The following items are two sources of historical information about the school's past.

Items from School of the Air Magazine (1956)

School of the Air - Alice Springs By Mrs Margaret D. Stiller (1956)

Taken from AIRDOCTOR - 1956

Items from School of the Air Magazine

Yes, School of the Air at Alice Springs produces its own annual magazine, with excellent contributions from the children, and a section for the Welfare Club.

In her foreword to the 1956 issue, produced at the end of the year, Mrs Margaret Stiller, the teacher in charge, admits, "I think I could say that 1956 has been the happiest year of my life."

That School of the Air gives confidence and facility of expression to its so widely scattered young pupils, is evident in the contributions from the children which, incidentally, open windows on to the way of life in Australia's Far North.

Here, for example, is a significant little verse written by Rosemary Hughes of Grade IV., whose address is Plenty River -

If I could spend all my leisure hours,
Studying nature's loveliest flowers,
How the wasps build their nests,
And the habits of bees,
The foliage and blossoms of all the wild trees,
IÕd be rich in my knowledge And this knowledge IÕd share
With those not fortunate enough to be there.

Elizabeth Petering, Grade VIII, whose father is a minister on Hermannsburg Mission Station, ends a story about the activities on the station with this sentence: "I think that life on this station is one of the best that there is and I myself wouldn't change it for any other."

Nanette Bowrey, nearly eight years old, in Grade III, lives on a cattle station near Alice Springs, where her father is in charge of the cattle and horses, and does the mustering and branding. After writing of her father's work, she adds: "My mother looks after the house and cooks for whoever is here, does the gardening, looks after the fowls, gives out rations to the blacks and teaches me my lessons!" An interesting sidelight on the life of a housewife in the Northern Territory.

David Trudinger, Grade III, who lives on Ernabella Mission Station, contributes an article on "My Friends, the Aborigines," of the Pitjanjara tribe who live in the Musgrave Ranges and often stay at the Mission. In this, as in other articles from the children, there is evidence of close observation of natural lore and of keen interest in the life around them.

"This is about an interesting tribe called the Pitjanjara tribe. They live in the Musgrave Ranges and often stay at our Mission called Ernabella. Every day I play with little aboriginal boys. On Saturdays, some aborigines go out with me and we have a picnic. It is such fun. We learn to hunt. I will tell you my best two brown-skinned boys' names - Maru Maru and Louis.

Every time the natives see a rabbit near a rock they run around the rock and the rabbit will sit until they spear it.

We say the rabbit is mesmerised. Now I will tell you how they cook it. First of all they make a fire. In the bush they don't need matches. They get a stick with a split in it. Then they put some dry grass in the split and rub very quickly with a woomera or spearthrower. Soon there is smoke and they blow it to make a flame. They cook the rabbit in red coals. They don't skin the rabbit but cook it fur and all. This is to keep in all the fat and meat juice. They peel off the fur and eat it.

Most of all the natives like kangaroos and euros to eat. The men go out hunting in parties with their spears and dogs. Sometimes they burn the hillside to make the euros come down, then their dogs chase and bring them down and the natives rush in and kill them with their spears. They bring them to the camp on their heads. They also cook the kangaroos and euros in their skins for several hours in the hot coals. The natives here love to eat emus and wild turkeys. The dogs usually bring them down and the men kill them with spears and hitting sticks. They take all the feathers off first, then they fill the inside with young gum leaves and cook them in the coals. The legs of an emu taste like real poultry. The native children mostly hunt 'maku' or woodgrubs when we go hunting. We dig for them on Saturdays from around the gum trees. Our natives are very good climbers. Even the little native girls can climb. 'Maku' tastes lovely roasted in the fire.

Our natives all have to work and hunt. We have 5,000 sheep which are on 8 sheep camps. These are looked after by our native shepherds. At shearing time they bring in their flocks and about 20 men shear the sheep. We have 6 shearing machines and a big shearing shed. Other men make fences, dig wells, make cement bricks, do buildings, painting, gardening. We have a saw mill and an industrial school for the young men.

All our women spin the wool on wooden sticks in the camp and bring it up at supper time. The girls wash and dye the wool and weave it into rugs and blankets or floor rugs. Other girls paint cards and scarves. Lots of girls work in the cook house, the houses, the hospital and some teach in the school. The children go to School where they learn to read and write first in Pitjanjara and then in English.

Our natives love singing. Sometimes they sing corroborees all night. They love to sing our hymns, too."

Patricia Ulyatt of Muckaty Station, 82 miles north of Tennant Creek, finished her "schooling on the air" at the end of 1956 and is now at boarding school. In two short contributions to the magazine, she writes about education in the outback and about Muckaty itself, which covers an area of about 580 square miles.

"Muckaty Station was formed in 1933 by Mr. Charlie Wright, who, with his wife and family lived here for three years. Mr Wright tried unsuccessfully to graze sheep. He shore them in the wet season and consequently most of them died through lack of warmth. He sold what was left of his flock and bought some cattle, but he had lost heart, and so threw the block up.

