Queensland is a big paddock. Over 1.7 million km², it is bigger than South Africa, twice as big as Pakistan, 3½ times the size of France, 5 times the size of Germany, 6½ that of New Zealand and 7 of Great Britain. It has primary schools in every part, from the dry Simpson Desert [Birdsville and Bedourie] in the west to the lush growth of tropical North Queensland including the islands of Torres Strait. Its most northerly school is on Boigu Island, 6 km from Papua New Guinea and 120 km north from Thursday Island.Teachers are needed in every place that has a dozen or so pupils requiring schooling. Many such places are beyond the normal highways and by-ways, well beyond those services that provide other forms of care or government attention. Principals start off their careers, later accompanied by their young brides in some of the most outlandish places in the so-called ‘western world’. As Ray says in “Departmental Officer“, they went where they sent ‘…without lament, without refusing.”
Imagine legendary Principals like Maurie Kelly as a teen-age young Principal at Dobbyn over 2500 km from his home in Brisbane, David Ham as an Assistant Teacher at Camooweal and so many other teenagers serving a long, long way beyond any black stump. Each of us will know so many other outstanding educators like Ian Bonney [Kowanyama], John Fahey [Wai Ben, the ‘Coloured School' on T.I.], Ron Lester [Camooweal], Bill McClintock [Mornington Island], Des Eastment [Normanton], Ted Polkinghorne [Mabuiag & Laura], Jack Christiansen[Dobbyn] prepared to serve in places far from kith and kin, each of whom developed so professionally while doing the real hard yards.
Compare other distances from the capital city. It is 1702 km from Brisbane to Melbourne [1 km shorter than the distance from Brisbane to Cairns] and 2498 from London to Moscow. Within Queensland boundaries, it is 3160 km from Boigu, just off the coast of Papua New Guinea, to Brisbane. This is ¾ of the distance from Sydney to Perth. Its nearest big town is Cairns, 1500 km away, a long way to pick up the groceries on Friday afternoon. Birdsville is 1813 km to its capital city but only 685 km from Adelaide.
It’s a tough State to undertake a career as a Primary Principal. The school to which one is assigned is in the hands of another, even though aspirants may offer a list of preferences. The duties that many are required to perform [coroner and funeral director in some places] are excessive. In his parody “Ditty of Extraneous Duties” Ray lists a number of duties that divert all Principals from their major role as curriculum leaders, no matter where they are located. When they were charged rent [‘conned' by its own Union it has been said] in 1966 for occupying a school residence, it became too much. Providing on-the-spot surveillance and being ‘on call’ 24/7 for no remuneration was real. It was total school involvement, so in “Rent“, Ray was frank in his assessment.
In the period that Ray’s parodies cover, the curriculum started to become very over-crowded with new ways of treating traditional subjects and adding new ones. Many remain to the present day and it is a real wonder that today’s teachers achieve such high standards in all the bits and pieces of instruction as well as they do. The curriculum is now very, very over-crowded. Ray describes some of the more moderate changes in “Thrusts and Fads“. Administrative duties also altered and Ray reckons that he was “One of the Old School“. When the supervision of ‘pressure-cooker’ teachers in Secondary Departments was added to the copious list of duties, Ray wrote the “Song of the Trainee Supervisors“.
One of the school-imposed and pesky duties was the supervision of the wearing of school uniforms. One Principal called Bones found a solution, described in “The Uniform“.
Indeed, Primary Principals, more than most, copped it from all sides. When one QTU member complained because his red ball-point pen could not be replaced, Ray gave him the treatment in “The Plaint of the Principal“.
Especially during this troublesome period, pre-RBT, it was a relief to mix with colleagues at a favoured watering hole each Friday. While teaching at Emerald, Ray was inspired by the RAAF & RAF motto Per Ardua ad Astra so he celebrated his weekly struggle with the challenges by a visit to one star in particular – the Emerald Star – “Per Ardua ad Astrum“.
