Back in Sydney Once Again

So once again I am back at Ruth's house in Sydney, after traveling many kilometers by train and by plane in the last few days. Janet and I left Mount Isa on Friday, overnighted on the train, spent Saturday at Irene's in Townsville, and flew down to Sydney this morning. Phew! But once again I am getting ahead of myself in the story...

Let's rewind to last Wednesday afternoon. Annette, one of our new Guiding friends in Mount Isa, invited Janet and I to her house to get caught up on our emails. It took a little longer than we'd planned, but hey, it was great to be able to let our families know that we were still alive. Once we'd left Annette's house, Janet and I walked back towards where the Guide Hall is to look for the Tent House. This is a National Trust heritage building, and the only one of its kind left in Mount Isa. In the early years of the town's existence, many people lived in tents or crude shelters as there were no actual buildings at the mine. In fact, originally even the pubs and the hospital were tents! Over the years, as the community grew and became a little more prosperous, some of the tent shelters were half-transformed into houses. A typical tent house would have had canvas ceiling and walls, and a dirt or wooden floor. The interior would have been split into the different rooms found in a "regular" house. And of course, as time went by, the tent houses were all pulled down and replaced with more permanent buildings.

The surviving tent house has been extensively modified and was actually hard to recognize from the outside! We picked up the key to its front door from the motel on the street corner, and put our $2 donation in the fee box before entering. Outside, the entire tent house had been protected from the elements by a corrugated iron roof. Wooden paneling had been added to shore up the walls, and the house even had real windows! Inside, wooden paneling had also been added all the way up the walls and across the ceiling, so although we knew that the outside of the roof was canvas, it wasn't at all visible from inside. It was actually a little disappointing. Some of the artifacts that were displayed in the tent house were of the appropriate time period, but many were not. One of the reasons we'd wanted to visit the tent house was because Irene, our Guiding friend from Townsville, had lived in one as a small child. But what we saw didn't quite mesh with what she'd told us. Ah well!

We walked back to the hostel, which was about halfway across the town from the tent house. By the time we got there Janet and I were really, really hot, and we basically marched into our room, changed into our bathing suits, and went out to fall straight into the pool! Wow did that swim feel good. We rescued a little dragon lizard that was unhappily treading water in the pool... apparently lizards and frogs drown regularly in the town's pools. Poor critters... all they probably wanted was a drink and an escape from the heat.

Pat, our other new Guiding friend, picked us up from the hostel around five and drove us out to Lake Moondarah, where there is a large parkland and BBQ-ing area. The lake is about 20kms out of town and the drive there took us through some spectacular Outback scenery. Annette, her husband Shawn, and their kids met us at the lake and we all enjoyed a tasty BBQ dinner. It was kinda funny because in the picnic area was a large flock of peacocks, and they circled our table like so many large seagulls... or sharks. Ha ha! After dinner Pat drove us up to the top of the reservoir wall so we could check out the view and the sunset. Lake Moondarah provides all the drinking water for Mount Isa as well as all the water required for the mining operation. It's a pretty big reservoir and sure was beautiful at sunset. I was rather bemused to realize that every large body of water that I've seen in this country has been artificially created!

Thursday morning, Janet and I found ourselves hiking across town - in the opposite direction this time - to find the School of the Air. We got there just in time for the 10am tour! This was really REALLY cool. The Australian Outback is a big place and the cattle stations are enormous. The reality is that the kids growing up on the cattle stations just can't possibly get to a regular school - for some kids, the closest town is 700kms away! So instead, the School of the Air broadcasts lessons for children from Prep through to Year 10. Students do several half-hour lessons on the air each day, covering all the subjects. Learning materials are sent out through the mail once a week, and assignments are collected and mailed back to the School of the Air where they are marked by the teachers.

The tour we did of the school was great. I wasn't sure what to expect - I figured that since the students weren't actually in the building, that the place would feel more like an office than anything. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that it really was a school! The main difference wa that the classrooms were only the size of large offices, and the teachers' desks had all this radio and computing equipment on them. But there was kids artwork posted in the hallways and on the classroom walls. Each cattle station which had students enroled in the school had sent in a kid-decorated plaque, identifying the station, and these were showcased in the hall as a way to identify the school's community. I picked up a yearbook from several years ago that showcases all the activities the kids did throughout the year.