The land lay vacant until Daddy took it up in 1939. We came down here in 1942 when Miriam and I were babies. Daddy bought cattle here in 1954 from Birdum. He built a homestead and yard and was able to really settle down when the war was over. While the war was on he was often away over in the West with the Civil Aviation, and Mummy was often alone for as much as nine months at a time.

The country is a mixture of desert, open scrub, and stony ranges. It is excellent country for horses and cattle. We have a lot of surface water and most of it lasts right up until the first storms begin in October.

The drought in 1952-54 hit the country severely, and it will take years for a lot of it to recover. Lots of trees died as a result. The cattle suffered from 'pegleg' which is caused from lack of phosphorous minerals. 'Pegleg' is a stiffening of the joints, and affects cows worse than bullocks.

All the improvements on the station have been done by Daddy. The central walls of the house are built of antbed bricks, and are boxed in with flywire and louvres around the top, and iron around the bottom.

The stockyard, which is about 200 yards away from the house, consists of three small drafting yards and two holding yards."

No less interesting than the "letterpress" in the magazine are the clever sketches that are scattered through it.

School of the Air - Alice Springs

By Mrs Margaret D. Stiller - 1956

Mrs. Margaret D. Stiller

Teacher in Charge, "School of the Air," Alice Springs, is at the Piano accompanying the
children for one of their "School Songs." Note the Radio Equipment behind her.

Looking back over School of the Air and its activities during the past year, I feel that real progress has been made in many directions.

The first term of 1956 was spent in getting to know the children and in getting the 'feel' of School of the Air, but since then new developments have been possible, new ideas tried out, worn-out ideas discarded and other ideas consolidated.

The most exciting event of the year was undoubtably the visit of His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh. Although a special session had to be held, as the visit was on a Saturday, the children very willingly took part.

Unfortunately, due to sun spot activity, reception was very poor, but how thrilled we were when we heard that His Royal Highness intended to speak from our studio to the children.

John Gross, of Hermannsburg Mission, asked the distinguished visitor to give our greetings to Prince Charles and Princess Anne, and His Royal Highness told us later on that perhaps he might bring them out to Australia next time.

The Queen and His Royal Higness visiting Hamilton Downs Station, 1963

Another highlight of the year was the trip around to many of the homesteads made by Mr and Mrs McLay and myself in May this year.

Mr McLay is the Assistant Supervisor of Education in the Northern Territory, and although he is an extremely busy man, he made time to visit quite a few homes of School of the Air pupils.

We were very hospitably received, and gained a much better understanding of the children, their environment, the problems of the pupils and supervisors in correspondence lessons, as well as getting to know each other in person.

I believe that, as a result of this trip, the number of children taking part in School of the Air has increased tremendously. I am looking forward to many more such trips.

Although at the beginning of this year there were only 29 children taking part in School of the Air, there are now over 50. This is partly due to the personal contact made in the trip to stations, but also to greater efforts to get parents interested in the School of the Air. Whenever I have heard of children on a station who are not joining in with the School, I have contacted their parents and they have all shown a willingness to join in.

Throughout the year, we have been planning for our get-together, which will take the form of a visit to Adelaide in October-November.

In Adelaide, we shall stay in three C.W.A. cottages at the Grange, and a very full and varied programme has been arranged for the children. Twenty children and four additional adults will be making the trip, and we shall be in Adelaide for a fortnight. The School of the Air Welfare Club is working hard to raise funds for this journey as there will be many expenses. If you could come to one of our School of the Air lessons I believe you would feel immediately the group spirit which is a vital part of our School. The children obviously look forward to the lessons, and little gossip sessions before each lesson keeps them on the alert for news as well as encouraging them to speak freely.

The spirit of co-operation is there, too, for sometimes when I am not able to hear a station clearly, everyone is immediately ready to pass on the message if they can hear it.

Sometimes I have to chuckle at the quaint things said, but I am sure that the children do the same at what I say. The friendly atmosphere of our lessons is a tonic to me, and I am sure to anyone who comes to listen to a session.

A new development within the past few months has been a special session once a week for pre-school children.

There were one or two children of pre-school age listening to some of the session, and as an experiment I decided to devote one afternoon lesson each week to them. The idea caught on immediately, and many parents have told me how much the little ones enjoy their own special session.

Almost weekly we have someone new joining in with sessions for the little ones. I wish I could hear some of them reciting their nursery rhymes, or singing 'Twinkle, twinkle, little star'. It would warm your heart.

I believe that our School of the Air is fulfilling a great need for outback children. It provides them with the extras which they cannot get by doing correspondence lessons, helps them with special difficulties, and above all makes them feel part of a group, instead of being isolated far from any other children.

The library makes books available to them, and the teacher is there to help mothers and supervisors with any problems they may have.

Yet School of the Air is still only in its infancy, and I believe that as time goes by, it will be able to help much more, and play a much greater part, in the education of our isolated children.