Crazy Classroom of Wild Beasts

So for those that don't know, I'm actually a school teacher amongst other things.  I teach students from Weipa and surrounding communities in the Cape who are aged between 13 and 17 years old.   Most of my students are disengaged from school or need a little bit more room to breathe than the conventional 4-wall system.

Together we are a motley group of about 30 students and myself with a teacher aide.  My students are naughty and intelligent and witty and wonderful and I love the wild beasts too much!   The goal is to re-engage students back into mainstream school, increase literacy and numeracy and work with them through their own personal journeys so they can be happy, successful and productive citizens. We also transition students between distance education and community schooling into a fully loaded academic pathway on the main campus.

No one student is the same.

Our classroom is off the main campus in Weipa and the students come from all walks of life and experiences with all different and highly varied needs.

I truly have the most challenging and rewarding and satisfying role.  I have the best job in the whole world.

We have four snakes in our classroom - all who are readily fed, admired and handled by our students. We have a Cape York Jungle python called "Cleopatra", a rescued children's python "Zeuss" who accidentally got loose and escaped on his own week adventure before the snake catcher in town returned him to us, a spotted python "Monty", and one of the students caught another little juvie who looks like a Cape York Carpet python and who's growing alarmingly quickly in his hutch whom he called "Bruce".

We also have a BlueTongue lizard called "Borris" and an adventurous Red Claw called "Pinchy".  Pinchy ate everyone in his tank and is now in the big tank.  We had a rescued turtle as well but she kept eating everyone and getting out of her tank.  We also had a 6ft Bredli Python called "Esmerelda" but she kept getting out of her tank and had to be wrestled to go back in. She was also cranky and wanted to bite my face.

The students caught all the fish in both the tanks on one of our many adventures.  We also act as carers for the Weipa Wildlife group and often hand rear baby birds which we release back into the wild once they're ok and ready.  At the moment we have 2 kookaburras with concussion, a cockatoo called 'Wally',  a tawny frog mouth called 'Froggy' and we just released a crow called "Satane" who was bloody marvellous and would sit there saying "yum yum yum yum" until someone fed him!  We had a 'long-eared guinea pig' but he's moved on to a better and more suitable home...

One of the many strategies used to maintain control and engagement is a rewards system that works like this.    "If you come to school every day, be respectful to Miss and the other students, do all your work and get along, then we go for day trips on the weekends."  It works for me and for them cause my family and friends were going anyway and we've got spare seats.

On the weekends, I go around and pick everyone up from their homes.  Sometimes I have to call in some of my mates to help convoy them all if we've had a good week.  Their parents are very supportive and are so happy that their kids are happy.   Then we go for a day trip somewhere and swim in waterfalls, fish for barra, ride quads, shoot the .22 at targets or other wild adventures.  They get to cook their own bbq snag sangas and I take plenty of photos of them when they're happy and strong and proud which we use later in class.....when they're not.  It also works on the other students who didn't make the cut and they see what they missed out on so they work harder to get it.

On the first trip we took 6 of the boys.  I had one of them from Kowanyama say to me "Miss, I feel like I'm gonna see a pig. Miss, I feel it in my chest and Miss, I feel like I'm gonna see a pig."  I didn't think anything of it and brushed it off. Sure enough within 1 minute of him saying it, there it was. A big pig in the middle of the track...... Uncanny!  They get to know me on a different level and become part of the family.

Last Friday I took them on the bus to the Lakes for a flick in the afternoon and to throw the cast net.  I had two casts of the net for fingerlings. The first one went over another student's line and I thought they were going to be cross with me but that laughed and shook their heads saying "Ooooh if Mr Lobley saw that he'd laugh and get so mad at you..."  I shook my head at him but I knew he was right. The second cast I threw over the ledge and it tangled on the bottom. There was no way I was going in after it and was prepared to leave it and walk away.  But before I could stop him, one of the students had taken his shirt off and jumped in, untangled the net and was out. Quick as lightening.  I growled him out of shock "What are you doing? There could be crocodiles in there!!"  He just looked at me like I was crazy and said, "Miss, that's YOUR cast net and you only have one so you gotta look after it or Mr Lobley will be cross with you."  Unbelievable!  I was sooooo mad and proud of him all at the same time.  Thanks God no one was eaten that day!

