In 1970, housing in and around Warburton was somewhat creative but without structure or substance. Indigenous Australians, for whom the settlement had been provided, did not actually live in the township. They lived in camps, to the north, east, south and west of the community. They roughly divided on the basis of family and clan boundaries, this taking account of compatabilities and incompatibilities. Avoidance requirements were taken into account but as the settlement was central to all, it followed that tensions manifest themselves from time to time.

Sometimes conflicts were fairly minor, confined to an exchange of language. On other occasions, conflict was more intense involving physical exchange. Traditional weapons were sometimes used, and spearing, usually for payback purposes, were not altogether uncommon. Some of these were ritualised. Generally, anyone suffering injury was attending to and looked after medically by the health clinic.

There were no houses, the camps being a construction of wiltjas, constructed of tin, hessian and other scrap materials. They provided shade, but very l;title else. There’s structures were blisteringly hot during summer and frigidly cold during winter months, when campfires became all important to offer warmth. Many of these structures had corrugated iron sheets used to builds light a barrier around the structure. These sheets of metal afforded some shelter from the wind.

Blankets were used to help create warmth and people also slept next to their dogs for added warmth. Locally, cold nights were referred to as ‘two dog nights’, ‘three dog nights’ and so on, these expressions being to indicate just how cold and shivering were these nights.

Some people lived in old cars and other vehicles which were no longer running. There was no housing for indigenous people, other than three units on the west side of the settlement. As people had become deceased either in or nearby, these houses had been effectively abandoned.

Community homes for staff were a mixed collection. There were some houses constructed of local rock, walls held in place by locally made mud matrix. Education houses were of aluminium with some metal lining. There were one or two places quite decently constructed, but most buildings for occupational purposes or for living were very basic.

I am concerned that we in Australia are going to confront major COVID-19 outbreak the like of which we have not yet seen. The lack of ability on the part of people to take a long term attitude on control measures is leading me toward this thinking. There are a number of factors causing me to think in this unfortunate manner.

• Quarantine fatigue is breaking the resistance of people to countering C-19.
• More and more people are breaching physical distancing rules. It has been proven unequivocally that distancing (along with hand cleanliness) are the best deterents to contacting C-19.
• Return to the normal supply of alcohol and other relaxants will play out in a way that mitigates against physical distancing.
• Crowds flocking to pubs, clubs, beaches, rallies, parks cinemas and elsewhere will bring people into a closeness that will spread C-19 through social contract.
• The optionality of testing as a requirement for those in quarantine and lock down areas will mean cases occurring because of vtest avoidance.

*Foolish statements about safety of airline travel (compared to bus, train and ferry travel restrictions) guarantees spreading of the virus among airline travellers.

• A continuing return of overseas travellers into quarantine situations is bringing cases into Australia.
• The number of cases in schools, businesses and elsewhere will spike: Victoria’s revisitation to C-19 is only the start. Next may well be NSW and who knows where to from there.

*Thinking that C-19 is short term is unfortunate. This affliction is going to be with us into the foreseeable future.

• I’d prognosticate that the opening of travel around Australia will generate dollars and bequeath C-19 cases.
• It can be forecast that when C-19 gets into remote communities (and there is a 99% chance it will), C-19 will take off in a major way.

Am I worried? You bet I am.

Vehicles were very much a part and parcel of the Warburton Ranges scene. Most once purchased and returned to Warburton, did not last a particularly long time. They were driven and driven until they could be driven no more. Some, in fact many did not make it back to Warburton or if being driven from Warburton to other destinations, did not complete their journeys. The Outback Road (then much more of a track) was dotted with abandoned vehicles dumped and left adjacent to the road. Some were burnt out, most stripped of parts but all were left to weather in the heat of summer and the cold of winter months.

I remember the Docker River Truck. It was bought with money that had been part of a settlement by Western Mining toward a local elder, when he sold his promising chrysoprase mine to the company. The mine was about five kilometres from Warburton, located just off the track to the east of the settlement. The Docker Truck a brand new two ton vehicle, was so named because after purchase, it made several trips from Warburton to Docker and back.

)

This was prior to our arrival at Warburton in 1970. By then the truck, undriveable and beyond economic repair, was outside the southern fence of the school. It had resisted just over 3,000 miles on the odometer. The value of vehicles, once purchased, depreciated immediately. Lives of most were were very short.

There was an exception to this rule. Someone bought a yellow Holden FJ sedan. It went and went and went and went! It had an unstoppable motor, notwithstanding that oil used to top up the engine was generally second hand lubricant that had been drained from elsewhere. The engine mounting wore out from fatigue and from travel over bone shattering tracks and terrain. So the engine was held in place by green, forked sticks cut from trees that grew at some distance from Warburton.

They vehicle changed hands at regular intervals and each time sold for more than the price for which it had been purchased by the vendor. The Holden defied all odds and just kept on going. Obviously it had an end point in useful life but what a vehicle it was. It went far, far further than the distance ever travelled by the Docker Truck. It also offered a quite everlasting memory that shows what can happen when odds and averages are defied.

Until recently, Darwinians, Palmerstonians, Tourists and other comers thought that we were all part of a geographic area absolutely Coronavirus free. Covid-19 was a distant problem.

Not any more. That is not since a Victorian miner en route top the Granites Mine in the NT had to go via Brisbane and quarantine in a hotel between his RPT and charter (to the mine) flight. Queensland required him to quarantine for nine hours. He was put into a hotel, onto the same floor as repatriated persons from overseas who were recovering from the Delta variant of the virus.

He was infected while in that brief quarantine period while in the quarantine hotel, but unknowingly flew to the Granites. There he was associated with 700 people coming onto shift, 70 of them close contacts. And before his infection became apparent, 900 of his fellow workers left the mine for their R and R periods. Of these 211 flew to Darwin. And among the 211 was an infected miner who lives in Palmerston. He subsequently tested positive as (later) did his wife and daughter.

Darwin is now on Covid lockdown, for two days at first and now five and likely to stretch for longer. No more free and easy. Going out and going into shops is now like playing Russian Roulette. You don’t know if you are going into a place where Covid infectious people have visited. You may have have been in the shop at the same time as them, so you are under the gun. Not a nice feeling. A feeling that fills one with apprehension and fright.

