Flying for the first time at age 16, I was the first in my family to leave Tasmania.

I had been involved in George Town San Chi Kai Karate club for several years when the opportunity to compete in a national competition arose. It was March 1991, I was 16, pretty independent, and had saved some money from my summer job at the pool. I paid the $189 for the return flight to Melbourne, and with my best friend, his elder brother, and a small group of other club members we took off one Friday morning to be in Ringwood for the weekend competition.

Being on a plane was a first for me, but also for my family. You see neither of my parents nor my brother had travelled interstate by 1991. There was the anticipation of the flight, but in the end the 50 minute flight to Melbourne was short and uneventful. I had done something no one in my immediate family had done. Cheap air travel was not yet available, and our family finances had never extended to include interstate holidays. Fishing at the lakes and some touring around the national parks were the extent of our adventures.

By the way, I got my arse whipped in the fighting division of the karate tournament, but I won my division for the kata (set routine that demonstrates technique).

Postscript

I share this vignette as it highlights that travel, particular intra and inter-state travel is not the norm for all. In my community service work I met scores of families that had insufficient income to survive week to week let alone plan, pay for, and experience a holiday. Some children I worked with shared with me while I was at The Smith Family in 2018 that they had not travelled any further than their own postcode, and some had not been to the central business district (CBD), let alone our capital city at the other end of the state. Exploring further with students eating blue berries for the very first time, they made it  clear that the ‘excursion’ costs were barriers, and inconsistent school attendance were contributing factors. Travel and what travel brings, including engagement in history, culture and the arts, is vitally important for development. I believe schools can, and should, do more to support travel of students. Interstate and international travel is common for many middle class public schools. The “world challenge” and related exchanges, if available in some suburban schools, should be made available to kids from hard places and rural communities too. That is fair and just.