Remote Australia Online

Buffel grass has been recognised as one of the greatest threats to biodiversity in South Australia’s arid and semi-arid rangelands. It has the capacity to transform ecosystems through habitat loss, competition with native plants and alteration of natural fire regimes. Buffel grass is increasingly impacting on the culture, health and safety of Indigenous communities and new approaches to the management of this devastating weed are being employed. Advances gained from South Australian research and development have resulted in the application of new control options, increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of herbicide application. The emergence of new technologies has resulted in the use of drones and user friendly platforms for the mapping of buffel grass infestations in Indigenous communities and throughout SA's arid rangelands. Building the capacity of Indigenous communities through both formal and informal training is a key focus of the Alinytjara Wilurara Natural Resources Management Board. Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Land Management and Spinifex Land Management. Training provided includes the use of herbicides, mapping equipment and a range of other land management tools, with a southern desert ranger forum planned in 2017 to provide an opportunity for indigenous rangers from SA, NT and WA to learn from the experiences of fellow rangers and traditional owners. In addition, 'healthy country planning' is being used to develop achievable management objectives for a range of cultural and environmental issue, such as weed management. This planning process has a strong emphasis on traditional owner engagement. A focus on building the capacity of Indigenous communities has seen a changing face of Indigenous managed lands. New and innovative ways of effectively managing buffel grass are being employed to improve the condition of country and manage the threats posed to the environment and culture in Australia's rangelands.

This is a research synthesis of the available evidence, since 2005, that demonstrates the extent to which housing can facilitate non-shelter outcomes (health, education, economic development, safety) for Indigenous individuals and communities, especially (but not limited to) remote Indigenous communities

Private health insurance – a good deal in rural and remote Australia?

The northern Australian pastoral industry is intensifying development and grazing systems to facilitate greater productivity and capital value. A three year field trial in the Barkly region of the Northern Territory (Beetaloo) comparing intensive rotational grazing (IRG) combined with wet season spelling (WSS) to set stocking (SS) at similar average annual stocking rates (SR) and paddock sizes, found no change in pasture condition in either grazing system. Given the short duration of the trial we used GRASP to simulate how the intensified grazing system might influence pasture condition in the longer term (30 years) comparing: 1) continuous SS; 2) SS with an annual 3 month WSS; and 3) annual WSS with IRG; for a range of graze dates, climate windows, starting pasture conditions and SR. SR that facilitated pasture recovery in drier climate windows or from C condition pastures were 2/3 of safe SR in wetter climate windows or B condition pastures. Adding WSS to SS facilitated faster pasture recovery times at higher safe SR. For WSS + IRG, if any of the grazes were during the growing season, the SR that promoted pasture recovery was one to two thirds less than the safe SR when grazing occurred only during the dry season. Dry season IRG + WSS had higher safe SR and shorter recovery times than the Grazing Land Management (GLM) derived carrying capacity with continuous grazing, or SS + WSS. This study suggests that WSS + IRG may be a useful tool to enhance recovery of degraded grasslands. However, recovery timeframes were still in the order of decades and any wet season IRG should be avoided or carefully managed to prevent further pasture condition decline.

Linear clearings, such as roads and tracks, are an obvious anthropogenic feature in many remote environments, even where infrastructure is sparse. Predator species have been shown to prefer moving down linear clearings, and therefore, clearings could increase predation risk for other species. We investigated whether tracks cleared for seismic surveys are preferentially used by predators and herbivores in a landscape inhabited by bilbies (Macrotis lagotis), a vulnerable species of conservation concern. We used a paired camera trap array to investigate the use of cleared seismic lines at four time points after clearing (1 month, 3 months, 7 months, 48 months) by six mammal species. Bilbies, cattle (Bos indicus/B. taurus), dingoes (Canis familiaris), feral cats (Felis catus) and agile wallabies (Macropus agilis) preferred to use seismic lines compared with adjacent undisturbed vegetation for almost all surveys, while spectacled hare wallabies (Lagorchestes conspicillatus) avoided them. Bilbies and agile wallabies showed similar temporal activity patterns on and off seismic lines but feral cats, dingoes and cattle used seismic lines at different times of day to control areas. We also investigated microhabitat selection by spool tracking individual bilbies. Bilbies selected a route through vegetation that was more open than surrounding vegetation. While spatial and temporal funnelling of bilbies and their predators (especially cats) may increase the frequency of encounter between the two, it is important to note that bilbies were active at significantly different times to predators both on and off seismic lines. The identified selection for seismic lines, and changes in spatial and temporal overlap between species, can be used to develop effective management strategies, to minimize potential impacts on native species.