This brings to mind the cases of the worker living in Palmerston who returned from the Granites Mine and then tested positive for the Delta variant of Covid. Why did the family of this man go out and about and roam as wide and free as they did, when they MUST have known there was a fair chance of them being infected, given they knew their husband and father’s situation? Their wandering has put a lot of businesses and scores of people into a situation of health endangerment.

How many people who were in the shops at Gateway during danger times used the Territory QR code or signed into the shops? I would bet any money that less than 5% of those entering shops used the code or signed in before entering the shop.

Covid. It is real and among us.

HOME TRUTHS ABOUT COVID-19

• We have by our slack attitudes and false ‘iron man’ sense of invincibility, brought this plague’s second Victorian wave on ourselves.

• We are all vulnerable to COVID-19. Our vulnerability is increased by the fact that more and more, fewer and fewer people are observing physical distancing rules. I note too, that supermarkets are now inconsistent and sporadic about providing trolley and basket wipes along with hand sanitiser. The number of people allowed into premises at any one time is no longer monitored.

• One aspect of the virus is that people are increasingly demanding that government carries the can and accepts full responsibility for what is happening on the COVID-19 front. The expectation that government should ‘keep’ people seems top be alive and well. When people are asked to accept responsibility and accountability for their actions, they can’t cope and stress out.

• NSW is saying community transmission of COVID-19 is at a ‘critical point’ after three more infections have been identified after an infected man went into a pub. Well, what do authorities expect as pubs, clubs and other recreational and eating establishments are open. Infection has to be an expectation.

On one occasion in 1970, a twin engine plane, from memory a twin engine Cessna 412, flew into Warburton. The airstrip, in those days a smoothed out dirt strip that was periodically maintained, was just east of the settlement. Fuel for planes was ferried down on a needs basis on the back of a utility or truck, and then hand pumped into plane fuel tanks by pumping from 44 gallon (120 litre) drums containing aviation fuel.

Fuel was kept under survelliance as much as possible because of substance abuse issues and also cost per drum to freight the fuel (usually on the Atkinson). On this occasion, the pilot and passengers after landing, did not leave the plane and walk up to the community, a distance of several hundred metres. Rather, the election was to taxi the plane off the strip, up an incline (not the steepest but quite apparent), coming as close as could be manoeuvred to the settlement buildings.

It turned out that the passengers were members of a ballet company on the way from Perth to Alice Springs. They were attired in a way that revealed their individuality as persons connected with the expressive arts profession. The locals were amazed, indeed gobsmacked by the revelations of these personages as they alighted from the plane. Their dress and gait held special appeal. The local young men could not match these visitors for dress, but they took them off perfectly for the way in which they deported themselves while out of the plane and on the ground. The mimicking was accurate and entertaining. It lasted for a long time after the plane was returned to the airstrip, fuelled and had taken off to continue its journey.

Warburton in 1970 was a quite isolated place. But we could always expect the unexpected and visitors turning up out of the blue was part of what made the unexpected a part of community life.

OUTBACK EDUCATION IN THE ‘NOT TOO DISTANT’ PAST Warburton Ranges (WA) in 1970 (8)

In 1970, there was little traffic on the ‘Outback Highway’ from Laverton to Ayers Rock (Now Uluru). Four wheel drive was standard for many vehicles. High wheel base 4WD especially constructed vehicles which could negotiate rugged outback terrain were standard for tour offering company “Outback Australia”.

On occasion, a convoy of vehicles would play “follow the leader“ all the way through from Perth to Alice Springs. The lead vehicle was generally well equipped but persons coming behind in ordinary conventional vehicles would have had some difficulty in many sections of the track. I’m sure they helped each other when the need arose.

There were often 15 to 20 vehicles in the convoys. They needed to pull in at Warburton for fuel. Petrol was dispensed through the store using an ancient fuel bowser which allowed the pumping up of five or six gallons of fuel at as time from the concrete underground storage tank. Pumping the fuel up from an underground tank was done by way of lever operated by hand. When the bowser bowl was full, the fuel was then siphoned by hose from the bowl into the fuel tank of the motor car.

Whenever these convoys came into town (and they were infrequent) they would generally arrive in the late afternoon when the school day was complete. I would head over and volunteer to pump the fuel and have conversations with persons whose vehicles are being filled. When fuelled, vehicles would be driven into a secondary line developed for those ready to continue the eastern journey.

On one occasion, a vehicle with a male driver and three female passengers was in the second line. The vehicle, a quite large tourer (possibly VW), had a large Perspex roof. Nearby, some boys were kicking an old and very worn football to each other. One of the kickers sent the ball in a high and misdirected fashion into the air. The ball came down, not in the arms of one of the other players, but square onto the Perspex roof of the tourer. The roof smashed, with large and small fragments together with the football landing among the three waiting ladies. It became a case of losing a roof and gaining a football – for the boys bolted before the three women became fully aware of what had happened.

Oner thing is for sure. The next several hundred kilometres of the trip would have been very dusty indeed.

AVOID COVID COMPLACENCY

With the coronavirus, there is for us in the NT and Australia the ‘new normal’ but not ‘normality’ as we knew it. The COVID-19 virus is ever lurking and with our soft border options on the quarantining alternative for people from hot spots, the virus has every chance of outing itself into the wider community. Complacency is starting to take a firm grip in the NT and physical distancing (the best of all avoidance measures) is starting to become a past practice.

That Darwin Harbour view tranquility while a vision from high rise Darwin offices may offer a vista of false hope about what lies ahead in the not so distant future.

If lunching, make sure that physical distancing should be part of your eating methodology. You want this midday period to be long and not short term.

Also enjoy and appreciate your own company. There is value in quiet contemplation and being alone with your own thoughts and those shared in concert with your family.

Those who tempt danger by betting their lives against

COVID- 19 are playing a very dangerous game of Russian Roulette

Beyond the school day, life at Warburton in 1970 had a good deal to offer. There was always something going on in the community an d the dynamics between staff could be interesting. There was a strong mission element, with some non mission staff connected with education and some aspects of welfare. I used top attend some of the religious functions organised by mission staff, for this was the only way of really keeping abreast of trends about what was happening within the community.

The Warburton Store was basic in terms of the goods available for sale. Our diet was strictly limited, with tinned food (including meat, fruit and vegetables) providing a staple diet. PMU Braised Steak and Onions was my absolute favourite. Forest fruit and vegetables were rare. Flour, sugar and tea were staples. The store had a bakehouse connected, with bread being a significant element of the local diet.

