In his series of stories of remarkable Canberrans, DAVID TURNBULL meets Simon Wilkins who, with his three siblings, is honouring the memory of his parents’ selfless work in the Pacific by helping educate young women.

Simon Wilkins is following in his father’s footsteps.

Darvall Wilkins grew up in Dubbo, but spent 20 years from 1957 to 1977 in the New Hebrides and Vanuatu as a British colonial administrator.

His biography is entitled An Ordinary Man Who Made an Extraordinary Difference, and his son is the same.

“Dad had none of the British formality about him. He was down-to-earth, unassuming, and the islanders loved him,” Simon said.

“So much so that they honoured him with a chiefdom and that has now come to me.

“Vanuatu honoured my father with a state funeral, and thousands of people lined the streets of Lakatoro.”

Simon was born in a mission hospital on the tiny island of Tanna in what was then the British administered New Hebrides.

“I grew up watching dad interacting with the islanders. He established the administrative headquarters for the province that included a medical centre, a primary school, a police station and prison and was the local magistrate.”

Darvall had met Simon’s mother, Ida, soon after World War II when he was studying at Cambridge. He married the girl from Mosman, and they formed a great partnership on the remote Vanuatu island of Malekula from 1963 to 1977, with Darvall working as administrator, and Ida homeschooling their four children as well as the children of island employees.

Ida played an important role as the host for visiting dignitaries. She also ran women’s groups. Taught sewing and cooking .

In his memoirs, Darvall shares a delightful story of how his wife was upset after baking a lemon meringue pie for a formal dinner to watch helplessly as a chief took it from the table and gave it to his kids over the back fence. 

Simon goes further: “So many stories. One of the chiefs she hosted along with his gang all turned up in ceremonial dress, which meant mostly naked except for a penis wrapper. 

“My very Victorian grandmother was present on one occasion and enjoyed talking to the old chief who, in his youth, had eaten a missionary. True story.”

After his wife died in 1998, Darvall went to Tweed Heads to live. But then one of his daughters moved back to Vanuatu, and moved back too. He died there aged 98 in 2018.

Years before, Darvall had started paying the school fees of a young girl in Malekula.

“He did it as a memorial to mum, I guess, because mum had been so passionate about ensuring the girls got a fair go, that they got a chance to get an education,” said Simon.

“That woman, Lilly Fatdal, is now a senior biosecurity officer in Port Vila.

“When dad died, I decided to do the same.”

Simon established a non-government organisation, the Wilkins Family Foundation; both his sisters and his brother all became involved.

“The four of us all felt the people of Vanuatu had given us a lot growing up, and we just wanted to give something back.”

Relying on nothing more than what they themselves could afford, they set up a simple charity to pay school fees and mentor and tutor young girls in Vanuatu to get an education.

The selection criteria is simple: The girls need to be top 20 per cent academically, show leadership potential and they have to be seriously unprivileged.

‘We advertise in all the schools, and the girls apply. We don’t have any specific religious denomination,” said Simon.

“We get locals to help select a shortlist, and then a selection panel meets to interview the girls.

“My younger sister Sallie was living in Vanuatu when we started so she was heavily involved in getting the charity up and going.

“We’ve always been clear that, like dad, we wanted the locals to drive the organisation.”

The foundation is only six years old, and today it has 28 girls on the books most of whom are still going through high school.

“We are only a small organisation. We only have five staff members, and three of those are volunteers,” said Simon.

“We only work in one province at present. Just three of the 77 islands. We’d love to expand, but we simply don’t have the money.

“We’re hoping the Department of Foreign Affairs may help, or some corporates. But it hasn’t happened yet.”

The foundation is helping these girls with a budget of about $30,000 a year.

They have a small but loyal group of donors from Australia, NZ and Canada, mainly people who’ve had some contact with the Pacific Islands.

Here are a couple of their successes:

Joyline Bongnaim

At 17 Joyline fell pregnant and got kicked out of the French school she was attending. Her grandmother couldn’t pay her school fees. WFF was impressed with determination and went into bat for her. They financed online study and, despite the added pressure from a newborn baby, Joyline has done well at school and is currently shortlisted to begin tertiary study in medicine. 

Florence Samsin

Florence’s mum tragically died giving birth to her baby sister. Florence was eight when she took on the responsibilities of helping to care for her baby sister. Florence and her family were struggling simply to survive. Continuing her education was impossible. She is now in her first year of a counselling degree with the University of the Pacific, Fiji Campus.

Donate at wilkinsfamilyfoundation.com.au

Journalist David Turnbull is writing a series of profiles about interesting Canberrans. Do you know someone we’ve never heard of? Share the name in an email to David via editor@citynews.com.au