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Australia's large distances and widely distributed population has meant that distance education has been an important part of its history. From the earliest provision of schooling by mail through a series of correspondence schools, both state and federal governments have provided a sound infrastructure to support distance education. Innovative uses of technologies to provide communication and interaction and ease the isolation of distance have also been a feature of Australia's distance education history. The impact of this history is particularly relevant as the Internet and information and communication technologies are changing this field and making distance educators of all institutions and sectors.
INTRODUCTION
Australia's widespread development and use of distance education has been in the main caused by its geography and low population. Though covering an area as great as the United States of America, Australia's population has only just reached 20 million at the beginning of the twenty-first century, and most people live on the fertile coastal fringes primarily around major cities. As much of the inland area of the country has insufficient water to sustain many inhabitants, centers of population can be scattered across large distances, particularly in the outback, the most remote inland areas of Australia. With such a distributed population, the education of school-aged children initially spurred the growth of distance education and, as teachers and other professionals in these scattered areas needed further education, government education agencies and postsecondary educational institutions began to provide this through distance education. Any new technology that could ease the isolation of distant students has also been put to use and the history of innovative uses of technology has been intertwined through Australia's history of distance education, impacting on today's developments in education in all educational sectors.
This article will examine the response to these conditions within an Australian educational system that has its state governments providing school and vocational education and both federal and state governments sharing governance of the university system. The impact of government policies as both responsive and directing of distance education in Australia will be discussed.
BEGINNINGS OFDISTANCE EDUCATION
After Australia became a federation of hitherto separate states in 1901, this former British colony with a short history of only 200 years provided schools in major towns and...