The locals would buy bread and put it up on posts or other structures out of the reach of dogs. When it dried to quite bone hard proportions, they would break it into pieces, dip it in billy tea and eat it in moistened state.

Tea and sugar were purchased in made up lots. It was customary to place the whole amount of tea and sugar into a billy can of boiling water and drink it (or use it to soak bread) until the container was close to empty. The billy can was then filled with water and reboiled. This process was repeated until the tea and sugar flavour was totally depleted.

Fresh meat was a rarity and management somewhat unusual and possibly bizarre. Periodically, mission management would organise a group who would go into the Warburton hinterland, select a cow from among what was a semi-wild collection, kill it, dress it and bring it back to the store on the tray of a utility. The beast was then taken into the store and hung in a section that was semi dark and serviced by a hanging hook attached to a stout beam. Beneath the beasts was a wooden floor, made somewhat slippery by congealed blood that had dripped onto it over time.

People wanting meat were given a sharp knife and invited to cut off portions they wanted. This method of self service had limited appeal. Although the area was secluded and not as hot as general surrounds, the meat went off quickly. This butchery method became less practised with the passing of time.

Locals paid for goods from the proceeds of welfare checks cashed at the store. Staff ran accounts on credit, paying them down when pay cheques arrived.

For the greater part of my professional life I kept a diary. This is a habit continued into my retirement years. There are a few years missed in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s but I have records otherwise. I kept copies of letters duplicated and sent to friends and relatives and have various other documents. (However, from 1982 onward, a diary has been kept of each and every year. Some contain more detail than others, but the value of keeping a diary for all sorts of professional and personal recall needs cannot be overstated. My Father always kept a diary and it is to him I owe thanks for this becoming, for the most part, an ingrained personal behaviour.)

My first diary was in 1970. It was a foolscap size diary with a page allocated to each day. The first ever day of my full time teaching experience turned out to be pupil free, by accident rather than by design. It is a day now over half a century old I will never forget.

Warburton Range School Headmaster, Bruce Goldthorp, an educator with seven or eight years of teaching experience, was on his first day in the role of headmastership. As he lined the students up, a kerfuffle with beginnings outside the school yard, quickly entered the school precinct. It transpired that one of the older students (1) had told another that her Father had snakes in his legs. Her Father in fact had very visible and prominent varicose veins in his legs. This ‘observation’ was part of an altercation that had occurred some time prior between the two students.

This comment was relayed to her Father who took umbrage at the deep insult. With his weapons to hand, he and his family came into the school yard, seeking retribution on the utterer of that comment. She took off, into the school and up the classroom connecting passage, being chased by the offended father and family. The family of the girl who had made the comment became alerted to the dispute and with appropriate weaponry (no firearms were involved) began chasing after the offended family.

The end result of this situation was a scatter of all students, first as spectators to the event, which rapidly moved from the school yard and into the community, thence into the distance. There was no school that day: Our first school day of 1970 at Warburton was the second day of the school year.

(1) Names and identities withheld.

It is all too easy to blame the truancy practices of indigenous children missing days and days of schooling on “poor teaching and failure to engage students” ( “Extra funds fail to improve Indigenous schooling – new report ” NT News 23/6). Parents and students are failing to fulfil THEIR responsibilities to themselves, to ensure attendance so teaching and engagement of teachers with children CAN take place. Blame does. NOT lie with schools and teachers.

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Two girls one 13 the other 12 stole a car, barely allowing a 7 year old boy in the car a chance to realise what was happening. He escaped in the nick of time. Police apprehended the stolen vehicle and “the youths were taken home and released into the care of responsible adults” (NT News 24/6). I am now wondering what ‘responsible’ means when it comes to the care and welfare of children by parents and carers.

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All the very best to students and school staff for a safe, happy and restful mid year holiday break. Thank you teachers and school staff for the great job you do in ministering to the educational and support needs of our Territory’s primary and secondary students. I hope this is a period of refreshment for everyone connected with school education.

The seasons of the year at Warburton, were seasons of contrast. Our geographic position meant that the community would have been better served by adherence to central standard time rather than western standard time. Summer and winter, the sun rose early and set early.

Summer temperatures ranged between lows averaging between 22 degrees (C) to 38 degrees (C). (1) In winter, the temperature range was between lows getting down to between 6 degrees (C) to 21 degrees (C). (2) Temperatures during shoulder months ranged between these extremes. Averaging does not tell the whole story because there were times when it was much hotter and much colder than recorded averages.

One of the interesting phenomena of winter months, when the atmosphere on the ground with dryers bones was a Vista of “black frost“ which covered large areas in the pre-dawn. There were some cattle troughs around Warburton that had been used for cattle in earlier times. Those drives were invariably frozen over, often for some hours during the dry and cold mid winter months.

Warburton‘s annual average rainfall was; however, there was a good deal of fluctuation in just how those faults occurred. In 1970 we had only 19 points of rain for the whole of the year. Just a few millimetres. I remember to this day, children running, frisking and playing on the strip of green lawn adjacent to the school in sheer delight as those points of moisture fell. From the heavens.

When we went back to Warburton in 1974, 75 there was a real deluge. Elder Creek burst its banks and the mission was flooded. Water drained away from central Australia including the Warburton area and finished up cutting channels all the way through to the great Australian bite. Warburton, which didn’t have a Skerritt of green anywhere around in 1970 became part of the hinterlandIn which there was wonderful growth and green everywhere. The vagaries of nature and the fact that things were unpredictable helped to make the community a place of unpredictability.

(1) December to February.

(2) May to July

There was a certain vast remoteness about the landscapes leading to and from Warburton that somehow left those passing through with a feeling of outback majesty.

The area around Warburton Ranges was semi desert scrubland and Spinifex. However, every vestige of vegetation had vanished from the country to the north, south, east west of the settlement and to a distance of at least 4 to 5 km. And the fact that Warburton sat in the middle of a veritable dustbowl meant that every time a breeze would blow up, the settlement would be shrouded in dust.

Sometimes we only had a light dusting (with zephyr like breezes) but on many of occasions with strong easterly winds, dust filled every nook and crevice of our school and houses. Keeping things clean was a never-ending task.

