since the confirmation of the Federal Government’s NSCP funding, David Brownlie is a committed advocate of local school chaplaincy.
“[I started] shortly after the federal government announced the funding for chaplaincy. I was Chairman with Outback Aerial Mission, with a committee that had contacts with schools all over the district… flying to those schools. And Dave Peake, the former District Coordinator for Longreach, suggested that Outback Aerial Mission take on this funding opportunity and see what we could do with it. So myself, and a few others, got the outback local chaplaincy committee going – taking care of four schools from Muttaburra to Bedourie.”
Since combining with the Longreach State High School LCC a couple of years ago, the Longreach LCC now support 3 schools in the greater Longreach district – Longreach State High School, Ilfracombe State School and Muttaburra State School – and have recently found a new chaplain to take on the role at a school they used to support – Longreach School of Distance Education. With the committee’s history with distance education in the area, the Longreach School of Distance Education is a welcome re-addition to their portfolio.
Over his more than 7 years as Chairperson of the Outback CC and Longreach LCC, David has seen his fair share of changes.
“Billy Dodge used to be the area rep, and got around the schools a bit more, and now Angela May has got that oversight role [as the FDM]. I was concerned that there wouldn’t be as much face-to-face contact in the new structure, as Billy was able to have, but it doesn’t seem to be too much of an issue. It seems to be working ok.
“I realised the recent restructures were done because of financial reasons and funding, but I’d say face-to-face contact is still something that we need to keep as a priority… [FDM’s are] having to cover such a large area.”
And David has very clear advice for those in the Chairperson role, whether new to the role or an experienced hand like himself. For David, tenacity and perseverance are crucial characteristics for an LCC Chair to have.
“My advice for anyone in the Chairperson role would be that if you can’t get something fixed you should just go back and try again. And try again. And then if it’s still not fixed, you might have to change tack and maybe even try speaking to someone else.”
Always one to keep his role in perspective, David takes the time to remind himself, and us, of the number one priority for LCC’s in their communities.
“…I think the role which we may tend to forget sometimes – which is probably the most important aspect to our role as an LCC – is that we have to be there for the chaplain.
“They have their professional support elsewhere, where they can go and talk about the things that they need to talk about, but we really need to be close enough to our chaplains so that if there is an issue they can talk to us.”