The Indigenous Land Corporation (ILC) assists Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to acquire and manage land to achieve economic, environmental, social, and cultural benefits. To support this the ILC maintains a spatial database of property infrastructure information, including property layout, fencing, waterpoints, and other features, for more than 160 Indigenous and ILC-held properties across Australia. The quality and consistency of this information varies depending on information availability and managers, limited access to the information on remote properties or ability to improve it. To address these issues, the ILC, through its wholly owned subsidiary the Australian Indigenous Agribusiness Company (AIA) [formerly National Indigenous Pastoral Enterprises (NIPE)]1, started a project in 2016 to develop detailed property infrastructure information using its in-house Indigenous mapping capability, starting with fifteen NIPE-managed properties. The FarmMap 4D (FM4D) online application [formerly known as the NRM Spatial Hub]2was used to deliver information to the remote property managers. Managers can use FM4D to dynamically view and overlay map layers, and generate maps and reports, to support more effective land management and planning. This single source of information is accessed by project managers, contractors, and property managers alike. But how did the ILC develop its property information, how is the ILC using the FM4D, and what are the ILC’s plans for the future? Moreover, how is this project improving the ability of the ILC and AIA to deliver benefits to Indigenous people?

Social Return on Investment (SROI) is an internationally recognised methodology used to measure and value the impact of programs. Like a traditional cost-benefit analysis, SROI examines economic outcomes, but also includes the social, environmental and cultural outcomes created by the investment. These outcomes are evaluated against their cost, using financial proxies to estimate their relative value. SROI is particularly valuable in the indigenous natural resource management context, because of the strong ‘value’ or importance of non-economic (particularly cultural) costs and benefits. The Alinytjara Wilurara Natural Resources Management Board (AW NRMB) undertook a study of the economic, social, environmental and cultural impacts of large feral herbivores in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands, in the far northwest of South Australia. Camels, donkeys and horses present significant impacts for the community in terms of vehicle collisions, community health, damage to infrastructure and water pollution. With the costs incurred by pest animals inthe APY lands valued at $4.2m and possible benefits valued at $140,000, the study found that there was a net cost impact of approximately $4m. This study also found significant cultural impacts of pest animals, which requires further analysis. Future investment models that consider a broad range of costs and benefits, are considered appropriate for Australian rangelands, particularly Indigenous-owned land.

In the last 20 years there has been a huge surge in development of technological tools to improve the business of producing protein in Australia. While in the early stages this was mostly confined to the cropping sectors, more and more we are seeing the livestock industry embracing technology and the benefits it brings to business bottom lines. Unfortunately the remote pastoral industry has been behind the eight ball due to a combination of harsh conditions, limited access to online service and very low adoption rates, amongst other things. Tech companies have been quite successful in building hardware capable of withstanding the extremes of Australia's hostile climate and gradually, ever so gradually, regional Australia is joining the 21st century in its access to the World Wide Web at speeds not totally reminiscent of a slow motion replay. That leaves adoption... There are now tools available to the pastoral industry that can not only save time and money, but that can also identify inefficiencies, minimize unnecessary production losses and monitor pasture condition and availability to better manage our grazing ecosystems. The PPMS (Precision Pastoral Management System) is a software system based online via a cloud based network. It draws on multiple data products that are customized to each property. The RLMS (Remote Livestock Management System) collects live weight data and also an auto-drafting option, while pasture production is collected via satellite. Data is streamed back to the PPMS via the telemetry unit. This system is used to maximise animal productivity while minimizing overgrazing and land system degradation. The telemetry units also support other cost saving tools like Tank Level sensors, Digital Rain Guages, Remote Start/Stop function for motors and many more.

