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The private passion of Gold
Coast traffic cop Iain King has been 'exposed' on 60 Minutes and Foreign
Correspondent - but it is something he is not ashamed of.
A trip to the impoverished
Pacific island of Rabi five years ago to research his wife's family
history was turned into a mission to help islanders that has consumed the
King family.
Sergeant King may be feared
on the Gold Coast for his tough stand on drink drivers but to the 4500
struggling inhabitants of Rabi he and his wife, Stacey, are frequent
visitors who are known only as benefactors.
What the Kings found on Rabi
was a community barely surviving on an island to which they had been
transplanted after their own island of Banaba was destroyed by phosphate
mining.
"My wife's
great-great-grandfather was a phosphate miner on the Island - and they
destroyed it," said Sgt King.
"Of 4 square miles,
only 150 acres are habitable, so after the war they moved the Banabans to
a deserted island called Rabi.
"We wanted to help
them. Her family had helped destroy their homeland and we wanted to go
back and help them."
Since then the Kings have
obtained donations of clothes, books, toys, computers and equipment with
the help of Rotary groups in Australia and the United States, and this
year they formed the Banaban Heritage Society to draw attention to the
community's plight.
The couple has also managed
to attract the attention of television programs such as 60 Minutes, which
sent reporter Charles Woolley to the island.
Woolley was so moved by the
Banabans that last week he agreed to be a patron of the new society.
Yesterday, Sgt King left on
another trip to the island where he will use his 20 years of police
experience to set up an emergency network.
Eleven solar-powered CB
radios will be installed, with the technical advice of fellow Gold Coast
police officers, to link the four major villages on the island to the
police station, hospital and schools.
Sgt King said that despite
the work he had to do and the two day trip to get to the remote island, it
was always a pleasure to be welcomed by the grateful and loving people.
"They are lovely people
and we always feel very welcome," he said.
Sgt King said the island was
a complete change of pace after the Gold Coast. Drink driving and crime
were fortunately not a problem in the island community, he said, which is
serviced by only 11 police officers.
"With only one
four-wheel drive, a couple of lorries and two school buses to contend
with, Rabi is always a welcome relief from my usual work here on the Gold
Coast," he said.
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