| Broken
Hill offers an excellent opportunity to visit two Australian Outback
institutions, the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) and the School
of the Air. The RFDS, at Broken Hill Airport, offers guided tours
(Mon–Fri 9am–noon & 1–5pm, Sat & Sun 10am–noon &
1–4pm; tel 08/8088 0777; it’s best to buy your ticket in advance from
the tourist office as places are limited; $3), with an accompanying video
and talk. |
|
| In
the headquarters you’ll see the radio room where calls from remote
places in New South Wales, South Australia and Queensland are handled
before going out to the hangar to see the aircraft. The increasing
popularity of the tours is due to the Australian television series The
Flying Doctors, which is shown worldwide, and since a third of the
annual budget of $30 million has to come through fund-raising – the rest
of the money is from the State and Federal governments – whatever you
spend on the tour and at the souvenir shop here is going to a good cause.
In many ways the School of the Air is also
indebted to the RFDS: lessons for children in the Outback, in a
transmission area of 1.8 million square kilometres, are conducted via RFDS
two-way radio. The service was established in 1956 to improve education
for children in the isolated Outback, and today visitors listen to the
first hour’s transmission in a schoolroom surrounded by childrens’
artwork (Mon–Fri, term time only 8.30am; book in advance at the tourist
centre; $2). It’s frighteningly like being back at school yourself, with
jolly primary-school teachers hosting singalongs; what comes out of the
radio is a static squawk, but the children in the far-flung areas seem to
enjoy it. |