25th June – Thursday
We have now been on the road for one month!!!
Not the best of days, weatherwise – very windy and overcast, but still quite warm at 25 degrees. We did hear that it has only been 8 or 9 degrees in Hobart.
Today we went back to school, visiting the Alice Springs School of the Air. Even though it is school holidays in the Northern Territory, a recorded lesson was played for us to watch. With 160 students and 10 full time, plus a number of part time specialist teachers, these students have a very good student/teacher ratio. The NT Government provides every family with a computer, printer, scanner, fax, web cam and satellite dish at a cost of $12-15,000 per family and also provided the technical support. Students would spend up to 4 hours per week on-line, live, with their teacher and classmates, as well as be able to email or telephone at any time during the day. Cat very quickly became the teacher’s pet and was allowed sit on the teacher’s desk.
This afternoon we visited the Royal Flying Doctor Service base and after watching the obligatory video on the Service, were allowed view the emergency operations room from a viewing window. An emergency was currently underway, but as the plane was in the air, the room was no longer manned. Two patients were being evacuated from two different locations and transported to Adelaide. The attached museum not only contained examples of early radios and medical kits, but also a flight simulator for the Pilatus aircraft which flies out of Alice Springs. Unfortunately, our pilot had trouble landing, so we just ended up flying off into the sunset!
Virtually next door was the Pioneer Women’s Hall of Fame. Although these establishments were in one of the better suburbs, we thought the Hall of Fame was over-doing the security with barred windows, high walls and rolled barbed wire. We did discover that the site was originally the Alice Springs Gaol! Dame Enid, of course, Ida Birchall and Heather Innes were the only Tasmanians to be featured. One really has to admire the pioneering women of Central Australia and the conditions they endured – and not too long ago, either.
We have now been on the road for one month!!!
Not the best of days, weatherwise – very windy and overcast, but still quite warm at 25 degrees. We did hear that it has only been 8 or 9 degrees in Hobart.
Today we went back to school, visiting the Alice Springs School of the Air. Even though it is school holidays in the Northern Territory, a recorded lesson was played for us to watch. With 160 students and 10 full time, plus a number of part time specialist teachers, these students have a very good student/teacher ratio. The NT Government provides every family with a computer, printer, scanner, fax, web cam and satellite dish at a cost of $12-15,000 per family and also provided the technical support. Students would spend up to 4 hours per week on-line, live, with their teacher and classmates, as well as be able to email or telephone at any time during the day. Cat very quickly became the teacher’s pet and was allowed sit on the teacher’s desk.
This afternoon we visited the Royal Flying Doctor Service base and after watching the obligatory video on the Service, were allowed view the emergency operations room from a viewing window. An emergency was currently underway, but as the plane was in the air, the room was no longer manned. Two patients were being evacuated from two different locations and transported to Adelaide. The attached museum not only contained examples of early radios and medical kits, but also a flight simulator for the Pilatus aircraft which flies out of Alice Springs. Unfortunately, our pilot had trouble landing, so we just ended up flying off into the sunset!
Virtually next door was the Pioneer Women’s Hall of Fame. Although these establishments were in one of the better suburbs, we thought the Hall of Fame was over-doing the security with barred windows, high walls and rolled barbed wire. We did discover that the site was originally the Alice Springs Gaol! Dame Enid, of course, Ida Birchall and Heather Innes were the only Tasmanians to be featured. One really has to admire the pioneering women of Central Australia and the conditions they endured – and not too long ago, either.
1 comment:
Don't you wish you were here - made it to 8 degrees maximum today. Wish it would just snow!
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