Queensland's Itinerant Teacher Service, 1901–1930

Moving from homestead to homestead, in a horse and cart, to bring schooling to isolated children in Queensland's outback was the role of itinerant teachers at the turn of the century. Later, the horse and cart was replaced by motor cars and motor bikes, but the harsh conditions of the ‘bush’ were never really conquered. The Itinerant Teacher Service was no longer in existence by the Thirties, being replaced by the Primary Correspondence School which offered a service itinerant teachers could not. The travelling teachers, however, were significant in bringing a degree of literacy and numeracy to ‘bush’ children and in preparing the way for the smooth inception of the Primary Correspondence School.