Thursday Island looks like paradise, but it has its troubles.
In the two years I've been here, we've had two or three suicides
in the communities,
and the effect it has on the communities
is absolutely devastating.
Darren Murray is a community mental health nurse
on Thursday Island.
We see a lot of people with anxiety, depression,
we have, you know, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder,
we see the full range.
I think all across Far North Queensland
you still find that stigma of, you know...
thinking that you're having
a mental illness or a mental issue.
And while mental health services do exist here on Thursday Island,
Darren says getting people through the doors
is another thing entirely.
I think in this community and across Indigenous communities in general,
there's a lot of shame attached to not being able to cope, function,
you know, provide or protect your family.
And for the young men here,
they're, they're very... headstrong.
Community leaders know how much the locals love their NRL
so they're hoping a visit from some former players
will get people opening up.
Rugby league is obviously
a very, very special sport for them.
Preston Campbell has retired from a 14-year NRL career
that wasn't always what it looked like from the outside.
"The Panthers players celebrated long into the night"
"after their first grand final triumph since 1991."
I didn't enjoy it probably as much as I should have.
I remember a few tears were shed,
it wasn't because I'd won a grand final,
it was because I'd come through one of the... or the toughest year
of my life.
It was a miracle he was even there.
Only a few months earlier,
Preston was hell-bent on killing himself.
And I had something stirring inside me and I drowned in my thoughts,
I just felt like I couldn't come up for breath
and there was so many things going through my head.
In 2002, a new coach at the Cronulla Sharks
had Preston playing in an unfamiliar position.
In just a year,
he went from winning the prestigious Player of the Year Award
to being dropped to reserve grade.
And I just thought "Look, I worked hard,
"my family had to go without just so we can get to this position
"and now you're telling me I'm not good enough."
I told myself "No matter how hard I worked,
"no matter how much my family went without,
"it was just never going to be good enough, so why even care?"
And that's where it all started.
Preston's mental health rapidly declined,
he withdrew from everyone including his family.
With his depression still undiagnosed,
he became suicidal.
I jumped in the car, I just put the pedal to the metal,
drove as fast, fast as I could
for as long as I could, and then I just turned my car off the road
and hit the first thing, which happened to be a tree
and that's all I remember.
I hit that tree in a hope that I wouldn't wake up again.
He did wake up... in hospital
miraculously without any serious injuries,
but it wasn't the last time he would try to kill himself.
Things only started to improve when Preston's coach, John Lang,
forced him to see a psychologist.
And that's why I say "Johnny Lang saved my life."
Because he...
he give me an opportunity to start talking about why...
why I was feeling the way I was feeling.
If it wasn't for John, and if it wasn't for the psychologist,
I wouldn't be here today.
Preston played until 2011.
When he retired, he withdrew from the game completely.
I didn't watch any football, I didn't go to any football games,
I just wanted to work
because I knew if I got away from the game,
I could get over it a lot quicker.
But when five young NRL contracted players
suicided between 2013 and 2015
Preston could no longer ignore the game.
When we lost, lost these boys,
the NRL were trying to find answers,
they're crying out for something, you know?
So, they'd asked if, if I'd consider sharing my stories.
Preston's now part of NRL's mental health program
called 'State of Mind.'
It tours communities which have strong connections to rugby league.
So, we'll be heading to Thursday Island, TI they call it.
They will have a footy carnival there,
I haven't been there myself,
and really looking forward to seeing how it goes.
Rugby league is the only,
sort of only tool that can, you know, engage our people, yeah.
Big rugby league players they're so...
you know, they think they're all so tough,
but really you don't know what's going on on the inside.
It's good to engage our mob
and to get them speaking and talking.
Preston is joined in the Torres Strait
by newly retired Cowboys player, Antonio Winterstein.
Antonio knows only too well how important speaking up is.
His brother Francis was one of the young players
who suicided in 2015.
I think stigma played a big role in him...
in him not seeking help
and speaking up.
You know, he was my brother. I knew everything about him.
But I didn't know what was really going on upstairs,
I really blamed myself with what happened that night...
"There's that attempt by Antonio Winterstein."
I sort of used the game to punish myself for what had happened.
I had no respect for my body so I was just running into people
hoping they would just snap me in half,
and I've come out of games with regular concussions,
broke my hand, broke my jaw.
I'll come home, I'm on the couch icing my body up
just to get ready to do it again the next week.
Eventually, the injuries would lead to his retirement earlier this year.
This is the first time he's presenting a State of Mind program.
This program has definitely re-educated me,
but also helped with the healing process of losing a loved one
and it's all about bringing those stories to the surface
so we can get everyone talking.
But getting people talking is proving harder than anticipated.
There was 13 teams coming together to play rugby league,
and so, the intention was that we would actually
bring those teams together
and run them through some education sessions
around State of Mind.
But in the three days
that the State of Mind team has been on Thursday Island,
not one person has walked through the doors to attend a session.
I've already spoken to half the teams,
but it's not a priority,
rugby league is the priority at the moment.
I just wish we could do a workshop,
I mean that's reason why were here.
Yeah, so, we've come up here, we set up our workshop,
had our presentation ready to go and unfortunately little bit light,
that's the nice way of putting it.
Unfortunately, we live in a world where depression is...
and mental health is the taboo subject no one wants to touch,
everyone wants to stay away from, and we've seen that here.
We've got a whole heap of people out there,
if you say there's a free feed on inside, everyone will come in,
but you tell people you're talking about suicide and mental health,
everyone wants to stay away.
We've got really protective communities up here,
we try and be as informal and sensitive
as non-Indigenous people coming in,
and sometimes English is a fourth language.
The way we just walk in and knock on the door, "hello",
it's very different, we wait for invitation,
we be very mindful, we ask permission.
Inside!
Neesha says they may have underestimated the challenge,
but it's an opportunity to learn
and adjust future State of Mind sessions.
Yes, it is disappointing.
I think we've had some connections with the schools,
really keen for us to link in with them,
so, I think it's an opportunity
for us to kind of reconsider how we do this,
especially when we come to these remote areas,
but we'll definitely be back, yes.
If we could come up and work with people one-on-one,
I think that way is the way to go, next time we come up.
For me, it hasn't been a waste of time,
I always say it's going to take some time
for people to get used to the conversations,
but I think it's important
that we keep trying to drive the conversation.
We would like to thank Preston and Antonio for coming
and giving up their time to run footy games with us
and, yeah, thank you very much.
Thank you, brother.
It's easy for me and others like meself
to go out and share this story, open a can of worms,
but then we're gone, they're left to deal with it all,
so it's really about them and hopefully strengthening
their education or their awareness around this
and hopefully that's what the people of Torres Strait Islands can do.