Ken Gamble

We all moved up to the Gregory Hotel.

And I began my year in 1977 living in a pub in the middle of the Outback.

How remote was this pub?

The closest town was 120 kilometres, which was Birktown, a one pub, very small town.

And it was 300 miles north of Mount Isa.

It was a hub for all the surrounding stations.

So all the big cattle properties in the area, Lawn Hill, Mellish Park, Nardoo, all these incredible stations, it was a hub.

So they would all come in on a Friday night.

On the weekends, it was really busy.

And also it was a route that people would take when they would travel the Gulf of Carpentaria.

So travellers would go through and they'd all stop at the Gregory.

So it was actually a really popular little place for tourists to stay.

What did it mean for your schooling, Ken, moving to this pub?

Well, we had to do a school of the air.

So mum enrolled us in the Royal Flying Doctor Radio School of the Air.

And in January of 1971, I started School of the Air.

I was the only boy.

There was five girls.

There were six of us in the class.

My teacher's name was Miss Reed.