We didn’t have school cleaners so our task is a small group of teaching staff was to not only look after our homes but also the school when it came to basic cleaning. I windows in both the school and our houses were of the louvred variety; keeping dust out through shutting those windows was impossible. A carpet of red on desk and table tops, chairs, cupboards and other fittings was constant.

On one occasion we had a visitor who was to be a house guest. On arrival, she immediately set to to spruce the house (obviously thinking we had no interest or capability in household cleanliness). When the job was done, there was brief time for any celebration. The wind came up, blew unceasingly for a period – and she came to understand why the house (also aluminium with masonite wall lining) was as it had presented on her arrival.

Winter winds were dusty, cold and bitter. From April to the end of August, overnight temperatures in low, single digits were common. Daytime temperatures were often no more than 15 to 18 degrees Celsius, often accompanied by bitter westerly winds. At recess and lunch time, children would sit along the length of the eastern school wall, (the lee wall) soaking up sunshine that was not impacted by wind.

Trying to convince the WA Education Department of the need for fuel fired heaters for school and home was impossible. After all, we only lived 32 kilometres south of the Tropic of Capricorn, so how could we POSSIBLY be cold!

The Sunday Territorian (20/6) and the NT News (21/6) carried timely stories warning of the deleterious impact of addiction on young people overusing iPads, iPhones and devices. In this context it makes no sense that the NT Department of Education has no policy limiting the access of primary and secondary students to iPhones during school hours. The department urgently needs to follow the example of those stares which have placed bans on school day usage.

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Katherine and it’s nearby region are flourishing agricultural, horticultural and industrial hubs. I am constantly amazed that school excursions are limited to tourist attractions. Visits should include visits to farms and businesses. Young people have little awareness about the substance upon which the town and its hinterland are based. They leave knowing little about the ‘real’ Katherine.

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A few short years ago the Charles Darwin University was in debt for many millions of dollars. The solution was to curtail TAFE/vet courses and to cut back on staff in those areas. Now, in 2021, the university has a surplus of over $22 million. So the university is going to reinstate TAFE/Vet courses and will obviously rehire staff to run those programs. Help me, help me! I do not understand.

The power supply at Warburton in 1970 was generated by the mission. They had a diesel powered generator. The power plant was operational for only a few hours each day. From Monday to Friday, power was supplied between 5.00 pm and 10.00 pm from Monday to Saturday. On Sunday, the power was shut down at 9.00 pm. (These limited hours of supply may have had to do with diesel costs and the fact that funding for the overall operation of Warburton was largely dependent on donations made to the mission from private sources.)

Washing, cooking and other domestic and work related functions dependent upon power had to take place during those limited hours. Although we had a gas stove, each cylinder of gas purchased, cost a full week’s salary, so use of gas had to be very strictly limited. An electric frypan was useful.

From an educational and schooling point of view, activities in 1970 had to be conducted without recourse to electricity. This meant that heating in winter and cooling in summer were not options available to teaching staff. Our school building was of aluminium construction with masonite lining. The building with its three classrooms linked by an enclosed walkway, was suffocatingly and fetidly hot in summer and often desperately cold in winter.

When we returned in 1974, the school had its own power generator and no longer had to rely solely on the community. That made things so much better. That engine generating our power was also appreciated by some of the locals who had cars. When the sump oil was drained from the engine, it would be claimed and used to top up the oil levels in some of the cars.

The mail bag, for us all, was a point of excitement. The bag or bags went into the large and sparsely furnished home of the superintendent. He opened the bags and distributed letters and parcels to designated points of the room for staff. Mail for the indigenous community went into a section for later sorting and distribution to recipients through the store-cum-office.

At that time, the emphasis was on letters because the era was pre-facsimile and pre other forms of electronic transmission. Salaries were dispensed by cheque. Teachers and the few other government workers would receive three and sometimes four pay cheques at a time. Understandably, we had accounts at the store for the purchase of foodstuffs and other goods.

Outbound mail went via the mailbag on the return trip to Kalgoorlie via the Atkinson. However trips were not alwnays predictable. The truck was sturdy but the track to Laverton one massive stretch of uncertainly, including hundreds of kilometres of punishing corrugations. The truck was often off the road for quite lengthy periods because of the need for repairs.

This meant piggybacking on the goodwill of travellers and those passing through Warburton to accept and post mail for those looking to communicate with the outside world.

Apart from teaching, I was a student undertaking a correspondence course to upgrade my teaching qualifications. At one point in time, I sent an exam paper to Perth via a pilot who sometimes came to Warburton by plane. He posted the exam paper at the Perth Airport, but it was never received. I was offered two options. I could either forego a second examination and be given as pass mark because my coursework average for assignments completed was at distinction level. Or I could resist another examination. I elected a ‘pass’ level for the course.

CHANGED CONDITIONS

I was a remote area teacher in WA in 1970 then again in 1974-75. Both periods were at Warburton Ranges in far eastern WA.

Our remote service in the Northern Territory was from July 1975 until December 1986. Included were appointments to Numbulwar, Angurugu on Groote Eylandt and Nhulunbuy.

I am going to write a little of my experiences and memories during those periods. Variations in living and working in those places during those years is in sharp contrast to education in 2021.

OUTBACK EDUCATION IN THE ‘NOT TOO DISTANT’ PAST

Warburton Ranges (WA) in 1970 (1)

In the early 1970s (1970, 1974-75) I was teaching at Warburton Ranges in W.A. Laverton, our nearest town was We had no regular mail service. A mail truck came in once every six weeks. Outbound mail went to Kalgoorlie with anybody if you happen to be travelling in that direction.

Warburton is 552 kilometres from the small town of Laverton (8.5 hours by road in 2021). Kalgoorlie, the nearest service centre is 892 kilometres (close to 12 hours in 2021) away. In the 1970’s, with the road to Laverton from Warburton largely unmaintained, and in essence a ‘track’, that leg of the trip took far longer.

There were no phones, very limited radio reception, and most certainly no other connection with the outside world other than VJY radio.

VJY radio was controlled by the mission (1970) and the Department of Health (1974). This mode of communication is not private, not even for telegram transmission. Everything was public.

In 1970, the United Aborigines Mission (UAM) which administered Warburton had a generally sturdy and reliable truck, an Atkinson, which ran a shuttle supply and mail service between Warburton to Kalgoorlie and return. When the trucks was due, children and people would begin to look anxiously west. There was a high point on the track, a ‘jump up’ at about 40 kilometres from Warburton. In clear and still conditions, dust raised by the Atkinson could be spotted.

