Coronavirus: School’s out from Melbourne, and back in at Darwin

Aboriginal children have been successfully evacuated from Melbourne’s Indigenous Transitional School and are continuing their studies in Darwin.

Peggy Martin, 13, and Hurrikane Hudson, 14, in Darwin. Picture Glenn Campbell

Aboriginal children from some of Australia‘s most remote communities and towns have been successfully evacuated from Melbourne’s Indigenous Transitional School and are continuing their studies in Darwin.

The job of relocating the entire school was achieved in a matter of days after the second outbreak of coronavirus and lockdown in Victoria forced the school to reverse its policy of sending children south for year 7 so they can ease into high school in some of the ­nation’s best schools in year 8.

Instead, the students have been flown to Darwin with 17 teachers and nine staff family members to study in temporary classrooms at the Michael Long Centre, the AFL-run football oval complex at Marrara.

They started the year normally with classes in their borrowed premises at Richmond Football Club, “but it became apparent that COVID-19 was going to disrupt it,” says MITS executive director Edward Tudor. “We acted swiftly and got kids home to their communities, teaching them via remote learning programs.”

The students — who come from 26 remote and regional communities — were preparing to fly back to Melbourne to resume schooling in July when the second viral outbreak hit.

“It became clear that school would not be returning as normal, so we sat back and thought continuing remote learning would not be the best thing. Also, we didn’t want our kids to be carriers of COVID-19 back into vulnerable communities.”

Within days of Premier Daniel Andrews’s second shutdown, the decision was made to relocate the entire school to Darwin.

“That was on Tuesday, and by Sunday we were all settling in,” says Mr Tudor, whose wife and eight-month-old daughter have also relocated to the Northern Territory. “We brought three ­Indigenous students from Victoria. It was a big decision for their families but they also wanted them to go north.”

Hurrikane Hudson, 14, and Peggy Martin, 13, are among the 22 students who will complete year 7 with MITS before transitioning to one of 13 partnering ­private and public high schools.

The evacuation means Peggy is studying hundreds of kilometres closer to her community, at remote Bulman in central Arnhemland, but she says she’d rather be in Melbourne. “I chose MITS because I wanted to get away and feel more grown up,” she says.

Hurrikane, who comes from Echuca in Victoria, says he is enjoying his first visit to the Northern Territory: “It’s warm and it has a country feeling here.”

Mr Tudor says the students might be forced to remain in Darwin until the school year ends.