The Outback of Australia

 

A swarm of flying termites!

    

I was not aware of the vast size of Australia until our tour in January, 2015. Including traveling to and from the “land down under,” there were a total of five flights, each requiring a change of time zones. As we were getting ready to depart from Melbourne and fly to Alice Springs in the outback of Australia, our guide, Luke Bonney, informed us that it would have taken three days to make the 1,173 mile trip by bus.

   The two hour flight to Alice Springs went smoothly, with lunch on the plane and lunch again when we arrived, due to setting the clock back 1 ½ hours. Not bad! Before checking into the hotel, we were taken on a bus tour of the Royal Flying Doctors visitor center, the School of the Air headquarters and the old Telegraph Station which was a vital link in communication connecting the country from north to south.

     During our second lunch break in the town center, I walked over to a small church, drawn by the sound of voices singing. It was Sunday after all, a day of worship wherever we may be. The service had just ended and several Aboriginal people filed out, the women wearing dresses and hats, the men in suits and ties. According to a plaque on the lawn in front of the church, it was established by the Reverend John Flynn, a Presbyterian minister who served people living in the outback during the first part of the twentieth century. This was my first contact with Australian Aborigines and seeing them as fellow members of the body of Christ was very heartwarming.

     Rev. Flynn’s name came up again when our tour group visited the visitor center of the Royal Flying Doctors Service. Due to the immense size of the outback and the lack of doctors, Rev. Flynn saw the need to transport doctors and nurses to injured people and to carry patients to hospitals in large cities like Sydney or Melbourne. He helped organize this vital service in 1928 in connection with the Australian Inland Mission. With sixty-one planes, and supported mainly by public donations, Flynn’s vision to help people both physically and spiritually continues on today through the RFDS.     

John Stuart, explorer who helped connect south to north

      From there, our bus took us a short distance to the headquarters of the Alice Springs School of the Air. This is a unique program established by Adelaide Miethke in 1951, using the radio as a means of teaching and uniting school-aged children living in isolated areas. The school is dubbed the “largest classroom in the world,” with about 120 students enrolled each year but covering an area twice the size of Texas! The internet is now used instead of the radio, bringing the classroom to kids from preschool to ninth grade, with the assistance of a home tutor or parent. After middle school, students have to attend boarding school or enroll in correspondence courses.

      While there, we were able to view an online interactive science lesson used with primary students. I asked Al if he’d like to move to Australia so that I could teach at the School of the Air, but that idea didn’t go over so well!

     Next week, you will read more about the Aboriginal people who live in Australia and our trip to Ayers Rock. I’ve enjoyed learning about this country first hand. It’s good to expand our limited view of the world, isn’t it? May we have hearts open to accepting people of different cultures, races and religions, remembering that to them, we are the ones who are different! Like one Australian commented… “I can hardly understand your accent!” (Central California?)

“….Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” 1Samuel 16:7b NIV