Welcome to the Kimberley Air page.
The Kimberley is spread across an area of some 450,000 sq kms and made up of rural towns, cattle stations, stations now catering to tourism, small Aboriginal communities or outstations and smaller rural farming blocks.
The ICPA Kimberley Air Branch is made up of families whose children attend Kimberley School of the Air. The School is situated in Derby.
In 1972 the ICPA Kimberley Air Branch was founded with Mr Bob Hesseltine elected as the first branch President and Mrs Jane Verdon.
Meetings were held on the RFDS radio from the airport in Derby, with membership of approximately 20-25.
Issues discussed at the time included:
- allowances,
- own radio frequency,
- a school building,
- a flying itinerant teacher,
- a camp school,
- transceivers,
- better curriculum,
- better telecommunication
Reading the minutes of that time one realises under what difficult circumstances the members functioned. Telecommunication was very poor, radio reception could be very difficult, most mail arrived by sea mail and the roads to and from stations were very bad dirt tracks. It is a tribute to the people of the bush to have persevered at the time and it is clear that they felt very strongly about providing good educational opportunities for the children of the Kimberley.
Although our membership today is smaller and times have changed, our focus has remained the same.
Our branch organises one big fundraiser a year: the Halls Creek Picnic Races. This is a social event for the whole community and the money raised helps us send representatives to State and/or Federal Conferences. We still have our meetings via the radio and the reception can still be very poor but with the arrival of the Sat Web for School of the Air students, this will soon be a thing of the past.
We would like to thank the people who had the vision to form ICPA. Many of the benefits we have today are a result of their efforts.
