- Tanya Heaslip, 62, from Alice Springs, NT, was a pupil at School of the Air
- The school has been teaching bush kids for over 70 years through distance education
- Tanya wrote a book about her childhood and how School of the Air went on to shape her career
Here Tanya tells her story in her words.
The old two-way radio crackled with static while I waited expectantly for the person on the other end.
‘Mrs Hodder here. Good morning everyone. Can you read me, over?’ came the gentle teacher’s voice across the airwaves.
Aged five, joining the Alice Springs School of the Air class at mid morning was the highlight of my day. I loved sitting in the schoolroom in our house on the 1515 square kilometre Bond Springs cattle station, set against the MacDonnell Ranges, NT, with my sister, M’Lis, six, and brother Brett, four.
With the nearest school too far away to attend, we completed all our schooling by correspondence, including mathematics and English.
Unable to actually see Mrs Hodder or my classmates spread all over Northern Territory, I painted pictures of their faces in my mind.
My parents, Janice and Grant, were 26 when they’d moved from the Flinders Ranges to the station when I was three. As time went on Dad spent his days checking and fixing fences, boreholes, tanks and yards, and mustering cattle, while Mum cooked for us and our 20 hungry stockmen.
Us kids would spend the morning at school, before helping out around the station.
Being so isolated, we only came into contact with other children a handful of times a year. So us kids from School of the Air were only too ready to share our lives with one another – singing each other ‘Happy Birthday’ and indulging in some good old bush gossip.
‘My dad’s very cross. We lost some cattle after mustering, because Dad said, “Some bloody fool left the gate open”,’ one boy piped up on the airwaves.
‘Tell Dad I hope he finds them soon,’ Mrs Hodder replied, diplomatically.
‘Mrs Hodder for the first time was like meeting the Queen.’
When the monthly box of books arrived from School of the Air’s offices, they fired my vivid imagination for life beyond our station, which seemed so magical, and began my lifelong passion for reading and writing.
When I was seven, Mum and Dad welcomed my baby brother Benny.
Each August Mum took us to meet up with the School of the Air kids in Alice Springs – it was wonderful to see my classmates as we played games together.
When I met Mrs Hodder for the first time it was like meeting the Queen and I almost curtsied. In person she was tall, willowy and even more wonderful.
My best friend was classmate Janie, who lived on Everard Park Station, 600km south of Alice Springs. We often wrote to each other and stole extra time on the radio when we could.
For my 10th birthday my parents bought me an orange typewriter and I wrote endlessly about the bush and the fiery colours that made my heart sing.
I sent some of my stories to Mrs Hodder.
Keep up the super smashing great work Tanya, she replied, impressed.
I was sad to finish School of the Air in 1975, when I went to board at Annesley College, Adelaide, aged 12. The homesickness, rules and uniform were worlds apart from the freedom, family and home I was used to.
After school I studied law at Adelaide uni and became the first Alice Springs School of the Air student to graduate as a lawyer.
After working as a lawyer, I travelled to Prague, in the Czech Republic, where I taught English for two years, before returning to Australia and working in law all over the country.
Throughout the years I kept in touch with Mrs Hodder who was so thrilled to hear about my life. And I was equally delighted to hear about School of the Air, especially when Princess Diana and the then Prince Charles visited there in 1983, and Queen Elizabeth visited numerous times.
‘I wrote about my childhood and the School of the Air.’
After Mrs Hodder sadly died I was honoured when her daughters asked me to deliver her eulogy.
I met my future husband Steve in 2000 and we married in 2002.
When Dad became sick in 2017 Steve and I moved from WA to Alice Springs.
Standing back on the red earth I felt like my true authentic self again.
Sadly Dad passed away two years later, aged 79.
To honour the life he and Mum had forged for us, I decided to write a book about my childhood and the School of the Air.
I reached out to many of my old classmates, including Janie, who were delighted to be included.
During my research I discovered that it was retired school teacher Adelaide Miethke who noticed that bush kids were excessively shy and needed social connection. With the help of Reverend John Flynn, who set up the Royal Flying Doctor Service, she was instrumental in launching Alice Springs School of the Air in June 1951.
If only she knew how many kids she’d helped, I thought.
I released my book An Alice Girl in May 2020.
These days I still live in Alice Springs, where I work in law and as an author.
Mum, the former president of the Isolated Children and Parents Association, is 85, and I’m still friends with Janie, now 62, who now lives in Aspen, US.
I give talks about School of the Air at the visitors’ centre and was thrilled to speak to students recently over Zoom. Using satellite and Internet technology, School of the Air teaches hundreds of students in the Aussie outback, only now they can see their classmates and teachers.
But what remains the same over 70 years on is School of the Air keeping bush kids connected, making learning fun and inspiring whole new generations.
It helped me to chase my dreams and become the person I am today, and for that I’m forever grateful.