Children would start to get excited, with that excitement rising to a crescendo when the truck hove into view after crossing Elder Creek four kilometres to the west of the town. It would pull up in the town centre, opposite the store, its yellow paintwork and tarpaulin covered load covered in outback track redness and dripping with fine dust.

Teachers, particularly Primary School teachers often wonder whether schools are schools. It seems that many including parents, politicians and the community at large think of them as creches. According to the Macquarie Dictionary a school is a place where instruction is given for children. A creche is a nursery where children are cared for while their parents work. It seems to many educators that parents and primary caregivers are muddled between the two.

I am not blaming parents for the social malaise of the early 21st century. Talking about parents, schools and children Jeff Wells (Weekend Australian 20-21 April 1991) wrote it is a sign of the economic times that many families have to offer their children to be brought up by institutions alternate the nuclear family because of economic imperatives.

Changes in Educational Perception and School Definition

During the past fifteen to twenty years, for instance, teachers and office staff have become increasingly the minders for sick children, They are sent to school when unwell because parents cannot afford the time off work to care for them. The phenomena of unwell children spending their days in school medical rooms is exacerbated by industrial relations laws that either don’t recognise or are unkind to the needs of parents. This is still the case, notwithstanding the changes to legislation that has lead to some apparent enlightenment and added employee entitlement under the Fair Work Act.This puts school staff into a position of being minders, with school too often like unto health centres.

Front and centre to this are children who will endure as much as they can when sent to school ill, because they fear consequences if parents are contacted by the school about their unwellness. Over my years as a school principal, I became all too aware of this phenomena.

It is during the past twenty odd years that vacation school care, outside school hours care (before and after school) homework centres, school extracurricular programs for sport and so on, have sprung up. I have the greatest respect for the support these programs offer, but make the point that their necessity has been occasioned by parents who are increasingly obligated to work and occupational commitment. The modern world and economic necessity have prioritised their time, largely taking family destiny out of their parental hands.

Expecations coming down from On High

Added to this role expansion (some would say distortion) are in-school imperatives increasingly driven by Australian Government compliance requirement setting detailed agendas which put a real squash on school, learning and teaching time. principals and teachers in schools are feeling the squeeze like never before. Be it wise or not, school based educators appear to be increasingly supplicant to these demands; rarely if ever is debate about the wisdom or otherwise of imposed agendas initiated at school or system level. Schools and staff are expected to ‘stretch’ and cover curricular demands.

I recall Jim Spinks, a prominent Tasmanian school Principal and ‘practical academic’ advising that if things are added onto the school curriculum, items have to be dropped off in order to enable sensible accommodation. This exhortation is rarely followed meaning that schools and staff members become overwhelmed by requirements.

Metaphorically, schools are like sponges, given more and more to soak up: The capacity to endlessly absorb responsibility is reaching toward a perilous end-point. Confirming this is both anecdotal and empirical evidence attesting to teachers leaving the profession in increasing numbers. There is only so much a body can take and there is a huge lack of appreciation offered schools and staff members.

Aspiration and Actuality

Caring educators believing in and practising quality education always aim to meet the needs of learners. However there is an onus on society, its governments and its institutions to make sure schools and educators are affirmatively recognised and appreciated. Meeting the needs of children and students will be more likely to happen if education’s key servants – teachers and support staff – are given support, credit and recognition deserved for they role they play in educational and developmental partnerships.

A recent newspaper column “Vaccine confusion as clots force jab switch” (The Australian 18/6/21), brings to mind the sense and sensibility with which vaccines were developed and administered in the 1950’s, 60’s and 70’s. It was through this period that many human afflictions (smallpox, tuberculosis, whooping cough, diphtheria, polio, chicken pox, measles and mumps) were counteracted through vaccine control.

One of the reasons for the success of these vaccination programs was their no nonsense administration. The polio vaccine to counter the crippling and debilitating effects of this awful disease, was administered to children in schools in the 1950’s. (I know, I was one of those children.) There were no ‘ifs’ or ‘buts’; and how thankful we all were to be immunised against polio’s insidiousnress. The same applied for other vaccination programs.

COVID 19 and its variants are threatening the world. It’s impact is global with multiple millions already deceased and many more millions battling Covid’s side effects. Rather than hastening to vaccination, authorities are baulking, people are hesitating and the whole program of people protection is being hampered by a crossfire of mixed messages.

We need to get on and get the vaccination job done. Procrastination and delays are endangering our population.

Recent revelations on the reporting of cyberbullying are quite alarming. Online bullying of young people is more common and more harmful than many have realised.

Young people of the 21st century have been born into a technological age, foreign to their parents and grandparents. Many adults have no real idea of what children know and understand about devices and applications. Neither do they fully grasp the habits and the extent of devices used by young people.

Devices are often touted for the benefits they offer students through access to online texts, encyclopaedic information and so on. Distributors of technology (and educators) constantly extol the virtues of technological usage as offering significant benefits to students. Computers and iPads are promoted as assisting in both research and document preparation. Clever marketing ensures that parental expenditure on computers and iPads is at the top of what used to be the traditional school booklist.

Schooling without computers, iPads and even iPhones is said to be impossible. In actuality, many young people are far more interested in devices for the games, entertainment and non educational applications they offer. A casual scroll through the online store confirms that applications supporting entertainment are mushrooming at an exponential rate.

Careful checking on students using technology during the school day will confirm how quickly many switch from educational to entertainment mode. Rather than supporting their learning, devices become a distraction.

Students use these tools to share with each other through email accounts, on facebook, instagram and other applications. Sadly, these channels of communication are increasingly used to bully young people, who become online victims of abuse. Many children, possibly because they are trusting, share far too much by way of an intimate and personal nature when online.

Online bullying and coercion are often perpetrated on young people under the noses of parents and other adults, who are not aware of what is going on.

Two key reasons for adult ignorance come to mind. The first is lack of awareness. Victoria Laurie (Parents ‘not ready’ for digital oversight, Australian, 9.7.18) wrote that “ … children … are capable of accessing digital content on mobile phones and tablets … their parents are often totally unprepared for managing their … digital future.”

