Kiwi accents on the Shetland Islands

Press, 23 January 1988, Page 23

Kiwi accents on the Shetland Islands

“I came here two years ago for a fortnight, and I’m still here!” Sharon Tulloch smiles across the desk where she works. It is right in the middle of Europe’s largest oil and gas terminal, Sullom Voe, in the Shetland Islands, the most northerly land mass of Britain. Why Sharon is still here is something of a mystery, even to herself. She left her home in New Plymouth, to come on a “Hamefarin”’ trip to her ancestral home. These voyages of rediscovery are mounted every few years for Shetland exiles and their families to visit the “loved ones left behind.” The New Zealand accents distinguishable in many of bars — there are at least three Kiwi barmaids in Lerwick, capital of the isles — show that some find it impossible to leave. Sharon, aged 23, has tried. I left recently for a trip to Israel, intending to go home overland. I just came back to Shetland to say goodbye — then I got offered this job, and I B uess rn be staying for a while longer.” Her secretarial job is not an ordinary one. Crisis hit the BPrun Sullom Voe terminal recently when massive amounts of corrosion were discovered in the plant’s gas pipelines. The gas processing operation was shut down, and 700 workers were drafted in to repair the pipelines. Sharon’s job is with the repair

By

TOM MORTON

task force management team, who face a mammoth job under close scrutiny from local officials worried about the risk of an explosion. In the best traditions of oil company secrecy, she will not talk about the job. She will talk about the Shetland weather, though, and how much she hates it: “The weather’s awful. In New Zealand I’m used to the outdoor life, but here it’s impossible — and in the winter it’s dark nearly all the time.” Shetland’s northerly position provides only about six hours of daylight in mid-winter, but the summer, when the “simmer dim” or midnight sun is common, does provide compensations: “Oh, yes, the place can be incredibly beautiful — when the sun shines. And the people. Yes, the people here are wonderful.” On a bright winter’s morning, even the industrial eyesore of Sullom Voe sparkles with freshness. Nearby, the islanders still cut - peat, and tiny Shetland ponies graze. The ponies may look cute, but they make up a sizeable proportion of many crofters’ incomes. And they are in demand. Recently, a dozen were airlifted to Saudi Arabia to be used at a school for disabled children there. It is the climate which will eventually drive Sharon Tulloch back to New Zealand. “At least there’s work here,” she says, “but K miss the sunshine.” r .