Towns in central western Queensland are especially exposed to the risks of drought, with approximately half of the businesses directly linked to agriculture. This paper reports on surveys undertaken in 2015 and 2017 of town business. A significant reduction in turnover is reported by businesses in the region’s largest town, Longreach. Populations have declined sharply over the past four years, partly due to itinerant agricultural workers leaving the region. Townspeople are major contributors to social cohesion and resilience in rural and regional communities. Declining grazier incomes have led to reduced spending in town businesses as well as a negative spiral of declining population and declining services, resulting in lower social resilience in rural and remote communities. Policy makers have four options: do nothing; understand the local context; support local capacities; and/or transform. Transformation of governance arrangements is crucial if social resilience is to be restored. Drought assistance can contribute to developing more resilient communities. Recommendations include fostering innovation and changing the roles and responsibilities in collaboration between government and local organisations.

Current models of care are not reducing oral health disparities between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians. Poor oral health in Aboriginal Australians remains a significant concern. Evidence suggests that, despite dental caries being largely (theoretically) preventable, Australian Aboriginal people have worse periodontal disease, more decayed teeth and untreated dental caries than non-Aboriginal Australians. Current health care delivery systems need reviewing for their effectiveness in providing services that are culturally appropriate and understand the issues that many Aboriginal people face including marginalisation, racism and socio-economic disadvantage. Knowledge of Aboriginal perspectives of oral health and dental services is integral to developing responsive and appropriate oral health services that focus on upstream approaches such as preventing disease as well as providing tertiary dental care. The original concept of this project was suggested by a Noongar elder and developed over time through conversations with Community, Aboriginal health colleagues with leadership roles and with an Aboriginal co-investigator. Designed to respond to a pressing need to generate new knowledge and identify practical solutions to improve the provision of adequate primary oral health care to Aboriginal people, it was anticipated that project findings would provide evidence of how Aboriginal people perceive oral health and dental services, including barriers and enabling factors that can inform policy and practice development and future research projects.

Introduction: In Australia, many small birthing units have closed in recent years, correlating with adverse outcomes including a rise in the number of babies born before arrival to hospital. Concurrently, a raft of national policy and planning documents promote continued provision of rural and remote maternity services, articulating a strategic intent for services to provide responsive, woman-centred care as close as possible to a woman’s home. The aims of this paper are to contribute to an explanation of why this strategic intent is not realised, and to investigate the utility of an evidence based planning tool (the Toolkit) to assist with planning services to realise this intent. Methods: Interviews, focus groups and a group information session were conducted involving 141 participants in four Australian jurisdictions. Field notes and reports were thematically analysed. Results: We identified barriers that helped explain the gap between strategic intent and services on the ground. These were absence of informed leadership; lack of knowledge of contemporary models of care and inadequate clinical governance; poor workforce planning and use of resources; fallacious perceptions of risk; and a dearth of community consultation. In this context, the implementation of policy is problematic without tools or guidance. Conclusions: Barriers to operationalising strategic intent in planning maternity services may be alleviated by using evidence based planning tools such as the Toolkit.

Development is not a new word for the Fitzroy Catchment in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. However, it is currently the focus of an enormous level of interest and investment driven primarily by the State and Federal Governments development papers, with significant diversity and different agendas with respect to pastoral, environmental and indigenous groups. Rangelands NRM is facilitating opportunities to make the most from these initiatives and ensure the programs follow a sustainable pathway that is grounded in best practice environmental stewardship, is respectful and inclusive with community, and pursues sustainable and appropriate economic developments. History has demonstrated that significant investment alone will not bring about sustainable change to the region. Only through an inclusive, triple-bottom-line approach will we see lasting positive change that is driven and supported by community. Our approach is to use a networking ®problem solving ®coordinated program to assist stakeholders along a journey. We bring an openness to discuss the issues, without having the answers or driving the direction of discussions. Together, the group is developing a framework and facilitating the creation of a body who can navigate environment, social and economic needs. We are using a ‘collective impact’ strategy to seek shared commitment through understanding of a collective goal between participating stakeholders. This encourages the pooling of resources, tasks and objectives across multiple stakeholders to change the disposition of a complex system towards resilient, sustainable and hopefully flourishing outcomes.

