Broken Hill School of the Air is marking 70 years of remote education with a cookbook that brings together outback recipes, family memories and the practical knowledge of people who live hundreds of kilometres from everyday services.
Dust Off and Dish Up, produced by the school’s Parents and Citizens Association, was released in 2026 as a 70th anniversary edition. The cookbook contains more than 190 tried-and-tested recipes alongside stories about station life and the changing face of distance education across Far West New South Wales.
The project has a practical purpose as well as a commemorative one. Money raised through sales helps support educational resources, excursions, camps and other opportunities that can be harder and more expensive to access when students are spread across vast distances.
For families in Far West New South Wales, isolation shapes far more than schooling. Long trips to town, unpredictable weather and limited access to shops can influence how people cook, socialise and organise daily life.
Food remains a social lifeline in the outback
Bessie Thomas, who lives at Burragan Station and has three children learning through Broken Hill School of the Air, is almost 200 kilometres from the nearest supermarket. In that setting, food is not simply part of the household routine; it is often central to the way neighbours, station workers, friends and families spend time together.
The cookbook reflects that culture with familiar country dishes including sausage rolls, quiche, brownies, sponge cake and pumpkin soup. Thomas has also been testing recipes herself, including Spring Hill Lamb, which she served as slow-cooked pulled lamb rolls with coleslaw for musterers working on the property.
There is plenty of bush practicality too. Along with recipes, the book records home remedies, cleaning tips and advice for preparing local food. Langawirra Station’s Lachlan Gall contributed his own instructions for catching and cooking yabbies, complete with the dry humour that runs through many station stories.
From radio lessons to online classrooms
Broken Hill School of the Air opened in 1956, when lessons were delivered by radio to correspondence students. The anniversary stories show how different that experience was for children living on isolated properties decades ago.
Anny O’Connor, who learned through the service at Connulpie Downs Station near Tibooburra in the late 1960s, recalls lessons arriving in the weekly mail and communication taking place over a transceiver. Reception could be unreliable, and the rhythms of station life sometimes interrupted the school day.
Today, students can join online lessons and interact visually with teachers and classmates. A recent NSW review of distance education has highlighted the broader shift toward online learning, noting that digital platforms can improve engagement, connection and feedback for geographically isolated students.
That makes School of the Air a useful counterpoint to conventional measures such as NSW HSC school rankings and student performance. Academic results matter, but in remote education the ability to participate, build friendships and reach school activities can be just as important.
A cookbook that helps cover the cost of distance
Dust Off and Dish Up is the fifth cookbook linked to the Broken Hill School of the Air community, continuing a tradition that began in the 1980s with new editions around major anniversaries.
The latest release has attracted strong demand. The Broken Hill Bookshop has repeatedly sold out since the cookbook appeared in March, with copies sent to customers in Tasmania, South Australia and Mudgee as well as sold locally. Retailers have since restocked, while the P&C is hoping to reach more buyers around the Mundi Mundi Bash.
The fundraising matters because remote students can face costs that are easy to overlook in metropolitan education. Weekend sport, camps, classroom days and face-to-face activities may involve hours of travel, accommodation and careful planning.
The official Dust Off & Dish Up website says every purchase supports School of the Air students through resources, learning environments, excursions and extracurricular opportunities.
Even the cover tells an outback story
Former School of the Air student Ainsley Fuster photographed the cookbook cover, but getting the image was not quite as polished as the finished result suggests. The shoot took place in a paddock where warm weather was softening the cream in a sponge cake and flies repeatedly found their way into the frame.
The anecdote fits the book’s appeal. It captures the contrast between beautifully presented country cooking and the everyday improvisation required on remote properties, where heat, animals, work and distance are always part of the background.
Why the 70-year milestone still matters
The anniversary is not simply a look back at old technology. It shows how one of Australia’s best-known distance-education models has adapted from posted work and radio broadcasts to live digital classrooms while keeping the same core challenge in view: helping children stay connected despite geography.
The cookbook adds another layer to that history by preserving ordinary details that formal school records rarely capture — recipes passed between families, station humour, practical advice and memories of learning from the bush.
That combination explains why Dust Off and Dish Up works as both a fundraiser and a record of community life. The technology behind School of the Air has changed dramatically over 70 years, but the importance of bringing people together has remained remarkably constant.
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