Katherine

I drove to Katherine the day before school started, having spent a night at Edith Falls. I haven’t worked in three weeks and it feels like three years – the last school I was at was in Mount Isa and that’s honestly another state and another lifetime away. I loved every second I spent with Alex in Darwin and Lombok, but I was also happy to be in my own space again and behind the steering wheel of the old girl, Deloraine (beep, beep!). At Edith Falls I listened to Britney Spears’ memoir The Woman in Me which tbh I found a bit overrated but still enjoyed, and went for a late afternoon stroll to the swimming holes.

As soon as I arrived in Katherine the following day, I got the keys to my little house, met some people from the school who I’d be working with, and stocked up the pantry with peanut m&ms and condensed milk. I was preparing for the worst, honestly. Katherine gets such a bad rap for crime rates and, being a remote school it’s exceptionally difficult to staff which can lead to some systemic issues. But, and I’ll be completely honest here, Katherine is amazing!

I thought it might be a fluke – in the first couple of days we estimated that a lot of the kids would put off coming in as long as possible, so my class sizes were very small. Like, think four students kind of small. So let’s just say that behaviour management would have been a piece of cake! But, there was no bad behaviour to manage, even with the young kids who are always noisy and distractible. These kids were just amazing. They’d ask questions with genuine curiosity, and are so proud of the work they do. While some students I’ve known will ask questions to derail a lesson or get me off topic (which I always fall for), these kids asked questions because they were burning to know the answer and they really trusted me enough to be the one to tell them the truth and have that knowledge. Over the days the classes started to increase in size, but because I’d had a bit of down-time with a handful of students earlier, it was easier for me to meld into the classroom and make transitioning from their regular teacher to a substitute a bit more seamless.

After that first week though, I knew I was in trouble. I was way too in love with the place!

My first week extended into two weeks which extended into three and well, that rapidly became four. A very cute little cat decided to make its home in the front yard of the school house, and I got into the habit of sitting in the shade every evening giving her pats and belly rubs. The only thing that stopped me from signing on for the whole term is the fact that I want to visit my friend in Alice Springs in mid-August, so I really stretched out my time at the school until that date hit.

On my first weekend here, the Katherine Show was on; a public holiday where everyone in town goes to the show grounds for crazy rides, fireworks, speed dating, and bull riding. I felt a bit funny about the bull riding so tried my best to avoid it, but on the Friday I spent my time looking through little stalls and art competitions, and eating a giant liquorice whip. I eventually caught a few people from school and we watched the speed dating (which was essentially a load of guys from the cattle stations, and a bunch of women who were passing through Katherine). Strangely enough, I’m realising that I didn’t take a single photo at the show – not even a snap of my delicious sweet treat! The rest of the weekend I just chilled out at the freshwater low levels, trying my best to stay cool.

The following weekend, Sam’s mum, Helen came to visit. We were super excited to see each other, talking over the top and loudly about the books we were reading, our adventures, and food. We decided to head to the Golfy for dinner and were potentially the first people in all of Katherine’s history to order a gluten-free beer and a zero-alcohol beer.

Saturday was for wandering through the market and debating whether or not I needed a new pair of overalls, and buying iced coffees. Sunday was the big day though, where we adventured into the gorge for a full day of canoeing. To get through the gorges (theres 12 of them in total), you have to both paddle and drag the canoe at some points over slippery rocks and mini rapids where the water is too shallow. The first couple of gorges were simple and crowded – heaps of people started the day with us and Helen and I were keen to escape the masses. We made it to the crossing from the 2nd gorge into the 3rd, and no matter where I put my feet or how I held the canoe, I fell flat on my arse. Eventually Helen (be it out of kindness or exasperation) became the dedicated “canoe dragger” while I cheered from the sidelines and helped pull it forward at the few points I could access. We passed a few people laughing at us as Helen mumbled something about elder abuse.

Eventually we made it through the crossing – a 700m stretch that took just under an hour – and into a much more secluded gorge. Because the crossing is so challenging, many people on a half-day canoe didn’t bother with it, and just paddled around the first couple of waterways. But it was truly spectacular in the 4th and 5th gorges where the sheer rocks open up and there’s hardly another person in sight. We ate our lunch on a secluded beach and swam in the cool water before beginning the long trip back. We even got to see a beautiful freshwater croc having a snooze on the banks – it was way bigger than I thought, at least 2 meters long – and a cranky man made some snarky comments about us being too close (after which he promptly paddled his own canoe the same distance away).

For my last weekend in Katherine I was really excited to take the van out overnight and go to some thermal pools just a couple of hours away. I tossed up about whether it was worth heading to Lake Argyle since we had another long weekend, but I decided that the fuel money would be a killer and opted to stay closer to Katherine. In the end, this was a wise choice! I woke up on Saturday morning with a major allergic reaction to some antibiotics I was taking, so I took myself to hospital where they essentially told me, “don’t worry too much. Unless you can’t breathe. Come back if you can’t breathe.”

SO I decided to not stay too far from hospital (just in case, you know, the breathing became an issue) and didn’t end up getting to the thermal pools at all! Instead I spent the long weekend scratching my skin and feeling generally sorry for myself. But to reframe things positively; I got to swim in the fresh water again, I got some admin done, and the allergic reaction cleared up again in time for school on Tuesday morning, so all in all, though not the weekend I had planned, it was still a good one.

I guess this is probably a good space for some reflection! Since leaving Melbourne, this is the longest amount of time that I’ve spent in one place, and it’s been really beautiful. I love having community and connections, and I love stillness at times. The school has been an amazing place for that – there’s always social events like Work Out Wednesday and trivia on Friday – everyone gets around sharing those little joyful moments together. It’s been such a positive and rewarding place to be! Teaching these kids here has made me question just a couple of things (like, do I want to become a maths teacher now? Maths is actually kind of fun to teach…), and it’s also making me miss home a little bit. At this time of year I see people in the mountains, beanies on their heads and hot ciders in hand and I think “damn, I do miss Tassie!”. But hey, sometimes we just want what we can’t have, right? And right now, I’ve got it pretty damn good too and it would be ridiculous of me to ignore that.

I have just a couple of days left here before I head south and I know I’m going to miss it so much, but at the same time, let’s keep that ball rolling! Alice Springs, here I come.

Floatin’ through life, and the 5th gorge.