Objective: We compared self-reported dietary intake from the very remote sample of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nutrition and Physical Activity Survey (VR-NATSINPAS; n=1,363) to one year of food and beverage purchases from 20 very remote Indigenous Australian communities (servicing ~8,500 individuals). Methods: Differences in food (% energy from food groups) and nutrients were analysed using t-test with unequal variance. Results: Per-capita energy estimates were not significantly different between the surveys (899 MJ/person/day [95% confidence interval −152,1950] p=0.094). Self-reported intakes of sugar, cereal products/dishes, beverages, fats/oils, milk products/dishes and confectionery were significantly lower than that purchased, while intakes of meat, vegetables, cereal-based dishes, fish, fruit and eggs were significantly higher (p<0.05). Conclusion: Differences between methods are consistent with differential reporting bias seen in self-reported dietary data. Implications for public health: The NATSINPAS provides valuable, much-needed information about dietary intake; however, self-reported data is prone to energy under-reporting and reporting bias. Purchase data can be used to track population-level food and nutrient availability in this population longitudinally; however, further evidence is needed on approaches to estimate wastage and foods sourced outside the store. There is potential for these data to complement each other to inform nutrition policies and programs in this population.

Aboriginal households in remote Australia are far less likely than other Australians to have an Internet connection at home. Until recently, telecentres were the preferred policy approach to addressing the digital divide, as these were assumed to be most appropriate given the 'communal' lifestyle of Aboriginal communities. In this chapter, I discuss a 4-year research project, in which three outstations, two Indigenous organizations, a consumer peak body and a group of university researchers, set out to test that assumption by bringing Internet into 20 homes. The chapter focuses on the research approach, and how the project revealed dimensions of the digital divide that were not observable through statistics or other methods.

Northern Territory (NT) government policy acknowledges the “need for active participation by all people, including Indigenous people, for the north to achieve ongoing prosperity.” However the majority of Aboriginal adults cannot engage due to low levels of English language, literacy and numeracy (LLN). Aboriginal people constitute 30% of the NT population and more than half speak English a second language (54%). Reading, writing, oral communication in English and numeracy skills remain a persistent challenge and the issue continues to be treated as peripheral, complex and “too hard”. English LLN is central to social capacity building, engaging with the economy, society and systems. Recent consolidation of an NT wide sample of 670 assessments points to very low levels across the NT, with the majority of people falling well below the level required to participate in education and work. The monetary cost of low literacy and the benefits of improvement have never been calculated for the NT. A Strategic Project has been underway to raise awareness, build the evidence base and catalyse change - much remains to be done. Excellent models in service provision exist, with high levels of Indigenous aspiration identified, and there is real momentum for change - but where is the commitment to collective and sustained action by Government, and who has responsibility for adult LLN in the NT?

This book explores the experiences of Indigenous children and young adults around the world as they navigate the formal education system and wider society. Profiling a range of different communities and sociolinguistic contexts, this book examines the language ecologies of their local communities, schools and wider society and the approaches taken by these communities to maintain children’s home languages. The authors examine such complex themes as curriculum, translanguaging, contact languages and language use as cultural practice. In doing so, this edited collection acts as a first step towards developing solutions which address the complexity of the issues facing these children and young people. It will appeal to students and scholars of sociolinguistics, applied linguistics and community development, as well as language professionals including teachers, curriculum developers, language planners and educators.

There is much talk about the seemingly intransigent gap between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal educational outcomes across Australia. From a critical theoretical perspective, a new paradigm is needed to frame the situation. One of these is becoming known as ‘red dirt thinking’: a metaphor intended to create a connection between western and Aboriginal theories of knowledge about education. In a nutshell red dirt thinking aims to use local narratives of aspiration and success. This means rethinking schools using a foundation of local languages, theories of knowledge, worldviews and ways of being. It includes using multi-linguistic spaces for learning and development, “creating a people-based education system; one where everyone belongs in the system, rather than the system insisting that people belong to it” (Bat & Guenther, 2013, p. 131). In 2015 a study comprising a literature review and qualitative methodologies was implemented in remote communities in the East and West Kimberley regions of Western Australia. The research question was: ‘how can remote schools build upon Aboriginal culture to function as sustainable community-engaged learning centres?’ This paper reports the outcomes of an ethnographic method which was used in two communities to ascertain teachers’ and community members’ hopes and accounts of children’s learning of Aboriginal theories of knowledge, worldviews, language and culture. The writers assert that for Aboriginal young people’s wellbeing and healthy development into adult-hood, local Aboriginal languages, narratives and beliefs need to be the foundation of their education. In this way Aboriginal cultural healing and cultural strength underpin non-Aboriginal determinations about Aboriginal children’s futures. In short, there is a need to rethink the goals and means of schooling in order to address entrenched problems that are located within the Australian schooling system itself. Red dirt thinking offers this potential.