They all know how to ride a manual 250cc quad now and the love riding them through the mud holes as we squish them between the car convoy to cap their speed without them knowing it.  They drove the quads into one of our secret spots and I thought they'd think it was super lame that I made them go so slow cause I didn't want ANY accidents but when we stopped all I could hear was their screams of laughter and excitement.  They walked each puddle before going through in case they got bogged and when we go there they were all like "That was soooo awesome!".  Totally worth the stress for us too x

They all want their photo on here but I said no.  We might have to do a blog lesson this term and they can write their own stories  xx

We were working towards a camping trip but we didn't quite make it in the end so that's our goal for term 2.

It works.  We've got kids coming to school more in the past 2 months than they have in the past few years.  We've got kids reading for the first time, feeling confident in themselves to have a go, learning to trust and taking responsibility for their own choices.  We've got kids learning to stand on their own two feet and be proud.

Love my job!

Barra Bonanza

I love fishing.  I love flicking lures, waiting for the set baits, catching livies and pretty much everything about it.  I do not like wingy children who bird nest their overheads. I don't care if he's only 6. He's had more experience flicking than most adults I know but I lost my temper and left him in the middle of 'crocodile lake' at one point on this trip I'm not too proud to say. ...

We took my sister and brother-in-law (who are now proud parent's to my niece Willow) to the Wenlock River for a weekend of fishing and swimming and exploring.

I love the Wenlock and everything about it.

All in all we caught barra, togas, too many to count Sooties and took almost all the fingerlings out of the river system as livies but it was soooo awesome!  

Cheers to you Snag Central! You never disappoint.

Here's the vid.

Old Nixon Station

For years I've seen Nixon Station on the Cape York map and wondered what it was.  I'd asked around a bit but no one was really clear on what it was any more or who I had to get permission off to stay there but I thought I might go in on quad and check it out for myself really quick on my next adventure.  After the Frenchman's Track debacle I was ready for something new and fresh.  

My beautiful friend and his daughter came with me and we parked the trucks and trailers near the PDR and quaded in.  I packed my day riding pack and an esky and we were off.  The track was fully overgrown and I could hardly see where we were going.  Needless to say it was quad country and I highly doubt if you could get a car in there.  The country changes dramatically every few hundred metres and the views from the mountains are breathtaking.  The kids were on the back and we were cruising along when a stick came up under my mud guard and through my foot about 2 -3 cm deep.  I was in the middle of nowhere so I had to pull it out and I washed the blood off with some of my beer as the water was still frozen. It didn't think it was too bad.  I'd wash it off when I got to the homestead.  It bled badly and looked worse than it was and blood was going all over my quad.  

There were pigs EVERYWHERE!!! Big mobs of sows and babies. They were digging up the ground and were not frightened of our quads at all. They just stood there like "hey, how ya going?".  We drove past them as none of us were capable of chasing nor were we prepared for hunting so it was their lucky day.  We went through some thick undergrowth and giant spider web went across my face and I had a little panic attack and swatted my face as if it was on fire.  I was thinking to myself, man this better be worth it.  The whole trip took about an hour to get in.  

When we arrived we saw the old cars and tractors abandoned many years before.  The old homestead was now the castle for the local wildlife who'd made it their home under the mango and mandarin trees.  The smell of pig was quite strong when Makayla spotted this big old black boar who was horribly drunk on mangoes and had no idea what we were or what to do.  I doubt he'd ever seen a human before.  Xavie started getting worried as he doesn't like being left behind on the quad when mumma runs after them and this one was huge!!!   He kind of trotted towards us, stumbling and awkward.  My friend gave him chase for awhile but left him be when he collapsed under the next mango tree in a stupor.  He must have been over 100kg and fat as!  