Secondly, children who may be the butt of online bullying, are reluctant to discuss this with parents or adults. Instead, they either keep silent or share their concerns with peers. Children must be encouraged to unburden their souls and adults must become aware of these issues and be supportive without being too distrusting and judgemental.

Incentives needed to attract and retain teachers in remote Northern Territory schools is the subject of frequent discussion between the Education Department and the Australian Education Union (NT).

The issue was first addressed in the NT by a group drawn from the Education Department, the Territory Branch of the Australia Teachers Union and the NT Principals Association in 1978. From that time onward, incentives and rewards for service in centres outside Darwin, Palmerston and Alice Springs have been regularly enhanced.

Some factors that lead to teachers feeling isolated and cut off from mainstream society have been overcome by technological advances. Nowadays, most communities have mobile phone and internet connections to the outside world. Connections are sometimes unreliable, but until a few short years ago these links were non existent.

The definition of ‘remoteness’ has been broadened to recognise all locations beyond Darwin, Palmerston and Alice Springs on a sliding scale of distance from these cities.

There have been other negotiated enhancements offered to those living and working in remote areas. They make teaching at distance from NT cities far more attractive than used to be the case. Benefits include the following.

• Rent free accomodation and furniture for all teachers other than those living in Darwin, Palmerston and Alice Springs. Teachers used to pay rent for houses and furniture in all NT communities.

• Leave for special purpose needs (emergency and compassionate leave).

• Up to four business days per year available for employees to take leave in order to access services not available in their communities.

• Parental (maternity and paternity) leave entitlements have been enhanced and provisions modified to recognise family needs.

• Teachers and their families receive two or three fares out of isolated locations each year for recreational purposes in either Darwin or Alice Springs. A kilometre allowance is available for those driving their vehicles rather than flying.

• Special allowances have been introduced for some positions in remote teaching locations.

• Teachers receive a fortnightly remote incentive allowance to help offset freight costs for perishable foods and other necessary goods.

• Remotely located teachers accrue points toward generous paid study leave.

• Depending on location and the time they have been in remote areas, teachers are offered a remote incentive allowance (between $1,212 and $9,239) and remote retention payment (between $500 and $1,000) each year. These provisions reward length of remote area service.

• (Source: Teach in the Territory Employee Benefits)

Living and working in remote Territory locations is challenging. However 21st century communications have reduced the tyranny of distance. Benefits offered have been enhanced over the years and need to be appreciated when conditions of service are being discussed.

The attitudes that people have toward work grow from many sources. Some may shy away from work because pension benefits (unemployment benefits) paid to those who are non workers are sufficient. For others, the need to travel to a job may make the taking up of positions an impossibility.

There are legitimate reasons why some cannot work and must draw benefits. However, it seems that many who might work, have an aversion to menial tasks. Off the agenda are cleaning, general labouring, agricultural and horticultural work, supermarket trolley collecting and similar tasks. It seems these position are for people from overseas on working visas.

The attitude seems to be that menial work is below the dignity of some. “What and dirty my hands (working)” seems to be a prevailing attitude.

Have parents and education had any part in blackballing these jobs? It is hard to know. What is sad is that a significant (and possibly) growing number of young (and some older) people, believe that base line work is beneath their dignity.

It is great to know that the number of young people commencing apprenticeships is on the rise. However, the dearth of people available and/or willing to support essential areas of labour need is aggravating the viability of the industries mentioned. There is for instance a shortfall of 26,000 (Channel 9 news 17/6) people needed to pick this year’s fruit and vegetable crops.

Jobs need to be done. Educating the importance of all tasks should be of the brief that prepares us for life.

Listening was an important attribute instilled as an attribute enhancing comprehension and understanding.

Handwriting was taught and legibility encouraged.

Children learned about words through phonetic study.

Oral reading to the teacher and within groups lead to fluency when sharing text. Discussion within groups and shared conversation built understanding about meaning of the written word.

Children learned tables and mathematical formulae. They developed the ability to carry out mental computation and were dexterous without the need for calculator assistance.

Grammar was studied. Rules relating to the English language and usage were studied and understood.

Spelling was an essential subject. Words and their usage was an important part of study.

My oh my, how things have changed

Listening was an important attribute instilled as an attribute enhancing comprehension and understanding.

Handwriting was taught and legibility encouraged.

Children learned about words through phonetic study.

Oral reading to the teacher and within groups lead to fluency when sharing text. Discussion within groups and shared conversation built understanding about meaning of the written word.

Children learned tables and mathematical formulae. They developed the ability to carry out mental computation and were dexterous without the need for calculator assistance.

Grammar was studied. Rules relating to the English language and usage were studied and understood.

Spelling was an essential subject. Words and their usage was an important part of study.

My oh my, how things have changed.

The question of teacher supply is a problem looming on the education horizon.

Professor Barry Harper, Dean of Education at the University of Wollongong, recently raised the need for the Australian community to prepare for a looming teacher shortage. If educational systems ignore his advice, this may well result in schools without teachers.

Harper, in his paper ‘Factors fuelling the looming teacher shortage’ (Media @ University of Woollongong) advises that a significant percentage of teachers will be retiring within the next five to ten years. Educational authorities understand that a vacuum in teacher supply will create problems. He states that “ … efforts to plug the gaps left by retirees are being thwarted by two factors. … One is the attraction of teaching overseas … the other is a desire by a significant number of teaching graduates to only teach for a short period of time before moving on to other careers.”

The number of teaching graduates attracted to overseas teaching destinations runs into the thousands. As far back as 2003, British school principals had headhunted 3,000 Australian teachers. “There are also hundreds of Australian teachers working in New York schools with many more scattered throughout North America … and Canada.” (Harper)

Harper suggests that Australian teacher graduates are classroom ready because their training includes first hand practical teaching experience. They are attracted overseas by salary and the experience of living abroad. An upside for Australia is that they don’t want to stay away forever. They come back with a world view of education ready to commit to teaching in our classrooms.

“Unfortunately Australian public school systems do not recognise (their qualities). Rather, teachers returning from overseas find themselves behind their colleagues who stayed at home, both in pay and promotional opportunities.” (Harper)

Adjusting the profession to accord equity to both returning from overseas and stay-at-home educators, may help to boost overall teacher numbers.

The more significant issue is that of graduating teachers opting for short term rather than long term careers. Various studies referred to by Harper confirm that fewer graduating secondary students are opting to train as teachers, with 25% of graduating teachers opting out within five years of starting their careers. “Around 32% of qualified teachers (are) working outside the profession.” (Harper).