Achieving educational equality for Australia’s Indigenous peoples remains one of Australia’s principal educational challenges. The issue of non-attendance in Australia’s remote community schools continues to be of significant concern, as one issue impacting on educational outcomes. This paper reports the findings of a study seeking educator perspectives on strategies for enhancing the attendance, engagement and retention of students enrolled at The Ngaanyatjarra Lands School (NLS) in remote Western Australia (WA) and examines factors supporting and inhibiting attendance. The multi-campus NLS is one of Australia’s most educationally disadvantaged schools with an Index of Community Socio-Economic Advantage (ICSEA) of 619 compared to 1000 as the average for all Australian schools. This school experiences a high level of transiency and non-attendance with four per cent of students attending regularly. The Ngaanyatjarra people are highly traditional and retain a close connection to their Land and traditional customs. This study utilised a single case qualitative research design, incorporating the perspectives of 11 practising NLS educators. Data was collected through semi-structured individual and focus group interviews, and documentary analysis. Four key areas of intervention for enhancing the attendance, engagement and retention of students are presented: 1) school-based learning and teaching; 2) school-based personnel; 3) family and community; and 4) pre-service preparation and induction. This study supported significant change to the provision of secondary education in The NLS. It also highlighted the importance of providing a culturally relevant and enriching curriculum for enhancing attendance and engagement in schools such as The NLS. Explicit Standard Australian English programmes were recommended in providing students with personalised pathways into Vocational Education Training. The changes called for highly qualified school leaders that can integrate the students’ cultural and linguistic needs with quality personnel development strategies. Daily school programmes prioritising the health and well-being of students in this context, coupled with extensive communication between the school, family and agencies, were found to enhance the attendance, engagement and retention of students at The NLS. The paper concludes with the implications for developing policy, practice and future research. Government agencies have a significant role to play in differentiating mainstream policy for The NLS. Human resource management policies need to prioritise the preparation, induction and development of quality NLS educators using two-way community development strategies. Further research into Ngaanyatjarra perspectives extending to student movement across the ‘culturally invisible’ borders of WA, Northern Territory and South Australia is recommended.

Education is recognized as a critical factor in children’s future life opportunities. However, there is a significant gap between the educational performance of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australian children that perpetuates the recognized disadvantage. One strand of the National “Closing the Gap” initiative is that of supporting Indigenous early childhood development, with this approach recognizing the critical importance of the earliest experiences of children with school to their longer term achievement. Parents and Learning (PaL) is one home-based program, developed by the remote Indigenous Napranum PaL Group, which engages Indigenous parents and caregivers in their young children’s early literacy learning. In this program Indigenous tutors link with parents in their homes to provide regular reading activities for the children, with tutors supporting the parents in the use of these materials. This program operates at the level of school readiness through a strengthening in the child’s literacy skills and school behaviours, with parents developing a greater capacity to support their children’s learning and a stronger engagement with the school environment that will support their child across the transition. This paper explores the experiences of parents and students across this transition experience. Findings to date have shown higher levels of literacy achievement of the children involved in PaL and also more positive involvement by parents with preschool school and also in their community – assisting in overall school readiness. Data from interviews of parents and children provides reflections on how the children and parents differentially experience the transition into school, adding to the understanding of the key elements of the preparation process, and the identification of possible strategies that could be implemented to further support parents and children across this process for more successful outcomes.

