About Radio Goolari

Radio Goolari

Radio Goolari — officially Radio Goolarri — is the Indigenous community radio station of Broome, Western Australia, operated by Goolarri Media Enterprises. For over three decades it has been the heartbeat of Indigenous broadcasting in the Kimberley: a community radio station providing a platform for local voices, traditional languages and contemporary Indigenous music, broadcasting 24/7 to communities across the region. It began in August 1991 as a one-hour-a-week magazine program on ABC Regional Radio; in July 1998 it commenced operating its own community radio licence, broadcasting 24 hours a day. From 3 Blackman Street, Broome, it shares the news, culture and stories that matter to its people.

Overview

Radio Goolarri is an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community radio service based in Broome, in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. Broome itself is one of Australia's most culturally distinctive towns: the pearling port where Japanese, Malay, Filipino, Chinese and European divers worked alongside Aboriginal people, the multiculturalism etched into the town's cemeteries, cuisine and festivals. The Yawuru people are the traditional owners of the Broome area. A community radio station in Broome broadcasts into a community where cultural diversity is the norm and Indigenous culture is the foundation — the station's language and culture mission lands in fertile ground. Broadcasting 24 hours a day, seven days a week, it reaches Indigenous communities across the Kimberley with news, culture, traditional languages, contemporary Indigenous music and stories. It provides an avenue where social, cultural and political ideas can be expressed — a place where traditional language, music and culture are fostered alongside contemporary forms of artistic expression. The station is contactable at 3 Blackman Street (PO Box 2708), Broome WA 6725, phone (08) 9194 9999, via goolarri.com/radio.

History

Radio Goolarri first commenced broadcasting on ABC Regional Radio in August 1991 — a one-hour-a-week magazine program, the modest beginning of what would become the Kimberley's Indigenous voice. As the station developed and the skills of its trainees flourished, it gradually increased its airtime. The seven-year apprenticeship on the ABC was both a training ground and a proof of concept: the trainees learned presenting, production and station operations inside the national broadcaster's regional service, while the audience proved that a Kimberley Indigenous program could hold its listeners. The pathway — from an access slot on the ABC to a standalone service — is the classic trajectory of Indigenous community broadcasting in Australia: prove the demand, train the people, then take the licence.

In July 1998 the station started operating its own community radio licence, broadcasting 24 hours a day. The licence gave Goolarri what the ABC slot couldn't: round-the-clock control of the schedule, the ability to program in language, and the institutional permanence of a licensed broadcaster. Goolarri Media Enterprises — the parent organisation — was established with the support of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Commission (ATSIC), which recognised the valued contribution of Indigenous media to Indigenous communities and Australia generally. When ATSIC was dissolved, over $16 million was allocated to the Indigenous broadcasting program nationally — the funding base that sustains services like Goolarri.

Through the following decades Radio Goolarri became what the academic literature describes as one of the success stories of Western Australian Indigenous broadcasting: "Aboriginal people in Broome have created Goolarri Media, which has successfully developed and expanded from the launch of a radio station in 1991." The contrast drawn in the research is pointed: while the Noongar people of Perth and the south-west struggled to find a media voice, Broome's Aboriginal community built an institution. The expansion went beyond radio — Goolarri Media Enterprises grew into a multi-platform Indigenous media organisation — but the radio station remained the heartbeat: the daily voice, the language carrier, the community's own frequency.

Programming

The programming serves the Kimberley's Indigenous communities: local voices, traditional languages, contemporary Indigenous music, news, culture and stories. Language programming is central to the mission — the revival and promotion of Kimberley languages (Yawuru, Karajarri, Bardi, Nyulnyul and others of the region) through a medium that suits oral traditions. As the research notes, print literacy in Aboriginal communities is lower than the Australian average, but speakers of Indigenous languages are prepared to go on radio — consistent with oral and visual communication traditions. The station carries the information its audience needs: law, health and public information of the kind government departments know radio delivers — the WA Health Department's finding that "they love the radio" is the practical basis for health messaging through Indigenous stations.

Contemporary Indigenous music — the country, rock, hip-hop and traditional fusions of the Kimberley scene — shares the schedule with talk, culture and community information. The station is, in the words of its managing director Kevin Fong (quoted in federal parliamentary submissions), part of the network that is "the unofficial or official media outlet for government or private enterprise to use" in reaching remote communities — "the only feasible way" to get information into communities that don't receive many mainstream services.

Coverage and Audience

Radio Goolarri broadcasts 24/7 across the Kimberley region of Western Australia — Broome, the Dampier Peninsula communities, the towns and remote communities of the vast north-west. Its audience is the Kimberley's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, plus the broader Broome community that tunes in for the music, the culture and the local voice. In remote Australia, where the major broadcasters' programs are delivered through Indigenous-owned infrastructure, the community station is often the only locally-controlled media: the radios on in the stores, offices and clinics all day, the dedicated listenership evidenced by calls from around the country. For the Kimberley, Goolarri is not one station among many — it is the Indigenous voice of the region.

Ownership

Radio Goolarri is operated by Goolarri Media Enterprises, the Broome-based Indigenous media organisation, holding a community broadcasting licence from the Australian Communications and Media Authority. It receives partial funding through the federal Indigenous broadcasting program (originally ATSIC, now administered through the Department). The station provides training in the full range of broadcasting skills and is an important element of the economic structure of the community — one of the few employers offering media careers in the Kimberley, particularly for young people. The training function closes the circle that began in 1991: the trainees whose flourishing skills earned the 1998 licence became the trainers of the next generation. In a region where few industries offer creative careers, the station is both a broadcaster and a vocational pathway — the skills learned at 3 Blackman Street transferable to media work anywhere in the country. Like the 153-plus Indigenous community radio and television services across remote Australia, it combines strong community support and involvement with professional media operations.

Digital Presence

Radio Goolarri maintains its web presence at goolarri.com/radio — the row's listed website — with station information and streaming, extending the Broome service to the Kimberley diaspora and the worldwide audience for Indigenous Australian media. For a station that began in August 1991 as a one-hour magazine program on ABC Regional Radio — through the July 1998 community licence, the three decades of language, music and culture — the digital present carries the heartbeat further: the Kimberley's Indigenous voice, on the dial in Broome and on the stream everywhere, still the platform for the voices, languages and stories that matter to its people.