This issue is one that must be addressed before chronic teacher shortages become a school and classroom reality. The jury is out on whether education ministers and their departments “ … can make our schools attractive for a long term (teacher) commitment rather than as staging posts for other careers.”

CURRICULUM CHANGE AND TEACHING EXPERTISE

I say to those with a desire to have ‘the best’ becoming teachers of specialist subjects, “good luck in finding the teaching candidates you want.”

There is a lot that causes disaffection about the profession. Pay rates are unappealing, men are discouraged from teaching because of the threat of being accused of socially inappropriate conduct, while parents and students no longer have the level of respect for teachers that once existed.

Teacher accountabilities and responsibilities have become unwieldy while changes in curriculum and teaching focus are unappealing to older, more conservative teachers.

And remember that it is NOT teachers in classrooms who are responsible for stupid and irresponsible curriculum changes and the watering down of teaching expectations while upping data, monitoring and recording requirements Teachers and schools are the victims of nonsensical changes – along with students. Change comes from about, from the AITSL, ‘experts’ government and others. These are people who want student accomplishment statistics to look good. They are also the people who are all about political correctness and educational fashion.

Teaching is in a watershed position.

Educational Remembrances

Good leaders and teachers learn a lot about what to do, by learning a lot about what not to do. Bad teachers and challenging leaders teach observers a great deal about how they need to go forward in teaching and leadership.

Personal and professional separation are necessary, particularly if you are a school leader. It is very hard to be a boss to one’s mates.

Remember to be on appreciator of things that people with whom you associate too well. In education we are quick to criticise but often slow to commend.

If you pick up a good idea on process from somebody else, be quick to thank them and to recognise them for their development of you in your role.

Make sure the expectations of others are practices your own personal and professional life.

Educational Change

Content on understanding key learning rudiments in maths and language has been downgraded.

Impressionistic and interpretive learning has come to the fore.

European history and literature is being moved to the backburner.

Everything indigenous is increasingly front and centre of learning.

It seems that less and less is being taught at schools because teachers are increasingly occupied with accountability and recording requirements. More and more key learning requirements are being pushed into students as homework requirements.

Blurred learning is justified by not failing students; competition between students is discouraged, and reports are long on words and short on meaning.

Data compilation including recording, drives teaching and learning strategies. Data is the king of the educational castle.

Schools and staff seem to have less and less influence in driving educational contexts. Educational direction and priorities are set from on high. Education at school level is reactive rather than proactive.

A consultation opportunity is being offered parents and community by the Education Department, to share their thinking about educational priorities. I hope this does not include loading more loco parentis requirements onto teachers and schools. The system already does a huge amount in the upbringing of children; parents have already hand-balled far too much of what should be their parental responsibilities onto staff in schools.

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Why would the CDU commission a new $1.7 million building for aged care training at the Casuarina campus (NT News 8/6)? There are SO MANY empty and unused buildings on the campus now, that a far cheaper option would have been to house the program in an facility. The new building is a waste of supposedly scarce university resources.

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There’s nothing more important than the tone, quality harmony and atmosphere which generate within schools. Atmosphere is an intangible which cannot be bought. It comes from the way in which people work together. Quality atmosphere is precious and can be so easily lost if it is not appreciated, nurtured and grown through the way in which people work together within our schools.

Paige Taylor’s story (‘Woolworths sorry for Dan Murphy’s site near dry Indigenous communities’, The Australian, 10/6/2021) confirms that sense and sensibility about the establishment of liquor outlets can win out. The Dan Murphy liquor store would have been built within easy walking distances from nearby Indigenous housing establishments.

The decision not to proceed with this project is a small win within the context of a significant problem. Many Indigenous communities are dry (do not allow alcohol), so those wanting to drink, come to Darwin in pursuance of their desire to imbibe. This gives rise to literally hundreds of people relocating to Darwin in order to drink. They are supported by charities providing food and accomodation so these are not costs they have to manage. That leaves more money to spend on alcohol. Darwin and the NT have more liquor outlets per capita than any other state or territory, so alcohol is not hard to find.

I worked with Indigenous Australians from 1970 until retirement and retain a deep interest in the development of our First Australians. There are many wonderful and upstanding Indigenous people including many, especially in the NT, in leadership positions. Sadly, the drunken, alcohol impacted behaviour offered by so many, so often in highly visible public places, detracts from the perceptions held for our country’s first citizens.

My blood boils and I cannot utter the words reflecting the thoughts I feel for people who deliberately violate border closures when there are lockdowns and limitations placed on people because of the inroads of Coverd 19.

The most recent case of breach illustrates my point. A man and his wife, who both subsequently tested positive to COVID-19 when they arrived, apparently left Melbourne travelled through Victoria, through New South Wales and on into Queensland. They kept on travelling until reaching Caloundra and were believed to be on the road for something like five days.

During the whole of this time they were COVID-19 positive, and the woman became reasonably unwell two or three days before the end of the journey. Both were highly infectious.

Their violation has created emergency situations for testing in New South Wales towns through which they passed, especially for people who were in premises they visited in and around the times of their visitation.

The same applies in Queensland!

Because of arrant selfishness a situation that will cost authorities in both states substantial money – it could run to the millions – has been created.

Just one example! But you also have people trying to get to W.A. from Victoria by skating up through South Australia and into The Northern Territory before crossing over to W.A.

These people are not ignorant of the restrictions under which they should be operating in the living. They are deliberately violating the the securities put into place by their governments. It is not enough for them to be given some sort of small punishment by way of a fine.

These people should be named, photographed and shamed they do not deserve anonymity for what they’ve been up to; they need to be revealed for what they are; selfish , uncaring, wilful individuals!

THE DIMENSIONS OF COVID

Covid 19 and its variants have taken the world over like no disease that has gone before.

There have been other diseases which have had great impact on large areas of the world. Possibly the Black Death takes the cake when it comes to impact.

That was until up to now. While SARS, Ebola , and other various bird and animal flus have had disastrous impact, their regional and geographical spread has been limited.

COVID-19 is the exception. Together with its variants, this is disease is ravaging the whole world. Some countries are dealing with Covid better than others but all have been impacted. That impact has been social, economic, cultural, and has and is tearing at the heart and the fabric of the world as we know it.

