By Ian Williams
The family support team at RICE in Port Augusta do some serious commuting.
For the past 40 years they’ve been hitting the dusty tracks of outback South Australia to bring services to station couples and their children that most of us take for granted.
There are 11 full-time staff members who look after 150 families spread across 655,000 square kilometres – that’s the size of Afghanistan or Italy and Germany combined.
“We’re the only organisation like it in Australia that offers everything – an holistic service – so we’re very unique,” said operations manager Samantha Mundy. “Come to think of it, we’re probably unique in the world.”
RICE – which stands for Remote and Isolated Children’s Exercise – was started as a not-for-profit in 1976 to help geographically remote families with young children.
The team includes a nurse, social worker, teacher, librarian as well as three in-home carers who stay on stations to look after children for a week or two while parents work or have a break.
“We have a fleet of five four-wheel drives and go out on our own or sometimes there may be two of us,” said Samantha. “Other times our partners might come with us so that we’re not travelling by ourselves.
“Some of the children hardly ever see other children so we organise play days at stations or in the nearest town so they can interact with each other.
“We all wear RICE tops and the children get really excited. Most of them love us because we’re often the only other people they see.”
The services have been expanded over the years to include a crèche at Hawker and Orroroo which is run by casual staff once a week.
There’s also a toy and educational library. Parents ring up to see what’s available and toys and other resources are posted out free of charge.
“At outback race meetings and country gatherings we go out and provide activities for the children. It allows the parents to enjoy themselves while making sure that the children don’t get too bored,” said Samantha.
“For us every day is an adventure. We’re very resilient as things don’t always go to plan. We may get stuck on a track or something or sometimes we’re flooded in – it really is unique.”
The RICE team will be celebrating its 40 years on December 10 with a children’s party during the day and dinner for current and past staff and parents in the evening.
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