As her friend Lyn McCormick and I lend her our jackets, Julieanne tells me that she comes from Ramingining, an Aboriginal community 560 kms east of Darwin with a population is approximately 800.

It is also the home of David Gulpilil, 10 Canoes and Charlie’s Country.

Lyn and Julieanne met when Lyn was teaching at the community’s school in 2013.

“Julieanne attended sporadically … but in October that year she asked me to help her apply for enrolment in Kormilda College, Darwin to do Years 11 and 12. Her desire was to study away from home in a controlled environment that meant she had to attend day classes and study every night,” Lyn said.

“This is not the mind of a typical teenager from a remote community … relationship to country and family is really intense and it is not easy to go away,” Lyn said.

Julieanne said she wanted to improve her English (Yolngu Matha is her first language) and going away was one way to do that.

With Lyn’s help she got onto Abstudy, no mean feat from a remote community. The pair explained that what takes three weeks here took five months up there, between finding IDs, filling out forms, refilling forms which were misplaced and dealing with numerous bureaucrats.

“So many people with potential don’t have the ability to follow their dreams and get an education … because the system is so difficult to wade through from remote communities,” Lyn said.

Although heading to Darwin was scary for Julieanne, she stuck it out and completed her studies by the end of 2015. Hungry for more learning but without any means, she started to feel slightly desperate that her ambition to become a teacher would not be fulfilled.

In March Lyn received a text that took her breath away: ‘I feel my dream disappearing, can I please come and live with you?’. 

“I was impressed … by the confidence and clarity it took to express that desire. Here was a request from a young woman about to turn 20, keen to expand her horizons and fast track her education by immersing herself in the ‘Balanda’ (white fella) world … I felt compelled to support her.

Reinstating Julieanne’s Abstudy took another four arduous months.

“I visited Centrelink every week … I was feeling so worried and then once the day came, boom, boom! Oh my God! I had it all in front of me, I was jumping like crazy!”.

Within a week she was on the red eye flight from Darwin to Sydney and in early July arrived in Bellingen wearing only shorts and a summer top. She hasn’t felt really warm since.

“It is really beautiful here, so different from my country with all the red dust. I am at the North Coast TAFE – Coffs Harbour campus studying English and meeting students from all over the world. I really wanted this and it is good.”

When asked what she misses most, her eyes flash, as does her smile: “I miss hunting … I miss our food. I eat chilli or laksa to make me feel well again.”

Julieanne borrowed money for her flights and lives off her Abstudy, paying board and learning how to budget her small income. She plans to study in Darwin next year.

She and Lyn have set up a gofundme site to help repay the debt – people have been giving generously but there is still a way to go … donations are gladly accepted.