It started as an ambitious, almost impossible dream – to construct an entire mining township in one of the most far-flung, tropical parts of Australia.
Five decades later, after a lifetime of prosperity digging up bauxite — along with some serious controversy over land rights — the Rio Tinto town of Nhulunbuy in the remote Northern Territory turned 50 this year, with a big celebration on its oval.
In late August, the Nhulunbuy Corporation gathered some of Arnhem Land's most beloved musical products, headlined by ARIA Hall of Famers Yothu Yindi, constructed a world-class stage and brought the town together for a huge birthday concert.
But now the party's over, the question is: with a limited lifespan left for the mine, what do the next decades look like for Nhulunbuy?
Can it survive?
Long-termer Sue Haddock has been in Nhulunbuy for just shy of 50 years, and said she's optimistic the town will thrive long past Rio Tinto's stated wind-down of 2030.
"I'm very hopeful for the town, I'm very positive about the town: I get quite argumentative with people who say, 'oh, it'll be all over in three years, there'll be no one here'," she said.
Ms Haddock recalls many highs in Nhulunbuy since the 1970s: mainly based around community closeness and family, banding together to overcome the tyrannies of remoteness with fun.
"The town itself was extremely social, because there was no TV," Ms Haddock said.
"There was that much sport, when we did first get radio, ABC used to call us 'the sporting capital of Australia', because we had 20 netball courts, and there were an enormous amount of teams playing, every sport you could thing of, AFL, rugby league, touch."
Amid many highs, Ms Haddock said "one of the worst things that happened" in Nhulunbuy's history was when the mining company decided to shut its alumina refinery in 2013.
About a thousand workers lost their jobs and the town's existing social fabric was swiftly pulled away.
"It almost makes me cry even thinking about it now, it was sad," Ms Haddock said.
While the heartbreak of losing those families remains raw, Ms Haddock believes the town's industry has diversified enough to "carry on regardless", after the remaining part of Rio Tinto's Nhulunbuy operation closes.
Exactly how the town will be run, and if and when the NT government will take over its day-to-day functions – rates, rubbish removal and power supply – is somewhat still up in the air.
Jim Rogers, East Arnhem Land's representative for the Department of the NT Chief Minister, said work towards the town's transition away from mining is "happening now".
"From its contested beginnings, Nhulunbuy's changed a lot over the years," Mr Rogers said.
"It's evolved from a really strong focus on mining and refining to a regional service hub."
Mr Rogers said conversations were underway about whether the NT Government would commit to running Nhulunbuy – as opposed to Rio Tinto, which is currently responsible for the town's upkeep.
"We will look at the area being a gazetted local government area, in time," he said.
"We haven't yet done all the work around how a regional local government body would look, but we've got a commitment to do that work in 2023, and get that process going."
Mr Rogers said council rates would mean the government could afford to run the town.
"The Territory's financial position, you would've seen in the last budget, it's improving," he said.
"There's an element of all these things which is revenue based. Rates are a normal part and function of towns."
Exactly who would be responsible for power generation also remains an ongoing conversation, however, Rio Tinto has confirmed its looking to build a solar plant in Nhulunbuy before it leaves.
“As part of both our efforts to decarbonise our business and our planning to leave a positive legacy at Gove, we are working through ways to reduce the region’s reliance on fossil fuels, including introducing solar power into the grid,” James Low, Rio’s Gove Closure general manager said.
“The location and size of the solar plant is still being finalised, but we intend for it to underpin sustainable power for the region well beyond mining.”
The town was created against the wishes of the region's Yolngu traditional owners, and Mr Rogers said whatever Nhulunbuy's future looks like, it will be guided firmly by the voices of those originally left out.
Rirratjingu clan elder Witiyana Marika, now 61, remembers well watching his father Roy at the forefront of protests and negotiations with the mining company when the town was being created.
"Dad, he was very worried," Mr Marika said.
"The elders were worried, very, very worried, and they wanted to protest in a real way."
Mr Marika, also an original member of Yothu Yindi, said that 50 years down the track, "it's still a good town" and one that he was proud to help celebrate.
"Now that Rio Tinto's packing up to go, we'd like to keep the town for tourism and other occupations that we need to be working with, for the next generation," Mr Marika said.
And decades since she arrived as a young mum with four kids in tow, Ms Haddock said she too envisages a strong future for the town, a future that her family will be sticking around to be a part of.
"I love this town," Ms Haddock said.
"And like a lot of people, I came here for one year to try and get myself sorted, and my kids – the rest is history."
