Back in the day …

Wordofthedaychallenge: Yesteryear

As a child I was interested in the wider world with only books to satiate my curiosity. It was a different time. A different world. Newspapers arrived at our doorstep a day later than it did in the city. There was no TV, no computers, no internet. Radio Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) crackled music and BBC news into our home twice a day and that was the reach of the wider world into mine. So all the knowledge I had came from books, and so it is not surprising, books have been a lifelong passion.

I knew very little about Australia except for one curious fact that fascinated me. Australian children who lived in the outback studied through School of the Air (SOTA). This concept was so far removed from my own experience of school that it puzzled me.

I was never more thrilled to see the equipment that was used by the SOTA somewhere along my journeys. I was even more thrilled when I got to observe a few siblings in the outback who were SOTA students. Of course, the technology has now changed to screen based learning, but I was quite impressed they were so focused on their work and took their breaks as the schedule dictated, returning to their desk exactly on time. Their behaviour was exemplary, with attention and turning taking developed into an art.

When travelling remote I always look for books written by local people. Their experiences and descriptions of life, as it was, is fascinating. I bought a book about Wiluna on one of my trips, a town that was thriving during the gold rush during the late 1800s, but now less populated. It lies on the edge of the Western Desert just over 900 km (over 500 miles) from Perth. Getting there requires some planning as it is not a town on everyone’s travel route.

The SOTA was developed in collaboration with the Royal Flying Doctor Service and I was interested to read that the wives of station owners or station managers would have a First Aid kit that they managed. They had nerves of steel managing unexpected breech deliveries, snake bites, farming accidents, infants having seizures and worse.

Wiluna museum, Western Australia

Over the crackle of the radio, the women would describe the emergency to the nurse or doctor. The medicines were all labelled by numbers, not by name.

Wiluna museum, Western Australia

Apparently there were less mistakes or misunderstandings, when numbers were called over the radio rather than unfamiliar names of medication. Simple and practical solution!

The technology back in the day was used as intended. People went about their life … until they needed it. Maybe there are lessons to learn from this.

Until next time

As always

a dawn bird