The property was amazing!  The mandarin trees were not in season but they were healthy and gorgeous.  We gorged ourselves on ripened, juicy, fat mangoes which were by far the best mangoes we've ever had. I filled my day pack with as many as we could carry and headed down to the creek.  We were standing in ankle deep water and is cascaded down into the hole.  I was thinking I should have brought my rod as there'd be huge untouched barra in there for sure when one of the kids spotted a brown looking snake wrapped around a rock next to our feet.  Quick thinking, my mate flicked it into the hole. Thank God no one got bit.  We'd have been gone for sure.  I washed off my foot as best I could but by now it was throbbing and I knew it probably needed stitches.  I haven't had much luck with sticks in legs as my family can attest so I knew I had to get back into town faster than I wanted to.

Nixon Station is an amazing place and I'll definitely go back to explore further.  I'd love to do a quad mission all the way to the East Coast following the creeks.  That'd be awesome!

Bloody Frenchman's Track

I'm a horrible driver at the best of times.  My first car was a Morris 1500 and I remember having it for about a week before someone reversed into me.  It would get a flat tyre and I once stopped on the side of the road, got out and knocked on a strangers door and got them to change it for me.  When it comes to cars I'm completely useless.....until living in Cape York.  Now don't get me wrong, I am still absolutely notorious for banging into large unwavering objects, wedging myself between two trees (where I had to call hubby to find my tracks and then get me off before driving back home), and hitting the water metre across from our house numerous times when hubby has made me practise reversing the trailer into the driveway. Don't even get me started on my reversing skills in the boat.  Ridiculously bad.

Anyway, I had the map out on the back table and my good friend was plotting me some good spots to go and find and explore on our latest adventure. I wanted to go someone off track and somewhere where there were not too many tourists. I'd just come back from a week up at the falls and had been home for less than 48hrs before I needed to go again.   We decided I'd try The Frenchman's Track.

Well, we were on our way through Bataivia when someone in a hurry zoomed past me and flicked up a boulder cracking my windscreen.  Bloody nora it gave me a fright!  What an ass!

It was a stinking hot day and I'd cracked the first beer as we entered the Frenchman's Track just off Batavia Downs.  I met my mate on the end of the airstrip and she'd brought her babes out too for the night.  We entered the turnoff and it was deceiving to say the least. The first hundred metres wasn't too bad.  Low gear and slow.  I had the trailer on the back with the quads on so we could explore right up to the East Coast through the Pascoe River.  Beautiful country.  There was nobody on the track and it looked like no one had been on it for sometime.    Sometimes you just have to follow tracks to see where they go. Sometimes it leads you to gold......

I got to a bog hole and decided to go around it which meant I had to go up on the side at a horrible angle, wedge between some trees and manoeuvre the trailer around at awkward angles to make it.  After another courage can, I was ready to give it a go.   I went up and through the bush but couldn't find an entry point back onto the track.  The track was already overgrown and hard to see and now it was impossible. At one stage I had to get out and climb up to see where it was.  I kept going further and further trying to cut back in but no go.  I then had to reverse my labyrinth with the trailer on all the way back.  Bloody Nora - what a mission that was!!!

Rookie Error 1:  Do not lose the track you are travelling on.
Rookie Error 2:   Try not to go over sharp, burnt logs as they wedge under your car and can pierce a tyre.  

I could hear the hissing sound and I knew my driver's tyre was a goner.  I got the pump out and tried to savour as much as I could. There was no possible way I could get all the gear off here. I had to persevere a little long.  I stopped every hundred metres or so (when I could hear grinding....) and pumped it up again until I finally got to a spot that was shady and I could make camp.  We went for a swim first and I tried to remember everything hubby had shown me about what I had to do.   There were a few blokes in the creek a bit further up and I did contemplate going and getting them to help me when I thought nah, I'll give it a crack.

About an hour later I finally got the rattle-gun hard nuts off. (I accidentally lost one somewhere...... don't tell hubby) Then came the drama of where do I put the jack.  I didn't bring my kangaroo jack which I know how to use on this trip cause it annoyed me taking up too much room so I only had the small one.  After several attempts, my friend and I were almost ready to give up when we got down and saw the little groove thing it's supposed to go in and Wahla! Presto!  It was on like Donkey Kong.

We celebrated with red wine and waffle cones filled with marshmallow and chocolate and baked them on the fire.  They were amazing.   The kids ate so much of them that they were sick.... literally lol.

