Before we left on this tour of Central Australia I got the car serviced to ensure there wouldn't be any problems, I got the tyres looked at as I thought the tread looked a little low but the tyre shop assured me that they had another 10 to 15,000 km in them. I advised where we were going and he said we would be fine. Well, they weren't. Was it due to the extra load on the car with all the camping gear? Was it Katie's driving :-) or just travelling continually for hour upon hour? Who knows but they wore out a lot sooner than expected. We could have made the many thousands of km back and got home fine, but with the speeds and distances we are doing over the next couple of weeks, we decided it was better to be safe than sorry. So that was our mission get some tires.
In the end, we went to Kmart Tyre and Auto got Goodyear Optilife for $189 each. I also got the wheel alignment for $67 so in total a full set of tyres fitted with old ones disposed of for $823. Pretty good considering we are in Central Australia.
Whilst the tyres were getting fitted we went and had a look and learned about the impressive work the Royal Flying Doctors perform.
The entrance fee allows you to see a movie presentation narrated by John Flynn the founder of the service, then a self-guided tour of the small museum.
We learned the services operates 70 aircraft through 80% of Australia and the equipment alone in each aircraft costs over $7million. They even provide air transport services for city slickers too! There was one boy that was flown from Adelaide to Melbourne for a transplant, he was able to have a flight dedicated specifically to him so he could get to Melbourne and have the life-changing transplant.
Next was a walk to The Residence, well worth the quick visit, it is the location where the local Central Australian Administration was based and also provided accommodation for Royalty.
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| Kitchen |
After getting the car back we headed to ANZAC Hill and took in the vista including The Gap. It is an impressive view from up here and the Macdonald ranges are ever so imposing.
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| Todd Tavern - From ANZAC Hill |
The afternoon was then off to the School of the Air, where I will hand this section over to Katie;
The center was a fascinating place, maybe more so for me being a teacher, but I think most people would find it quite interesting. They have three on-site 'classrooms' which are actually studios, that the teachers broadcast their lessons from. Kids from remote areas can access education easily and have regular communication with their teacher. When the school first started years ago, it was all operated by radio and teachers would mail huge packs of work out for the students to complete and send back. With advances in technology, everything is done via the Internet now. The teachers run 30 minute sessions at very specific times and the students log on ready to go. They submit their work via email and even have access to library books. The teacher is seated in a studio with either a blue or green screen behind them. This is so they can project different images or maps behind them to aid with learning. The students can also see each other while during a session and use a chat function to answer questions etc. It is a really impressive system. Four times a year they hold 'town week' where the students travel into Alice Springs for the week and meet other students and their teachers. The teachers also try and do at least one home visit per year, per student. I'm not sure this style of teaching would suit me, but I was really impressed with their setup.
Back in 2001, the school celebrated its 50th anniversary, at this time they were still using two-way long-range radio and the school realised it needed to change. This style had fitted a need but was no longer providing the best service available to the Centre. So with a lot of work and an investment of around $10-15K per student, they innovated and went digital. Two-way satellite connections were installed with desktop PC's, printers, scanners, video and voice communications. The teachers use this technology to provide classes to multiple students at once. It is a bit like Skype or Facetime but in a classroom. The teacher controls what and who is on the screen and can mute the noisy students. The students can also see each other (when the teacher 'puts' them on the screen).
We were able to see some prerecorded classes containing some funny moments and also some live sessions. One of the prerecorded sessions the child had brought a brand new lamb inside to show his classmates. In the live session the teacher firstly had to ask the boy to remove his hat, then he wanted to show her all his drawings, he had done copies of his favourite band's logo, Metalica, and also small drawings of Sponge Bob and Square pants. According to the boy they were pretty good. However when asked about the maths portal and had he been logging into it, he had reported there were issues and just like any classroom the excuses come out, my login does not work, I don't know who I need to contact to fix it, oh, the librarian, no I don't know her email address. The excuses went on and on and I'm sure this is no different.
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| Prince Phillip also touched this piano in this same place |
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