Janet and I got to sit in on part of an "on air" lesson to the Year 2's. There were five kids in the class and the teacher was discussing with her students about the model emus the kids were sculpting at home. Since the teacher couldn't see what the kids were making, she was getting the students to describe orally what their sculptures looked like. It was really cute and cool and funny all at the same time! Some of the kids definitely had better reception than others... one little girl's responses kept coming in as bursts of static. The teacher told us afterwards that the child was likely talking through a satellite phone with an unreliable connection. At the end of the lesson she asked the kids to take digital photos of their work and email it to her so she could see it.

School of the Air is a place I would love to work at some day! Think of it - small class sizes, homework always complete (it has to be so it can get in the mail on time), little to no behaviour problems (as many hundreds of kilometers separate the students), and great parental involvement. The students get together about once a term for activity days; typically the kids congregate in the town closest to where they live (this means that some students fly in!) and actually get to see each other face to face. Apparently the students of the School of the Air are consistently high achievers and excel in their studies. The teachers do make rounds of all their students' homes, about once a term, to meet the kids and their parents. And students who need extra help or who have special education needs are also visited by travelling special ed teachers. How cool is that?

I could go on and on about the School of the Air... but we've had so many more adventures since then, and I don't want to bore you all to death with the length of this blog. Once I get a chance to post my pictures, I will include more details there.

Wowee.

Janet and I got picked up from the School of the Air by our friend Annette, and we drove to the other end of town to check out the small museum for the Royal Flying Doctor Service. (Let me tell you - I am REALLY glad we didn't have to walk this distance - it was HOT.) This is another iconic Australian institution, which services the cattle stations and other people living in remote parts of the Outback. The Royal Flying Doctor Service was created by John Flynn, a traveling minister who saw that there was a need for high-quality health care in the Outback. The Service has certainly evolved over the years, and now a network of Flying Doctor bases dots the Outback, based in the larger towns. If there is an accident on a cattle station, for example, someone at the station can radio the Royal Flying Doctor Service and call an air ambulance in. The bush planes can land on pretty much anything, and don't need a real runway. The planes are outfitted as portable intensive care units, and are staffed by a doctor, nurse and of course a pilot. They are responsible for saving many lives.

In addition to this urgent care service, the Flying Doctors can also prescribe medications over the radio to people on isolated stations. Each station has a medications chest stocked with a variety of prescription drugs, all of which are assigned a code number. A doctor in Mount Isa, for example, can prescribe a ventolin puffer (drug #27) to someone on a station hundreds of kilometers away. The Flying Doctors also make regular rounds to the stations and tiny communities to provide basic health care to the people.

To put it mildly, we were having a very busy and fun day! The best was yet to come, though. After pausing at the Mount Isa lookout to snap some daytime photos and eat lunch, Annette introduced us to one of the town's true characters - Barry, one of the local radio announcers. Barry works for MOB FM, the town's Aboriginal radio station. What a funny guy! He interviewed Janet and I as visiting Canadian Girl Guide leaders, and asked us all sorts of questions about our travels here in OZ, our work within Guiding back home, and about how our involvement with Guiding has affected our trip. It was great! I got a copy of the interview on a CD, and as soon as I can figure out how to post it on the blog, I will. Barry is a true character (to be honest, I would've hated to be his teacher, ha ha, he'd be one of those kids always seeking attention) and the interview is pretty funny.

We headed back to the hostel for a well-deserved nap, and then Pat picked us up and took us out for dinner. There are very few restaurants in Mount Isa; this town is more into the pub and club scene. So we went to the Barklay Hotel pub for dinner, and then back to the Irish Club for dessert. Yummy. And another late night. :-)

Friday was our last day in Mount Isa, and we sure made the most of it! Janet and I checked out of the hostel early, and were picked up by Pat. Pat works for a local 4WD rental company, and she not only managed to get a half day off on Friday, but also a 4WD ute to drive. She took us out to Mary Kathleen, an abandoned uranium mine and town about 60kms out of Mount Isa. Once again we found ourselves driving through absolutely stunning Outback scenery. I really tried, but it's almost impossible to capture the true spirit of the place with the camera. Once we'd turned off the highway to access Mary Kathleen, I was really glad we were in a 4WD! The roads we traveled would not have been passable in a regular car.

