Passion for isolated living shines out on the Alice Spring conference floor

Road conditions, communications pain and enormous costs are familiar issues for people in regional Australia and they helped fuel the pair’s desire to bring the federal Isolated Children’s Parents’ Association conference to Alice Springs.

They are all issues magnified by the big distances of the Northern Territory.

Amber for instance grew up with mixed cattle and cropping at Wee Waa in New South Wales but now lives 400km north east of Alice Springs, on the Sandover Highway.

One son is at boarding school in Adelaide while the other is receiving his schooling through Australia’s longest-established School of the Air, at Alice Springs.

As the president of the local ICPA branch, communicating with fellow organisers has been a top priority, and something she’s had to do via her school-supplied internet.

“The Northern Territory government supplies us with an internet connection but we’re supposed to be moving to the Sky Muster set-up next year,” she said. “We’re already familiar with it, for our personal and business needs, so we know its ‘potential’.

“Let’s just say I couldn’t have helped organise the conference if I didn’t have the schoolroom internet connection.”

That plus beef road access so bad they can’t get a fuel truck in for months gave her plenty of reasons to be vocal despite it being just her first federal conference.

A motion to continue lobbying relevant federal ministers about the importance of continually improving regional roads to a safe, all-weather standard, was not a new issue for Alice Springs delegates, she said.

“As far as education goes, teachers haven’t been able to visit us because the school has judged the road to be unsafe.

“It’s the same thing with internet and phone service providers – they can’t reach us because of the state of the roads.”

Not so vocal, mainly because she was convening the conference, was Sarah Cook, who, together with her husband Craig, received her primary schooling through Alice Springs SOTA before boarding locally.

They managed Oban, south west of Mount Isa, before taking up a new management position at Aileron Station 130km north of Alice Springs, but continued to keep their only child in boarding at Downlands in Toowoomba, where they have family support.

“Unlike Queensland, there’s no state support for boarding parents, unless you’re indigenous,” she said.

“You could say we’re on a journey with the NT government.

“Because of our remote location, boarding was part of our plan for years, and we’ve been doing our budgets, but now we have to factor in the $1200 return flights, from Alice Springs to Sydney to Wellcamp, every term.

“There’s no travel allowance to cover that either.”

Along with many others, they’ve already borne the cost of employing a governess for primary schooling years.

“School of the Air is public schooling yet you pay $45,000 a year for a govvie, and if it’s you in the schoolroom, the station has lost your labour from the property, which it has to replace,” Sarah said.

“Really, you’re paying the equivalent of boarding school fees from the time you start schooling in the bush.”

Her mother, Judith Debney had been very involved in the Northern Territory ICPA and Sarah said she still couldn’t see any better way of improving the lot of isolated children.

It was the same with Amber, who said the recent conference had showed her more avenues for getting answers to her issues.

The morning after the conference concluded, Amber was busy rehearsing what she would say when she took part in the latest round of fracking hearings in Alice Springs later that day.

Following that, the pair were getting ready to help run the 70^th anniversary Harts Range race meeting, which was expecting a turnout of 4000 people.

The future of the geographically isolated education lobby is in passionate hands.