Winning for teachers in remote communities

Queensland Teachers' Journal, Vol 131 No 4, 26 June 2026, page no.21

These days, service in our state’s most remote communities is routine, a rite of passage that many teachers experience during their career. Many even consider it a life-changing privilege.

However, it wasn’t always thus. For generations of Queensland educators, being ordered out to the bush could be harrowing.

Transfers and incentives
In the late 19th and early 20th Century, transfers to the bush were compulsory and on the basis of department need. Once transferred, it could prove all but impossible to escape. 

Transfers were frequently punitive, the result of a perceived misdemeanour or what officials felt was the wrong attitude. For example, after complaining about a transfer from Brisbane to the Darling Downs, one teacher found himself diverted to Thursday Island instead. 

Apart from a fairly measly locality allowance, transferred teachers were not compensated for the increased cost of living in remote areas, including the cost of food, travel and accommodation, not to mention loss of contact with family and friends. A sense of isolation was common.

For decades, the QTU railed against the conditions teachers were forced to endure. This culminated in the release of the Union’s “Conditions for Learning and Teaching in Country Areas of Queensland” document in 1974. This suggested replacing compulsory teacher transfers with material incentives, including salary loadings, additional leave, and preferential appointments after country service. In 1978, the Bjelke-Petersen government rejected the proposal outright.

The following year, QTU members in Hope Vale, west of Cooktown, went on strike for 28 days in protest at the punitive transfer of a colleague — still the longest strike in QTU history. Again, the government refused to budge.

The campaign for improved conditions rolled on into the 80s, and eventually the government earmarked funds for a Remote Area Incentive Scheme (RAIS). When this failed to materialise, QTU members in 130 schools took stop work action in 1990. This prompted the state government to backtrack, and in 1991 the first version of RAIS was finally introduced. 

However, it was a shadow of what had originally been promised. It wasn’t until more than 900 teachers in 30 remote schools stopped work for 48 hours in 1996 that the government relented and quadrupled the RAIS budget. 

Since then, the Union has secured a number of improvements to the scheme, now known as RoRRS (Recognition of Rural and Remote Service), including beginning teacher payments and attraction and retention incentives. 

Teacher housing
For decades, educators forcibly transferred to rural or remote communities were often expected to live in appalling conditions. Men could find themselves being put up at the local pub, while women were housed with local residents. In 1920, for example, one woman member had to share a room with four other women, while another had to share a bed with two girls. Even when specific teacher accommodation was provided, repairs and maintenance costs often had to be paid for out of the teacher’s own pocket.

It wasn’t until 1974, when the Union withdrew teachers from Laura, Anakie, and Pasha because of unsatisfactory accommodation, that the state government was finally forced to recognise its responsibility for teacher housing. In 1975, it set up a Crown employees housing board to design and allocate houses in country areas.

But the maintenance and repair of housing remained a problem. In 2008, the lack of security screens, leaky roofs, broken air conditioners, and water or termite ravaged walls forced frustrated QTU members in the far north to go on strike, finally forcing the government to pump millions of dollars into the maintenance budget.

Despite these successes, the QTU continues to address challenges today and will continue to campaign for improvements to service conditions in our most remote communities.