This research examines how NAPLAN-as-policy impacts on school organisation, teaching, the curriculum and ultimately the education experience and outcomes of Indigenous students in remote school settings. 124 respondents from remotely located schools across South Australia, Western Australia and Queensland participated in an online mixed methods survey. Site visits were conducted in 3 large remote schools in South Australia where 95% of staff participated in the research. The survey collected data on school demographics, teaching and learning, school organisation and the impact of school contextual factors. Over 75% of respondents wrote detailed responses in regard to perceived risks, benefits and change associated with the NAPLAN. The significant majority of respondents strongly agree that NAPLAN is a powerful influence shaping teachers' work, school organisation and the curriculum. 'Teaching to the test,' narrowing the curriculum and increased pressures to deliver improved NAPLAN results were common responses. Respondents strongly agree that localised school contextual factors play a significant role in the school's NAPLAN result. Application of the NAPLAN as a measure of school performance does not sufficiently take into account the complexities associated with teaching and learning in remote school contexts. A national policy focus on NAPLAN performance has had a mostly reductive influence on teachers' work in these settings. Broader accountabilities of the education process are required to ensure more equitable and differentiated resourcing, including teachers' on professional site development, more in line with local funds of knowledge and aspirations. The NAPLAN could and should be repositioned as one means to enable this.

Teacher Education in Australia has largely focussed in recent years on Indigenous Education through providing a subject in their degree on social contexts and diversity. The Australian Curriculum and changes to the AITSL teaching standards 1.2 and 1.4, emphasising teacher responsibility to learn Indigenous content and how to work with Indigenous students in their classes pose important challenges to teacher educators, requiring attention to Indigenous education in different ways. The purpose of this paper is to report one aspect of a five-year teacher education initiative to support the renewal of regional teaching through a first placement in rural and remote schools; here we focus on our strategies in a metropolitan university to build resources and capacities for all graduate entry teacher education students to work with Indigenous students - who will be in all their schools. In particular, we analyse student orientation and debriefing for those pre-service teachers who undertake this placement on the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands, an area administered by local Indigenous people who hold the title to the land. The concept of socially situated teacher education, proposed by Green and Reid, will be both used and extended by the Indigenous perspectives taken up in this aspect of the initiative. Using place-based pedagogies, and an orientation to the specificity of cultural, geographic, historical and economic circumstances of place and community, the paper analyses the issues addressed on campus, in community and in schools for pre-service teachers to be oriented to Indigenous students, communities and knowledge in order to build respectful and challenging curriculum for their students. As two teacher educators actively involved in the teaching and supervision of the students, we consider the range of strategies undertaken in the teacher education program and the resources developed to support students. Data from student journals, applications to undertake placement on the Lands, support materials developed including video, historical and community background data, curriculum materials generated by pre service teachers, and briefing and de-briefing sessions will be analysed. This analysis will help us to explore the adequacy of teacher education's key social justice commitment to building knowledge and competency to work with Indigenous students, their communities, colleagues and knowledges as developed and embodied in our initiative.

The aim of this paper is to explore the self-reflexivity required to be a researcher in very remote communities. Specifically, the current experiences of a non-indigenous PhD candidate working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are considered. This paper arises from thirty years of lived experiences in remote cross-cultural contexts and relationships with people in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands of South Australia and also in Papua New Guinea. It highlights the influence of relationships upon the PhD journey thus far. Thereby it recognises a fundamental ontological premise of relatedness which researchers must bear in mind when locating and positioning themselves at this significant and contested cultural interface. When working in such remote cross-cultural sites it is a sine qua non that researchers deliberately seek to unlearn matters they have taken for granted, and explicitly examine their personal and academic assumptions. The place of values and phronetic constructivist approaches within a researcher’s role will be investigated. At the same time the use of a postpositive paradigm underlying the common expectation of a researcher to be objective will be considered in the light of the ways in which relatedness affects epistemological, axiological and cosmological perspectives. The notion of a paraclete standpoint will be presented to explore how researchers might identify themselves and how others might perceive them. It parallels issues such as how a researcher could ‘come amongst’ and then ‘come alongside’ Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Possible movement from unknown stranger to known foreigner to friend will be discussed. This paraclete standpoint affirms the importance of relationships and may enhance appropriate protocols, leading to the co-construction of research.

