The Foundation
 

Our Vision: Supporting young people in the bush whose educational opportunities are limited due to isolation, economic and extenuating circumstances.
 

BCEF History
 

Dr Charles Huxtable, then serving with the Royal Flying Doctor Service at Broken Hill, initiated the establishment of the Bush Children’s Education Foundation in 1965.
 

He was shocked by the number of children who were not enrolled in any school and whose only contact with other children was through visits to a township. At that time there was no government provision for these children other than access to correspondence lessons.
 

Dr Huxtable, along with the Chief Justice of New South Wales, Sir Leslie Herron, the Honourable Ian Sinclair and Ian Hardy, prepared a Trust Deed for the Foundation, which was approved by the NSW Attorney General.  It provided funding for isolated children to board at the purpose-built Tibooburra Hostel. Other similar hostels were located in the far west of New South Wales. The Foundation appealed for individual and corporate donations so that bursaries could enable children to board at one of these hostels in order to attend a country school.
 

In the early years the occupations of the families covered the range of outback working life: farmers, station hands, fencers, bore sinkers, kangaroo shooters, prospectors, miners, bush nurses, small business owners and itinerant circus/show people. Many of these occupations continue in the bush today, but now include parks and wildlife personnel and small business operators.

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Ahead of public opinion at the time, the Foundation supported and continues to encourage indigenous families to apply for bursaries. They included the descendants of the Wadikali and Karengappa people, original tribal groups from the north west corner of New South Wales.

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​From The Right Honourable Ian Sinclair AC

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"In 1965 Dr Huxtable working with the Royal Flying Doctor Service at Broken Hill was very concerned that most children living in these areas were denied a normal education and established the Bush Children's Education Foundation to help address the problem. 

 

For a fortunate few individual boarding was possible but wider access to hostels and group accommodation were the initiatives of Dr Huxtable and formalised through a Trust Deed for BCEF approved by the NSW Attorney General.   This enabled bursaries for boarding at the purpose built Tibooburra Hostel and other hostels in far west NSW funded by individual and corporate donations.  

 

Significant in the education opportunities BCEF enabled was the non-exclusive eligibility of parents’ employment or family background and including indigenous Australians.  

 

In celebrating BCEF's sixty years we should all be proud of the foresight of Dr Huxtable and thankful for the generosity of so many."

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• Build a sustainable funding base to support our education delivery requirements.  

• Ensure fair and equitable allocation of support to those identified as needing our help. 

• Work with other organisations in the bush to assist our delivery of support. 

• Maintain on-going contemporary support of young people in the bush. 

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