Stephen went to Australia because of a shortage of jobs in the NZ small plane industry, caused by few routes needing small plane transport, an example being Great Barrier Island.He was first based in Kununnura, Western Australia, home of the famous Bungle Bungles. He worked as an instructor at Newcastle Waters Station (30,000 square kilometres), teaching farmers and station personnel to fly.
He was next employed for 14 months as a charter plane pilot on the Gove Peninsula, home to many Aboriginal people.
Galiwin'ku is the largest community on Elcho Island, which is 150 km northwest of Nhulunbuy and 550 km northeast of Darwin.Using 78 different dirt runways, he transported doctors, dentists and supplies to the many settlements of about 10 people each. Unloaded return trips were often cash jobs taking in cigarettes. Sadly, the people had more money than they could spend, from big mining conglomerates like Rio Tinto, who paid them for the rights to mine their ancestral lands.
They live mostly off what they grow themselves and by hunting buffalo. As alcohol is prohibited, the sniffing of avgas has been a major problem, causing birth defects. The fuel is now stored underground. Routine maintenance is erratic, resulting in some tricky situations, such as failure of landing gear to engage on occasions. On one such occasion, Stephen had an elderly Aboriginal woman working the hydraulic pump manually while he landed the plane.
The wet season in these northerly islands could be very stormy, resulting in huge thunderstorms. One year these storms claimed 2 planes and their crews.