The next morning my mate left with her kids and it was just us again.  We spent the day flicking lures in the creeks and lagoons catching Sooties and Togas.  There were fresh pig tracks EVERYWHERE and you could smell pigs a mile away but the quads scares them off before we get too close. There were a few slide marks on the banks too but I'm guessing they were more likely freshies however I didn't let the kids swim anywhere except in the crossing where I could see what was coming.  

That night we retired next to the fire and a car crossed going down south and were trying to get through to the East Coast.  A random chick in the front seat wound down her window and yelled out at me "Hey, you're the chick that camps with her kids with a lounge!  How are ya!"  I nearly fell of my lounge laughing (yes, I like to bring the lounge on the back of the trailer with quad so I can read my book by the fire in comfort lol.)    They'd driven past my camp on the old tele track last week when I was up near the falls for the week. What a small world.

That night a pack of dingos circled our camp at the reach of the fire light and I got the kids to bring their swags into the tent with me and slept with one eye open as they were giving me the creeps. I threw a rock at one but I don't think it was deterred one bit.  In the morning I figured it was the third strike in this trip so I packed us up and we moved on.

Lesson learned:  Bring the big Jack...... and the rifle.

Finding Sammy

We've got an amazing little spot near Eliot and Fruitbat Falls which has enough room for us to camp on the bank without pushing the vegetation unnecessarily, no tourists, no crocodiles and the best part about it is that we get our own private waterfall. It's magical!

For a week the kids and I and another mate, adventured down the old telegraph track on the quads and tried to find some spots we could see on Google Earth.  We spent our days swimming in the crystal clear waters, jumping off the tops of waterfalls, quading new country, cooking up camp oven roasts, attempted doughnuts and did naughty things.  All my favourite things!

We have a rule in our house. No one swims ANYWHERE until I say it's ok.  Not that there's crocodiles but there could be numerous other dangerous things and my 6 and 7 year olds are wildies and would rarely check before jumping.  They get it from their Father.  We're also at least 4.5 hours from any hospital should something happen and my first aide kit is waterlogged, rusty and full of dirt.

Anyway, on the third day I could hear them hollering out for me to hurry up so they could jump.  I was lugging the esky down the 10m strip from our swags so we didn't have to walk too far back to camp lol.  They were already in position and I had to climb down and check out the water.  We'd had some cars go through the crossing earlier on in the day and the water was murky and white from the clay up the river so I couldn't see anything.  I knew the bottom fairly well by now after drinking beers in there for several hours each day so was fairly confident that it was going to be fine.  I couldn't see any snakes or anything untoward this time (have come face to face with a python under a waterfall previously so now I make a point to check).  The coast seemed clear.

I waded out into the water to about my chest and took a leap and froggied my way out to the middle where the kids were standing about 3metres higher on the ledge ready to jump when a brown, scaly monster popped up no less that 10cm from my face.  For a big girl, I can really really really move. I'm talking walk-on-water-move when faced with a brown reptile in close quarters.  I was out of the water so fast that I couldn't breathe and almost had a panic attack.  I was pumped full of adrenaline when I had to get a closer look at what it was. It was too far from the coast to be a salty.  All I'd seen was the shell part when the bloody thing popped up again. It was a plate size long-neck turtle.  OH. MY. GOD. Talk about age me another 10 years!!!

We called him Sammy.

Over the course of the next 2 days we strapped a Go Pro on his back and watched him swim into all the crevices and secret spots in the caves.  We followed him around with googles and flippers, feeding him sausages from our hands and patting him like we were best friends.   The kids all got to touch him and chase him around too which they thought was beyond cool.  He did get a little too friendly towards the end and enjoyed swimming right into your nether regions and tried biting ANYTHING that looked like sausage.  The poor boys had a few close calls.....

And just as he appeared, he was gone and was never seen again.  We don't know how he got into our little waterfall oasis nor how he got out but we do know he was full when he left.

Pennefather and the "Turtle"

I LOVE Pennefather Beach. It's one of my all time favourite places in the world.  Kids and I were off for a week to stay in the hut on the beach. (yep, on school holidays again and hubby had to work).  I took up the quad so we could travel the beach and look for mumma turtles laying as well as get up and down the beach to chase the fish on the tides.  

