Dingoes, buffaloes, wild weather, bumpy roads, and loop-to-looping in planes are all in a day's work for electoral staffers covering 1.3 million square kilometres in the Northern Territory seat of Lingiari.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
For a fortnight, 16 teams from the Australian Electoral Commission have been travelling in planes, helicopters and four-wheel-drives to 190 remote locations across the territory to enable Indigenous communities to cast their vote.
NT electoral officer Geoff Bloom said this election has been the most challenging he's ever worked on, with COVID-19 causing logistical problems and pilot shortages.
Staff have faced a myriad of hurdles, including one team which had to fly in loops over a small airfield because a chartered jet was parked on the strip.
Another team spent one night camped out on a veranda at an Arnhem Land house when wild weather prevented a helicopter returning from refuelling.
"Local people looked after them and made sure the camp dogs were there to keep the wild buffaloes away," Mr Bloom told AAP.
"The buffaloes get up close and personal, and the dingoes come wandering in from the surrounding bush.
"It can all be a little bit on edge ... but we made sure the team was safe and they had some water and provisions."
Mr Bloom said the teams visit locations where a minimum of 10 people are registered to vote, and work closely with communities to provide information in Indigenous languages.
The staff do everything they can to promote their visits and the polling places, but have found locked gates at some outstations.
Amid ongoing concern about COVID-19, all communities gave their permission for electoral staffers to visit, as did the territory's health department, Mr Bloom said.
"Those communities are very engaged in the system and want their opportunity to vote.
"So we're doing the right thing for the right reasons.
"We are quite passionate about making sure we deliver a really good service to people and communities."
The AEC's Remote Area Mobile Polling services have also been travelling across Queensland, NSW, South Australia and Western Australia.
The commission has warned there is a gap in the workforce in some regional seats.
It is seeking polling staff to work on election day in the seats of Capricornia, Flynn, Kennedy and Leichhardt in Queensland, Barker and Grey in South Australia and Durack and O'Connor in WA.
Electoral commissioner Tom Rogers said the vast majority of the nation's planned 7000 polling places will be in operation, but the pandemic has caused worker shortages.
Australian Associated Press