While control through vaccination is happening to a greater or lesser extent, the ability of the disease to sidestep immunisation impact through variant development is playing a large part in causing this disease to be well and truly into its second year of world domination. And vaccine optionality is a major part of prolonging the problem.

In terms of cost on everything from research and development of immunisation through to economic loss, Covid 19 has without doubt being the most expensive disease to raid the world. No one knows when that will end. Covid 19 continues to dominate and that domination is set to continue into the foreseeable future.

This disease above everything else is the number one occupant of world thinking: The command of this insidious disease does not look like ending any time soon!

MY WISH FOR WADEYE

I am disappointed by what is happening yet again at Wadeye. My wish and hope for the community is shared below.

May Wadeye get good.

May peace and harmony be restored.

May children go to school (each child every day).

May substances abuse cease to be an issue.

May all weapons including knives be handed in during an amnesty period on surrender of these objects.

May alcohol in all its forms be forever dismissed from the community and may there be a resolve that people will become teetotallers.

May the community become a jewel in the crown of community management and good will.

May rancorous conduct be no more and may thoughtfulness of all residents toward each other prevail.

May the community become a model of everything that is good, decent, harmonious and upright.

May children come to respect parents and elders.

May parents nurture their children and lead them in the way they should go through the example they set.

May elders imbue children and young people with heartfelt desire top forsake all that is wrong and to walk a better way.

May Wadeye become a transformed community and a desirable, attractive place.

EDUCATIONAL POINTLETS TO PONDER

Darwin and Palmerston schools have been misinformed on the issue of returning school based constables. It’s temporary. SBC’s are to be replaced in urban schools by untrained police auxiliaries. Their annual cost of employment ($3 million total) is apparently being met from the Education Department budget. Some deal!!

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With NAPLAN over for another year, teachers and students can now get on with real teaching and learning. The tests are a distraction from what should be key focus issues for schools. The testing program is a distraction.

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No wonder students’ results in key learning areas are unceasingly in the mediocre to catastrophic range (NT News 25/5). Hungry, tired and downright bored students (boredom often the outcome of sloppy teaching methods) can never excel in key subjects. This story should be a wake-up icall to parents about the importance of the eating and sleeping habits of their children.

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Do not forget:

Schools are for children and students.

Educational organisation (structure) should always serve that function (“schools are for children and students“.)

You learn more about what to do by learning (usually from observing others) about what not to do.

The most important part of any organisation is the way it feels. Tone, harmony, and atmosphere are intangibles that cannot be bought – but without them and organisation no matter how materially focused, it’s nothing.

And still guilty!!

Guilty Until Proven Innocent?

Interaction with students needs to be circumspect

The series of child abuse inquiries happening around our nation

at the moment are lifting the issue to the forefront of public awareness. Without doubt, some of the allegations levelled against teachers and others are as a result of the ‘stimulation’ generated by these inquiries.

Sins against children need to be visited and perpetrators punished. However, the reputations of those who are completely innocent of any wrongdoing need to be protected. Current actions need to be such that educators protect and guard against allegations at some future time.

Teaching is a profession that requires increasing vigilance in human relations by teachers, school leaders and principals. In recent years, the issue of child abuse has gained traction. Lots of abuse issues, most of an historical nature, are being raised.

Royal Commissions and inquiries have highlighted the matter. And, without doubt, many of the allegations being brought against alleged perpetrators of past abuse, especially sexual abuse, are justified. They need to be followed through. However, there are instances when allegations are made with mischievous and malevolent intent. They hang those falsely accused out to dry. Accusations may be levelled against people many years after the alleged abuse occurred.

A June 2015 program aired on ABC TV’s Australian Story illustrates this point. A female teacher in Melbourne, Josephine Greensill, was accused of sexually interfering with two boys around 30 years ago. She was dragged through a messy court process, including being accused, found guilty, and jailed. The case was subsequently appealed and another grimy court process ensued. At the end, she was found not guilty of these crimes and acquitted. Her career, of course was absolutely ruined.

The protagonists who had brought the case against her, two men in their early 30s (they had been boys of seven or eight at the time referred to in the allegation), have not to this point in time been charged for making false allegations. The story’s inference is that they have simply shrugged it o . Signi cantly, the Victorian Department of Education, teachers’ union and registration authority appear to have o ered no visible support to the teacher. These cases are not rare.

Allegations made against teachers presume guilt until the teacher proves his or her innocence.

I have been told that it is very unlikely prosecution will be brought against false complainants. The only recourse available to someone falsely accused and acquitted, is to seek redress through the civil court. That is costly, messy and continues the hurt.

Protective practices

It is wise for teachers to keep a clear, detailed and time noted record of instances when they have been connected with students in counselling and development. Nothing beats a detailed diary. When moving schools, retiring or otherwise moving on, take these records with you (I would suggest a diary). Maintain their accessibility. Keeping this data in USB or electronic form is an option.

If allegations are then brought, there is a clear record to show the date, time, place, and nature of the counselling. Often details brought by the complainant are fairly vague and being able to refute them with accurate data is of inestimable value.

There are one or two other points to keep in mind.

If counselling or working one-on-one with children, ensure that it is in a space that has visibility from the outside. A room with a see-through window, a common area within, a learning module, or a location within a linear classroom close to an open door are options.

I believe it paramount for teachers to report matters of counselling and discipline to a senior or to the principal along with keeping a written record.

Those who have false accusations brought against them, regardless of outcomes, are never the same people again. I understand they look at life di erently. Their outlook becomes tinged with suspicion. They wonder if they can never be part of trustful relationships again.

This issue is one of growing consequence and something all educators need to take on board and carefully consider. Don’t live in fear but never think it can’t happen to you – because it can.

EDUCATIONAL POINTS TO PONDER

The one thing the Government and Department of Education have not done in considering school attendance, is to seek ideas and feedback from past school leaders and staff who were successful in countering non attendance and truancy. The dismissive attitude our present leaders have toward lessons to be learned from history is counterproductive.

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How about a new primary school being planned for the Muirhead /

Lyons area? Nearby primary schools are bursting with new enrolments. Parents having to drive children relatively long distances to school is leading to road congestion and parking chaos around schools children attend. A new school for this area should be a priority consideration.

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As an educator I learned a lot about what to do by learning a lot (by watching, listening, observing) about what not to do.