Warm welcome for Ambassador’s visit
By Wendy Shaw
Seasonal workers on the North West Coast are finding a warm and welcoming community in the Mersey Leven Parish.
Many of the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme employees are from Timor Leste and are working on farms in the Ulverstone and Penguin areas, as Mersey-Leven Parish Priest Fr Sunil De Silva explained.
So he was delighted to join parishioners in welcoming Timor Leste’s Ambassador to Australia, Ms Inês Maria De Almeida, and a delegation of dignitaries, to Sunday Mass at Sacred Heart Catholic Church, Ulverstone, on 20 July.
The Ambassador and the delegation were keen to meet workers and visit farms.
“The visit went very well,” Fr Sunil said. “The Ambassador and about nine parliamentary members and officials came and they were very happy to meet the Ulverstone Catholic community.
“The people here were warm and welcoming.
“We welcomed them to Mass, and they joined in, and afterwards we had fellowship with them.
“The Ambassador spent time speaking to her people and then they headed to the big farms in Ulverstone and Penguin to meet more of the [Timor Leste] community working in the Mersey-Leven Parish area.”
Fr Sunil explained that the number of PALM employees attending Mass fluctuate from 12 to more than 60, depending on the season and work schedules.
“They are very religious people and they join our Sunday Mass,” he said. “They have very good singers and they sing their songs in our Mass.
“People like them, and our communities are welcoming.”
The PALM scheme allows eligible Australian businesses to hire workers from nine Pacific island countries and Timor-Leste when there are not enough local workers available. Most work in agricultural and meat processing sectors.
According to PALM data for June, there were 31,055 workers in Australia, of which 4,290 were from Timor-Leste. There were 1,800 PALM workers, from all countries, in Tasmania in June.
According to Vatican figures, Catholics comprise 95 per cent of the Timor-Leste population of 1.4 million. Pope Francis visited the capital, Dili, in September 2024.