Australia’s outback trainers travel more than 2000 km a week to teach students

Charles Darwin University’s Katherine Rural Campus workplace delivery trainers can travel more than 2000 kilometres in a week to meet with students on some of the most isolated cattle properties on earth.

They use stock roads, satellite phones and intuition to ensure their students receive their resources and assessments and have the skills and knowledge to work on Remote Stations. Once they arrive it is not a typical classroom setting but a stock-camp. Picture swags around a campfire, camp chairs and sheltering laptops from the dust.

Since the program’s inception it has expanded across Northern Australia from the Queensland border, throughout the Northern Territory and into Western Australia. Covering some of Australia’s largest and remote outback Cattle Stations, some of which are larger than Canberra.  The CDU Agriculture and Rural Operations team visit up to 35 stations five times a year. 

In 2023 the program had a record number of enrolments with almost 300 students and this year they are on track exceed that student number if weather conditions allow. 

CDU TAFE Team Leader Agriculture & Rural Operations Tegan Dunn has been working on the team for seven years.  

Ms Dunn explains that the whole process might seem foreign but, in an industry, where most skills are learned on the job, and students can’t take the time off to study the system works for everyone involved. 

“It is not your typical teaching gig but this team has a passion for the industry and can’t imagine doing anything different,” Ms Dunn said. 

Courses offered range from a Certificate II in Agriculture and Rural Operations to Certificate IV in Agriculture and everything in between.

Ms Dunn manages a team of five trainers all who have a background in rural operations or agriculture, she is quick to mention it is an all-female team, who each bring something different to the table, but under it all have the same passion for working in the industry. 

“The team ensure this program continues to be offered at an outstanding level of quality and training, each of the team have a different passion, from mustering cattle, to being a proficient motorbike rider or horse rider the skills the team have are as diverse as the landscape that they travel,” she said.

The team are trained to conduct workplace assessments, deliver practical unit activities, and teach theory. 

“Each day can look a bit different, the scope of skills a student needs to complete can be anywhere from putting up a fence, mustering cattle or reviewing breeding guidelines and feeding schedules.”

This means the team can often be found on horseback and mustering cattle with the students, ensuring the animals are safe or holding up fence posts in the paddocks. The skills and requirements are broad however it keeps the industry safe and maintains a high level of quality workers for future careers in the industry.

“Most of the students we work with have a massive background of working on stations and we are here to ensure they have access to the qualifications and understand the areas they are already working in or want to work towards,” Ms Dunn said.

“It is important that they understand what the different roles on a station do as well as see how gaining the correct qualifications can support in their future careers.  

“Each station is different, and I think it helps keep our training relevant, it is a very broad industry and industry needs workers who are skilled across a number of areas including animal husbandry, IT and understanding the environment.

“Understanding the environment plays a big part in the job, from flooding to fires and actively responding to these complications is all part of the job.”

This evening, they are brushing up on some of the theory and written assessments. Tomorrow they will be up with the sun to do it all over again.