You may have never heard of Mirriwinni, meaning “The last hill before the Promised Land“, but for 30 years this Indigenous ministry in Bellbrook, New South Wales, supported the Adventist education of over 1500 local Indigenous children.
During the late 1960s, the community of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples from the Armidale church expressed concerns regarding the future and education of their children. This desire for Christian education fulfilled a much older dream by an Aboriginal man named Thinnegan, who had foreseen the arrival of the gospel to the area years prior in a dream about a white man holding a black book. This man was later identified as Pastor Philip Bulpit Rudge. Pastor Rudge mentored two young cousins, Lena Quinlin and Eileen Holten, who upon returning to the Bellbrook Mission became the driving force behind the school’s establishment, asking Pastor Edward Rosendahl, “What can we do for our children?“
In response, Pastor Rosendahl and his wife, partnering with members of the church and community, decided to start up a boarding school in 1967 at Five Day Creek. Money was in such short supply that they purchased old timber cottages for the price of a single building with a roof that leaked “like a sieve“.
After only four years, however, the school was unfortunately forced to close due to financial difficulty and opposition from the state education area inspector. But this decision sparked a passion within Pastor Rosendahl to try again, this time with proper facilities. He promised to return to the area when he retired to help re-establish the school.
The location for this new beginning was confirmed by a spiritual vision given to Thungutti Elder Reuben Kelly, who dreamt of angels singing in the Nulla Nulla Creek valley. When the time came to purchase the 480-acre property in that very valley, the team had only $600. However, God provided miraculously. During a lunch in Melbourne, a doctor spontaneously donated the $10,000 deposit. Devoted to making the rest of the dream a reality, Pastor Rosendahl then mortgaged his own home to finance the remainder of the $38,000 purchase price, eventually contributing $27,000 of his own funds.
I, along with Fay Oliver, Beryl and Rex Marshall, Elizabeth and Mervyn Cohen, the Kellys and others, started the Mirriwinni Gardens Aboriginal Academy. Classes for the new school officially began in 1978 in a converted cowshed. The construction was a labour of pure grit; when shovels ran out, Samson Bobongie Senior mixed cement with his bare hands. Senior students spent their afternoons making bricks, and when funds for a bridge were insufficient to hire an engineer, the team built it themselves by faith—a structure that still stands today against the full impact of floodwaters.
I served as the teacher in those early years, with Fay Oliver taking on the role of principal in 1979 and remaining in charge for many years. Beyond the physical labour, the team had to overcome deep emotional hurdles. In the wake of the Stolen Generation, many parents initially feared the school was an attempt to take their children away. The school also struggled to shake the label of being “independent“ when they simply desired to be part of the Church’s mission.
Yet, the school flourished. Volunteers from Fiji, the Solomon Islands and Tonga joined the local Indigenous staff, creating a vibrant multicultural family. Ms Oliver, the only female Aboriginal principal in Australia at the time, shared that at the end of most months when bills needed to be paid, there was no money—but she would gather the children together to pray to God to supply their needs, and God never let them down. Ms Oliver never drew a salary in her time working at Mirriwinni.
The success of Mirriwinni wasn’t only academic. Many students came from homes with alcohol, drug abuse and health problems. In 1990 alone, 12 students were baptised—a quarter of the enrolled population of students.
The school was forced to close in 2009 due to financial difficulties, but the work of those who selflessly served there will never be forgotten. It remains a place where impossibilities were turned into possibilities when we prayed and obeyed His leadings.
This article was adapted from the Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists.
June Bobongie is the former principal and teacher at Mirriwinni Gardens Aboriginal Academy.