On the first night the kids jumped on the back of the bike with their headlamps on and a belly full of sausage on bread with chocolate breaker.  They wrapped themselves up in their towel blanket as the night air was getting cooler, especially on the back of the quad.  It wasn't long before we spotted the tell-tale tracks in the sand and worked our way up the beach to find her.  The full moon was enough light for us to see and, crawling slowly on their bellies, they watched the first big turtle dig her hole and lay dozens of eggs before we guided her back to the water.  It was magical.  The kids couldn't stop talking about it and it was another lifetime memory sealed.

For the next 5 days, our routine was very, very similar.  Wake up with the sun about 6am.  Throw on rods and go pro and kids on the quad.  Flick lures until someone complains of hunger about 9am.  Go back to camp. Cook up pancakes and eggs.  Have a feed and coffee and make our way to the tunnels of fresh water which is about 20mins ride on the quad.  Swim for a few hours. Read my book until someone says they're hungry for lunch. Go back to camp for lunch.  Flick more lures and swim in the gutters. Make sandcastles, drink beers and chase the marine life up and down the beach until someone complains they're thirsty and burnt.  Go back to camp for cheese and crackers in the hammock with my book.  Make dinner.  Tell stories by the fire.  Cook marshmallows. Go looking for turtles again until someone says "I'm busted!" which is about 7:30pm and we're all in bed by 8.  

On the 6th day my friend came up for the day and we spent it much the same.  We had a thousand beers, cooked up a camp oven and went looking for turtles. We saw 7 lay before it was time to make our way back to camp.  My friend drove home about 10pm as his partner thought he was on a 'day trip' and he didn't want her to worry.   I was ready for a mission by this stage and found a giant log on the beach which I tied with rope and skull-dragged up to camp with my quad.  By the time I'd wrangled the mammoth into the fire, we were well alight and set for a few hours if not days and I crashed onto my swag like a starfish with the kids in theirs on the sand next to mine.

On the last morning I woke up with the sun and it was another glorious morning!  From the corner of my eye I saw very fresh and distinct markings in the sand right up into the camp and stopped on the other side of the fire.  I thought to myself "Oh my God, a turtle must have come right up to the fire to lay."  I got the kids up to look and was talking it up like I had some kind of insight into this turtles intentions.  

We were looking at the markings when I realised it hadn't dug a hole.... strange.  Perhaps it had changed it's mind because of the fire?

We followed the tracks around and back towards the water. As the sand hardened the markings became more clear.  It appeared that in the middle of the track there was a sharp line..... strange. Perhaps the turtle had something stuck underneath it?

We followed it down towards the water's edge and the flipper markings became clearer.... Strange, I didn't know turtles had CLAWS???

Rookie Error:    Not a turtle track.  It was a CROCODILE track.

I scurried the kids back up into camp and, as it was our last day anyway, began packing up and getting ready for home.  It had been a wonderful week but this was a bit too close for home and I was ready to take my chances/luck and go home.  

When I reached Weipa, I called my friend who was staying out there that night as she was tag-teaming my adventure with her own.  I told her the story and advised her that it was probably that 2.5 metre one that we saw a few times up the beach. No big deal but to be careful as he was cheeky enough to come right up to the fire. Thank God I had the fire going!!!

She went up to the hut that afternoon and took a photo of the salt water crocodile which sat out the front of the camp sulking for the next 2 days.   It was 4.5m long. A monster.  God knows how long he'd stalked our routine and behaviours before making his move. We never saw him once.

Lesson learned:   Midnight missions for wood are an excellent idea when you've had beers AND for your own safety.

The Stonies Adventure

We were going for a day trip to Stones Crossing..... The operable word: were.....

I'd packed an esky with beers, a couple of sangas and a packet of shapes.  I'd dropped hubby off at the airport for his 6 week stint at TAFE in Cairns and we were off to throw lures out off the Stonies Road with a couple of mates.  Road was easy enough - slow and steady but rough as guts.  We spotted a couple of emus on the road and two pigs, much to the delight of the kids squealing in the back but they lived for another day.  My favourite part of the day is the smell of the bush early morning when the dirt is still moist and earthy and the sun begins to beat down drying up the spiderwebs and puddles of dew.

