Those living and working in remote communities in the 2020’s do not understand isolation and what it means.

Most remote communities these days have access to telephone communications and the internet. Services can be irregular at times but they are there. Phone conversations, FaceTime and Zoom are available, keeping those providing remote area service with personal and professional contact opportunitie

Fax machines have been available in some places while email means that the speed of written communication has overcome the isolation and delays of snail mail as the only option for the transmission of correspondence.

My first teaching appointment was to Warburton Ranges (WA) in 1970, an Aboriginal community over five hundred of kilometres from the nearest town . A mail and supply truck came once every six weeks. We had to rely on outback radio overseen by the mission nursing station for transmission of messages. That was weather permitting and provided there was room on the schedule for our communications.

This is no fairy tale. It is for real.

How would outback teachers cope these days?