Long Distance Education

We visited the Longreach School of Distance Education (formerly the Longreach School of the Air) and a very interesting morning. When we arrived school had already started for the day - the DE kids start their day at 8.00am sharp! We could see the Year 3 teacher, Ms Hewson, in her soundproof classroom and hear the kids online, some hundreds of kms away. A science lesson was in progress on the dissection of a piece of fruit and we could see each child doing a 'diagram' on the 'blackboard', which was actually a whiteboard! Each child is able to speak to the teacher individually and Ms Hewson was able to monitor the drawings of individual students per the whiteboard. The family pays $350 per year to lease the computer and all the latest, greatest, programs required, including maintenance, to home school their children. The whole technology set up was fantastic and very interesting to watch.

Apart from the technology aspect, the school looked like any other. Twenty-four teachers cover both Primary and Secondary levels. The school buildings housed: Student work proudly displayed; a well equipped library (for not only books but musical instruments, games, videos and toys), made possible by the donation of $15 by visitors to purchase a book with their name and home town engraved in it and left in the library; and 7 studios for teachers to conduct their classes over the airways. Special effort is made to keep the grass green by the installation of 4 rain water tanks because some of the children would otherwise never see grass. Can you imagine that!

There are 168 students enrolled in the school which covers an area twice the size of Victoria and Tasmania combined and most will go on to boarding school for Secondary. There are those families though who choose not to their children away from home, or simply can't afford to, so there are 11 Secondary students up to Year 10 level and only 2 who are currently undertaking Years 11 & 12. During a guided tour around the school we were shown the classrooms (2) that are used when the kids all came together for 'camps' a couple of times a year. When a particular child comes to the school for camp, the parent or nanny has to bring all of the children in the family because often dad is often busy running the property, which means accommodation is required for the whole family. The logistics for the home-schooling parent or nanny for schooling different grades of kids are mind-boggling. The organisation that goes into giving isolated kids an education must be very complex but in typical Aussie fashion there is obviously resourcefulness and ingenuity in action for what appears to be an extremely successful means to an education. The website has some great info in you're interested: http://www.longreacsde.eq.edu.au/

The Famous Hall!

Our feet may never be the same again!

Today we walked around the Australian Stockman's Hall of Fame and Outback Heritage Centre for nearly 5 and half hours, but it was well worth the effort. For those who haven't been, or don't know what the Centre is about, it is dedicated to those spectacular individuals who settled this country in the late 1800's and onward. What a great institution it is for all Australians, old and new. We have never seen such a brilliant collection of memorabilia, presentations and displays anywhere in Australia. And the sheer tenacity, single-mindedness and ingenuity of those early white settlers was humbling. Both men and women made enormous sacrifices to feeding the nation through drought, flood, famine, disease, isolation, desert storms and all the many, many other problem they faced.

The section dedicated to the original owners of this land was very informative too and didn't leave out the bits we don't want to acknowledge or know about. But it was also a very positive display of photographs and traditional artefacts.

If you ever get the chance, do it!

Sorry, no photos today. We were too busy looking, but are going back to tomorrow for a short visit to do some photographs outside the Centre.

By the way, it was 32 degrees today!!!

The weather

We left home under a grey sky and a 6 degree temperature. Our first 4 nights were very cold and the only way to keep warm, despite a heater in the van, was to hide in bed under a heap of blankets. However............ we haven't had a heater on since Nyngan! The day time temps have been 23 - 26 degrees, with nights cooling down to maybe 14. The sunshine and vividly clear blue skies have been fantastic, so much so that we've packed our winter woollies under the bed for storage until we head south again. The sunrises and sunsets haven't yet been what we'd call spectacular but we're hoping that will happen the further north we get. We're just waiting for that 'photo opportunity'!

Destination Longreach Achieved!

Well, here we are at our long awaited destination of Longreach after 1627kms. We're actually staying about 15 minutes south of Longreach in a very small town called Ilfracombe. We chose to stay here because it is not as big as the Longreach park and so felt a little more personal. We were greeted by Cathy who very ably assisted in reversing the van onto the site because there are no drive-through sites. We quickly settled in for 4 nights and headed off to a well earned drink at the pub next door only to discover how small the world really is.

You know that feeling that you've met someone before but can't quite work out where from? Well, we thought we recognised a woman from home whilst walking through the park and whilst we didn't personally know her, when we saw her at the pub we nervously asked her if she was from our town. The incredulous response was in the affirmative and we discovered that her husband Peter worked with our friend Bob in forestry for many years. Diane and Peter sat talking with us for almost an hour before our mobile phone rang with a call from Sheila, who lives in Oberon, whom they also knew. And that wasn't the only 'small world' event to happen to us on this trip. A few days back, we met a couple from Wollongong with whom we spent a couple of days. During a conversation we discovered the husband worked at a mine near Wollongong with a friend of D's from school!

Ok, enough coincidences. We've brought the blog up-to-date. We've tried to add some photos but only succeeded in the blog entitled 'Colour Day'. Will have another crack at adding more photos tomorrow. It's 10 to 11 and we both need some beauty sleep!

We're off to explore Ilfracombe and Longreach tomorrow. Will fill you in on that when time allows.

T. & D.

Making Comments

Ok, I've had numerous emails telling me that you weren't able to make a Comment without using a profile. I think I've fixed that now so hopefully you'll be able to add comments without further hindrance! Feel free to add a Comment please......... and at least I'll know that it works!

Evening Star Tourist Park @ Thurlby Station

Now, here's the way to do farm stays - Brilliant! The park was set out sensibly for caravans with drive-through sites; the facilities environmentally sustainable; the owners friendly and very welcoming; the camp fire was raging and the showers hot; the bush path was lovely; the horses wandering around the place where well behaved and the company around the bbq's was welcomed. This sort of accommodation could catch on!

Ah Queensland - Beautiful one day - Closed the next!

We arrived in Cunnamulla on Saturday afternoon at 1.35 to find the town streets deserted of locals and about 40 caravans parked near the Visitor Information Centre. The 'Cunnamulla Fella' was crouching serenely in the towns park, the two supermarkets were closed, the smaller shops were closed, the bakery and the newsagent were closing, the pub was deserted and the Visitor's Centre was in the process of throwing out all the tourist so it too could close. The Grey Nomads were all confused until it was realised that it was Saturday and the shops close in (South West anyway) Queensland at 12.30pm sharp on Saturday, with only the supermarkets re-opening on Sunday for 3 hours! We were hoping to replenish a few essentials like bread, milk, lettuce and perhaps a few other things but alas no-one in Cunnamulla saw the benefits the influx 80 people could bring to their economically struggling community. Needless to say, we had our lunch and headed off to Charleville without making a monetary contribution to Cunnamulla.