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Retired diplomat Bruce Haigh at the microphone at the Mudgee Conference of Rural Australians for Refugees

Retired Diplomat Bruce Haigh, in his role of Conference Moderator at the microphone at the Mudgee Muster, the Rural Australians for Refugees' first Annual Conference.

Photo's of the 2002 'Mudgee Muster'

Some casual shots of the Mudgee RAR get together

On 7 and 8 December 2002 in Mudgee NSW, Rural Australians for Refugees held its first National Conference. This page displays some photographs taken during that conference. Click on each thumbnail to open the full-size pictures.

From the reports: "The Mudgee Get-Together was a really terrific event and our thanks again to Mudgee RAR and to Bruce Haigh and Joc Stenson in particular. And from Anne, Helen and Susan, the three women who 14 months ago thought they 'should do something', a huge thank you to all of you in rural Australia who have made RAR."

"We might have had the idea, but unless you'd turned up in your numbers and proved to be the energetic, dedicated, passionate people you are, RAR would still be just an idea."

7 December 2002: The Mudgee Muster: Rural Australians for Refugees, its Mudgee National Get-Together - 'We might have had the idea, but unless you'd turned up in your numbers and proved to be the energetic, dedicated, passionate people you are, Rural Australians for Refugees would still be just an idea.' The Events' Program, Report, and Presentations of various speakers at this event.

7 December 2002: Chilout's Kate Gauthier at the Mudgee RAR Conference: The Cruel Facts - We must fight this government policy with every method at our disposal, which includes acts of civil disobedience. Every one of us has a skill or a resource available to us for this fight. It is our duty to our fellow humans to find this skill, and more importantly, use it.

7 December 2002: Justice for Asylum Seekers Alliance: Reception and Transitional Processing System - Speaking at the Mudgee Rural Australians for Refugees Conference, Grant Mitchell presents an alternative approach to dealing with the processing of asylum seekers for Australia: The Reception and Transitional Processing System provides a realistic, detailed and soon to be costed reform of the immigration detention system which resolves many of the serious problems...

7 December 2002: Martin Ferguson MP outlines Labor's Asylum Seekers and Refugee Policy - Labor's new policy for asylum seekers and refugees is a better way of protecting Australia and a better way of meeting people's legitimate concerns about how this nation is treating individual asylum seekers. The policy addresses three important strategies - protection of Australia, a new processing system and treating asylum seekers decently.

7 December 2002: Australian refugee policy: past and present, warts and wounds - Margaret Piper, Refugee Council of Australia, speaks at the Mudgee National Rural Australians for Refugees Get-Together. "At first glance, refugee policy is much the same as Tehran traffic: complex, chaotic and behaving like an untethered hose. It is only when you understand the complex interplay of international and domestic factors that you can perceive that there are rules..."

The photo's

Click on the thumbnails below to open the photos. Because of the website's demands for visitors using smaller tablets or mobiles, we've put the photo captions in a list above the thumbnails. For each row, there are three captions - listed from left to right (you can also click on the captions!). All photos: credit Grace Gorman.