When André Retrot arrived in Katherine with just a swag and his kelpie at the start of 2021, he knew no-one, temperatures were soaring to 42C, and he quickly became "pretty uncertain" about his decision to move.
Leaving life as a corporate lawyer in inner-city Melbourne, he was days away from entering uncharted territories as a teacher in a remote classroom.
In the first few months of last year, one teacher left Katherine High School every week, according to the Australian Education Union NT.
"Once it started raining, ending the build-up … and once I started the job, and I started to be welcomed into the community because I was giving to it, I realised there was a really strong community here," Mr Retrot said.
It took almost half a year for Mr Retrot to find his feet; he now loves Katherine for its challenges and the opportunities typically only available in small towns. He's even bought a home.
But he is part of the minority. Hot, isolated and more than 300 kilometres from Darwin, Katherine has always had difficulties attracting and retaining professionals.
Katherine High School had five principals between 2012 and 2020 due to retirement, relocation and promotions to other positions, according to the NT Education Department.
And this year, the government was forced to deploy registered teachers from its departments as Katherine's students started the year with 19 vacant teaching positions — almost 35 per cent of the 55 unfilled positions across the Territory.
Education Minister Lauren Moss said she was even in talks with the registration board about the possibility of incentivising retired teachers back into the profession, with the Omicron wave likely to exacerbate Australia's existing teacher shortages and demanding workloads.
A national shortage plays out in the regions
This week, students headed back to school needing more than just their backpacks, books and pencils.
A number of measures were put in place to minimise the risk of COVID-19, including mask wearing and physical distancing.
Amid a national shortage of teachers, Mark Grant, the chief executive of the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL), said this was the year Australia could really feel the burden.
In a report AITSL released in December, teachers reported working an average of 140 to 150 per cent of their paid hours.
But Mr Grant said other major reasons Australia was in a teaching crisis included a lack of teachers prepared to head to the regions, a transient workforce with many now retiring, and historically high student enrolment.
"We're approaching four million students ... but a lot of people will cite pay as an issue," he said.
"[Wages] start off quite competitively but after about the eighth year, it's actually nowhere near as competitive by the standards of other industries in Australia or by international standards, so a lot of people leave teaching as their salary plateaus.
Some older teachers were even retiring early as the possibility of catching COVID-19 became "too risky", Mr Grant added.
Housing still a major issue
Adam Lampe, the branch secretary of the Australian Education Union NT, said that while teacher shortages were a national trend, Katherine was a "hotspot" that was not seeing the attention it needed.
In 2019, the NT government cut a longstanding housing subsidy for teachers estimated to cost $500,000 per year.
The move drew the ire of school staff, the union and parents who all said the scheme was an important incentive.
"Katherine has always been hard to staff, but it was certainly a lot easier to staff in the past," Mr Lampe said.
"We didn't have the same levels of vacancies, say, five years or 10 years ago where they had adequate accommodation and the subsidy was in place."
He said 19 vacancies in a town the size of Katherine was "huge".
"It's going to affect the quality of educational services, because you'll have teachers who are teaching outside of their area … and people who haven't been in the classroom for a while.
'We overstaff to minimise disruption'
For Katherine High School principal Nick Lovering, teacher retention and attraction is always on his mind.
"You can't ever say you have enough, and you can't ever say that we're on top of it, because when you feel like you're getting to that point, the transitional nature of the town kicks in," he said.
"I'll be looking for teachers today — it's part of what we do every day — and sometimes we go to the point where we overstaff to minimise the disruption."
The only public high school in the region started the year down only two teachers, a major improvement compared to last year's seven, Mr Lovering said.
"We had a goal last year to retain staff and we were pretty successful.
"I've usually found that it's not incentives that keeps teachers, it's opportunity — the opportunity to progress their career is a way bigger carrot usually than housing."
With most of the Territory's teaching workforce hailing from interstate, Claire Bartlett, a senior lecturer in education at Charles Darwin University, said early exposure to the regions was critical to shoring up future staff levels.
"There's a huge turnover issue in the NT with people coming from interstate, but if we can get more pre-service teachers doing their placements in places like Katherine, that exposure goes a long way," she said.
Mr Retrot said it was difficult to watch teacher after teacher pack their bags last year due to a lack of support and a housing void.
He said students were shocked to see him return for semester 2, but staying not only gained him his students' trust — he says he is in for the long haul.
"There is a lot of room to grow here because there are a lot of vacuums … if you want to be a DJ and practice your skills at a bar, you can probably get a gig; if you want to write an article and submit it to the local newspaper, they will probably print it.
"It's the raw edge of Australia, but the edge is where the magic happens."