It's about a 2hr drive to our 'Secret Spot' but with cranked tunes and 2-way radio banter between us, the trip went quickly and before long we were cruising along the bank of the mighty river.  Just by looking at the crossing you know there'd be some ancient Salties lying on the bottom in wait.  We'd have to find a spot where it was clear enough and we could see what was coming before we got in.  I got Xavie's and my rod off and we started flicking soft plastics in the creek around the rocky outcrops.  Mak forgot to pack hers.  It wasn't long before we'd both hooked up on some nice Sooty's and a Toga.  We played with a baby bull shark for awhile but then nothing.  Lesson no 1 for this trip:  Don't throw fish back in the same spot as you're fishing because they talk to everyone else in the creek and you won't catch anything else.....

After several hours of wallowing in the creek, swinging off the rope chandelier, drinking cold beers and working our way through the esky it was time to head home.  Some of our mates were staying the night and the others were driving home.

Neither of my kids ever want to go home so we put it to a vote.  Posed with the idea of staying overnight with no bed, no food, no drinks and no clothes to change into OR go home.  It was unanimous. We were staying!

That afternoon I thought I'd set a line up between one side of the creek and the other and hang some lures off it throughout the night. We'd done it a thousand times and have had much success with barra, sooties and other weird nighttime adrenaline rushes.  I got the rope out of my ute and, with Xavie in toe, we made our way down to the creek bed. It was really dark and deep at the bottom of our spot. Very crocy.  There was a fallen tree that I thought I could balance my way across till about three quarters of the river then, with a giant jump, I thought I could make it over enough to scramble out in time before being eaten. Then, the plan was to tie the end onto the other side and dangle off the lures. Simple enough.....

Needless to say after a day of sitting in the creek drinking beers, my planning, physical ability and problem solving skills were inadequate.  Oh, I made it to the other side ok; not for a little panicked scramble out of the muddy depths which were far deeper than I'd anticipated but I was safe.

Rookie Error 1:  Whilst I was putting all my brain-power to the test of getting across the crocodile lake, I'd forgotten the rope....
Rookie Error 2: Xavier is 5 and can not throw a large coil of rope even remotely strong enough to make the distance.
Rookie Error 3:  I had no idea how I was going to get back over to the right side of the creek again. I was stuck and the sun was going down far too quickly.

So....I walked about 300m up the creek in each direction and nothing - no crossing - no shallow bits - no trees - no way to cross.  By the time I realised I had to get into the water, it was almost dark. I'm an idiot!  I picked the closest tree and ran into the creek as fast as I could, leaping as high as I could until I reached a tree and monkey-styled my way across holding my legs out of the water as much as I could. Clearly, I'm not a gymnast nor am I a feather-weight so it must have a looked ridiculous but I swear to God I moved faster than I've ever moved before and scrambled out of the black water like lightening.  By the time I'd made it over I was wet, cold, full of frustration/anger/adrenaline/fear and was barely lucid.  I also decided we didn't need a rope fishing trap on this trip any more....

We set up our fire and our mates shared their dinner and red wine with us.  We lay on their tarp on the ground with their dogs as our blankets and, after our adventurous day, the kids were asleep in under a minute.  I tried calling hubby on the Sat phone to tell him we were staying but couldn't get through. Lucky we didn't have an emergency eh!   We all turned in late and it was freezing cold as we were still wet so I wrapped myself up with my children and the dogs who were surprisingly wonderful pillows.

It was about 4am when the mob of pigs came down on top of us as we'd camped on one of their runs to the water.  When they realised our fire and our dogs smelled them, it was on like Donkey Kong.  I hollered back for my pillow pooches to return as the pigs went down towards the water at the bottom of our campsite.  Within minutes there was a huge splash in the water and then all the pigs left.  The splash was way too big for a barra and the fact that it was at the bottom of our camp where I'd done my dash-for-life earlier was too much for me to think about. I didn't want to think about how big it was that took whatever it took.  It is a mystery that I still won't acknowledge thanks.

In the morning, we woke up and had some breaky. We flicked a few more lures into the dark water and caught a couple of nice size Barra before heading back home.

Note to self:  Think the entry and exit plan through before jumping........