The 53rd annual SA State Conference was held in Port Augusta on 21st March 2025, convened by Lisa Slade and Michelle Hilder along with their team from the Flinders Ranges Branch. With the theme “Through the Ranges,” the day was a wonderful success with many key highlights, one being the strong attendance of politicians including Blair Boyer, the Minister for Education, Training and Skills, Rowan Ramsey, past Federal Member for Grey, and Geoff Brock, Independent member for Stuart.
The conference was run in conjunction with the SA Arid Lands Landscape (SAAL) Board hosting its region-wide Pastoral Field Day the day prior, which included a well-attended dinner for the pastoral community and ICPA members. The field day was a great success, providing pastoral property owners, managers, and staff across the SA Arid Lands region with valuable insights. The date was chosen to reduce travel and maximise attendance, aligning with our State Conference and the School of the Air (SOTA) School Experience Week. Our SA ICPA members had the opportunity to explore over 60 stalls, listen to informative speakers covering a range of pastoral and animal health-related topics, hear from a panel including the Pastoral Board, SAAL, and Livestock SA.
ICPA conference day saw strong attendance and featured excellent guest speakers. The Flinders Ranges Branch’s hard work certainly paid off. The opening speaker was Dr Isabella Slade, a former SOTA Port Augusta student and daughter of convenor Lisa Slade. She shared relatable tales of her time on SOTA, including the challenges of sharing an internet line with the phone line (and having a dad that is a bit of a chatterbox), as well as her journey from attending a quiet home schoolroom on the station, the transition to a public high school while boarding with her aunt, and ultimately winning a scholarship to Scotch College in Adelaide. Another incredible speaker was Jessica Stenson, a Commonwealth and Olympic marathon athlete. Her story was captivating, particularly her commitment to the discipline of sport, and then her ultimate decision to take up marathon running at the later age of 21. Her insights into life in the Olympic Village, her children's involvement, and even the role of her brother-in-law as a nanny during overseas events were highlights of her presentation. The conference also featured Amanda Ferrari from the Boarding Schools Expo Australia and Sue Scanlon from the Regional Childcare Desert Advocacy Project. There were video presentations from the Branches and many informative discussions.
A total of 29 motions were put forward by delegates covering a range of important issues including;
- Extending the AIC DE to include kindergarten students
- Considering a Child Care Subsidy for the Outback Childcare program run by RICE
- Supporting the Regional Childcare Desert Advocacy Project
- Increasing various allowances, including aligning SEA with the Education Sub Index of the CPI
- Establishing a designated bursary for ICPA students at independent and denominational schools in Adelaide
- Increasing travel subsidies for SOTA face-to-face events
- Introducing incentives to attract teachers and SSOs to rural areas
- Providing a subsidy for home tutors for distance education families
- Expanding the bus calculation formula to include preschool children
- Securing the secondment of the Child and Family Health Services (CaFHS) nurse back to RICE
- Advocating for student airfares or subsidies for those requiring airline travel
- Securing specific funding for speech pathologists in rural and remote schools, particularly for distance education students
- Adding 'geographically remote families' to the criteria for bypassing specialist access in the PATS assessment
- Expressing gratitude to the RFDS for their commitment to outback families and their continued work on CaFHS for rural and remote families
Feedback from the conference was overwhelmingly positive with many commenting on the friendly, inclusive feel of the conference.
Our sincere gratitude goes to our generous sponsors whose support is instrumental in making the conference a success. We appreciate their contributions which enable ICPA to remain dedicated to ensuring rural and remote students have equitable access to a continuing and appropriate education.
We look forward to seeing everyone at the North East Branch Conference in 2026.