This presentation draws on data from a larger research project investigating the relationship between marketization of schooling and the experiences of early-career teachers in their places of work. In this paper, one case out of nine will be explored: a very particular case, that of a teacher working in a remote school with an almost entirely Indigenous student cohort and an ICSEA below 700. This teacher was working on a temporary contract, was the only teacher of their subject in the school, was relatively new to teaching and had been working in a range of schools on short-term contracts – or in a casual capacity – since graduating. While the difficulties in staffing schools across our vast country are not new, this case explores how processes of marketization, including devolved approaches to teacher employment, can interact with the development of early-career teachers and have impacts even beyond these individuals for schools and communities more broadly. To further unpack this, Bourdieu’s concepts of field and habitus (Bourdieu, 1981; Wacquant, 1989), and the theory of capitals (Bourdieu, 2002), are drawn upon, and Ball’s (1993) notion of second-order policy effects is invoked in an attempt to contribute to the field of ‘policy sociology’. Through this it is argued that competition between schools and between teachers for schools can lead to inexperienced teachers working in unstable employment capacities and in contexts which, simultaneously, make significant emotional, intellectual and socio-cultural demands of their teachers and, as a corollary of this, have limited scope to provide their staff with the kind of support that they need. This in-depth examination of the experiences of one such teacher – working beyond their habitus, often feeling unsuccessful in doing so, and unable to access the support required to improve their situation – is used to highlight such issues. ReferencesBall, S. J. (1993). What is policy? Texts, trajectories and toolboxes. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 13(2), 10-17. doi: 10.1080/0159630930130203Bourdieu, P. (1981). Men and machines. In K. Knorr-Cetina & A. V. Cicourel (Eds.), Advances in social theory and methodology: Toward an integration of micro- and macro-sociologies (pp. 304-317). MA: Routledge and Kegan Paul.Bourdieu, P. (2002). The forms of capital. In N. W. Biggart (Ed.), Readings in economic sociology. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishers Ltd.Wacquant, L. J. D. (1989). Towards a reflexive sociology: A workshop with Pierre Bourdieu. Sociological Theory, 7(1), 26-63.

Both the domestic and international academic literature’s analysis of links between transport and wellbeing focuses mainly on urban settings and vulnerable population groups including older people, people with health issues, socio-economically disadvantaged people, or people undergoing more frequent extreme climatic events. While the relationship between remote Australians wellbeing and travelling activities is evident, its complexity still remains an under-researched topic. This is paradoxical when considering that extreme distances, high supply chain costs, limited access to services and to economic participation are well recognised obstacles for sustaining vibrant remote Australian communities. The latest accessibility-driven technological innovations in both the digital and the sharing economies are highly topical in transport projects in urban agglomerations but still a distant reality for remote Australia. There is a need for researching an appropriateness framework of such technologies because of the strong relevance of the multiple outcomes in terms of wellbeing that some of these innovations provide. Furthermore what defines a good quality of life can sometimes be very similar and other times greatly differ between remote and urban contexts. In the light of some recent transport and mobility research this paper analyses the potential connections between more appropriate transport innovations and increasingly resilient remote communities.

This paper provides an overview of preliminary findings associated with the Well Network, a research project located in the Northern Territory (NT), and outlines particular challenges to teacher wellbeing in remote and very remote settings. The project was conceived as an initial response to a lack of dedicated services and professional learning available to support teachers in remote locations, particularly with respect to supporting personal and intra-personal aspects of wellbeing and resilience. Apart from identifying the scope of wellbeing issues involved, the project also investigated mindfulness training as an effective strategy to promote and support teacher wellbeing. Given the remote context of the NT - as well as a highly mobile population - a private, online peer-supported community was designed as an appropriate platform that could serve the dual function of both a research space and a supportive environment. Because access to this online community was available to self-recruited teachers throughout 2014, the Well Network also functioned as a pilot service that might also inform more formal responses from the NT Department of Education at the conclusion of the project. In recruiting teachers into participating a face-to-face seminar was conducted early in the year at Charles Darwin University. As an early indicator of interest, this event was over-subscribed within one week of advertising. This seminar followed a number of small teacher focus groups and together these activities were instrumental in shaping two broad themes to be accommodated in the web space design - personal resilience and positive connections. As a further response to the particularities of NT life, the imperatives of country, indigeneity and spirit, have also informed the discussion of teachers connecting with the Well Network. The efficacy of building an online community that aims to support and sustain wellbeing is further discussed as well as a range of technical issues that needed to be addressed in the launch and fine-tuning of the platform. Preliminary findings suggest an enthusiastic response from teachers for continuity of a peer-supported online community. Likewise, the positive response to engaging in mindfulness training suggests that professional learning focused on the intra-personal domain has benefits for professional performance.