The mine itself was an open cut, and we hiked to the edge of the pit and stared way down into the old crater. There's a small lake at the bottom now and it is stunningly blue when the sun is shining directly on it. We also scrambled down the rocks to get right to the water's edge. The place was eerily quiet and absolutely beautiful. I snapped a number of photos of flowers, trees, and the stark blue sky. The old mining town site was also eerie. When the mine closed for good in the 1980's (there's still plenty of uranium to be mined, but it became rather politically incorrect for Australia to be doing so, and they closed down the operation), the entire town was abandoned and eventually relocated. The buildings here don't have basements; in fact, most buildings in Queensland are built up on pylons to protect them from flooding and white ants (termites). So when the town was abandoned, the buildings were all carted away to other places. But the roads and cement blocks that were once driveways still remain. We drove all through the town and identified various places - the town hall, the old fountain, the residential streets, the swimming pool, the tennis courts. It was so strange. The property is all part of a cattle station now, so there were random cows wandering all over the place. Ironically enough, the only building left standing in the entire town is the old Guide hall! Nobody seemed to know why, but we think that it might have been that the Guides couldn't afford to have the building relocated. It seemed so sad, the old building just standing there in the middle of nowhere, roof falling in, windows broken.

Before we knew it, it was time to head back into town, meet Annette for lunch, and head back to the train. Pat had to be back at work for 1, and the train didn't leave until 3, so Janet and I spent an hour or so at the library to do one more check of the email. Then it was back to the train and heading towards Townsville once again. We were both hot and sticky after all our hiking in the morning, so as soon as the train had pulled out of the station, we took turns having showers! That was an interesting experience. I was worried originally that I'd slip and fall in the shower as the train lurched and moved, but the shower stall was well designed and included grippy bars to help you keep your balance. I would also like to point out that the water pressure in the train shower was considerably better than what we'd had at the hostel all week!

The train ride back to Townsville was just as smooth as the trip out, with one little exception. We had a very drunk and disorderly man in the compartment next to us and he made our lives... um... interesting for the first few hours. He came right into our compartment, stinking of alcohol and cigarettes, wanting to chat. He wouldn't take our hints to go away. We eventually got him out of the compartment and then when I went to close the door, he tried to force his way back in. I ended up slamming the door in his face. Not long after that, we smelled cigarette smoke and yep, it was coming from his compartment. Janet went down the train to find the service manager and make a complaint. So what with one thing and another, the drunk was put off the train at Cloncurry, about 2 hours down the tracks. We got to write a complaint report too! Yikes. But after that, the rest of the trip was just fine.

We arrived back in Townsville yesterday morning to sunny skies and high humidity - what a change in the feel of the air, after being in the desert for the last week! Irene picked us up and we headed back to her house for some lunch and laundry (definitely needed - let me tell you, after a week in Mount Isa, my clothes were more than a little smelly!). Then we drove to Irene's daughter's house, picked up her 4 grandkids (all under the age of 9), and headed downtown to Reef HQ. This fabulous aquarium boasts that it'll "bring you the reef", and wow did it deliver! The main tank was huge, and they had collected all sorts of live coral from the Great Barrier Reef to build the display. So not only was there all sorts of fishes, but also corals, star fish, sea cucumbers, and many more creatures. It was wonderful. Irene's grandkids had never been to Reef HQ before, and it was funny to watch their eyes get huge as the sharks and rays and fish swam by. We couldn't stay for too long, as the youngest grandchild was just 2, but we still had fun.

When we headed back to Deborah's (Irene's daughter) house to drop off the kids, we ended up staying for dinner. I basically spent the evening playing with the kids. They have a tame budgie who seemed to love sitting on my shoulder. I spent time examining the eldest boy's collection of Deltora Quest and Yu Gi Oh dragons. I read stories. I supervised them on the trampoline and searching for frogs in the yard. It was fun but definitely tiring!

And then all too soon it was this morning, and Janet and I were saying goodbye to Irene and getting on a plane to Sydney. After dropping our stuff at Bill and Ruth's house, Ruth took us down to Cronulla beach where we just enjoyed the scenery and the wonderful weather. Carroll joined us for dinner back at Ruth's, and that pretty much brings us up to the present. I'm sitting in my favourite chair here at Ruth's house, typing on a borrowed laptop (and a Mac at that, it feels so strange!), and watching TV.

Tomorrow morning we take Janet to the airport and wave goodbye, and collect my parents at the same time for the beginning of their Aussie adventures! I'm so excited!

I would like to extend a huge THANK YOU to my new Guiding friends in both Mount Isa and in Townsville. Irene, Annette, Pat - thank you so much for everything. The three of you have truly been absolutely wonderful these last two weeks, and have helped make these last two weeks absolutely amazing. I know I would not have had nearly as much fun without you.