Around Alice

Tuesday 4th August 2009
Yesterday was another one of NT's 19 public holidays, the most of any Australian state or Territory. Today everything is back to normal and we started our day with a quick shopping trip. One of our mobile phones packed it in yesterday, apparently condensation was the problem, so today we got another one at the local shop and also shopped for food.
Next stop was Alice Springs School of the Air where 15 teachers look after 169 students spread over 1.3 million square kilometers, a land mass the same size as central Europe. Most of the students are on cattle stations and in remote communities up to 1000km away from the school. The school used to operate via radio but in 2005 they made the change to internet satellite technology and now they have computers and web cams to participate in a virtual classroom. In addition to the on-air time spent with teachers the children also need a home tutor with is often mum or dad but if they are too busy a governess is employed to take children through their school work. Written school work is mailed back to the school every fortnight and assessed by the teachers. The teachers normally make one trip a year out to the stations to meet with students and two or three times a year all students, tutors and teachers come together for a week in Alice Springs.
The school has just extended its program to cover up to year nine but the remainder of the school years have to be completed in a normal school so boarding is the common option. As you can imagine, children which have never been in a class room find it quite hard to adjust to the social structure in a boarding school.
While at the school we could witness a Japanese class being conducted in one studio and an aboriginal class happening in the other studio.
Back to the caravan for lunch and then out to "Desert Park", a wildlife park set at the foot of the West MacDonnell Ranges. The park is on a large parcel of land and sectioned into different wildlife habitats such as Sand Country, Woodland and Desert Rivers to outline that the Red Centre of Australia is everything but lifeless.
At the start everyone gets a little MP3 player and throughout the park there are signs showing the appropriate track number which is then selected on the player - very neat, it's like having your own private guide, in your chosen language.
There were lots of bird enclosures and a Nocturnal House where we saw some of the desert night time animals such as the Bilby. The bird of prey display was very impressive, in particular the the Black Breasted Buzzard using a rock to crack open an Emu egg. All right in front of us. We saw a Falcon, Kites, an Owl and and even a humble Magpie being flown in the open air display.
At the end of the walk there was a movie about the Aboriginal Creation story screened in a theatre. At the end of the movie the whole screen dropped down to reveal a very impressive view out onto the West MacDonnell Ranges through a glass wall.
Back at the caravan park I attended a talk by a local Astronomer. There is an observatory in an elevated area at the back of caravan park complete with light shielding - not bad.
Unfortunately we were just a couple of days away from full moon so observing wasn't really that great and I ended up back at the caravan to avoid the cold.