The report, The impact of drought on secondary education access in Australia's rural and remote areas, was prepared by CSU academics Professor Margaret Alston and Dr Jenny Kent, and concluded drought has had significant impacts on access to all levels of schooling from primary to secondary through to tertiary education. Funded by the Federal Government and the Myer Foundation, the report has has prompted urgent calls for a review of financial support to overcome the tyranny of distance at all levels of education. “Children were more likely to be working long hours outside school in either paid work or farm work, they were privy to stresses on their families during drought, had experienced loss of friends from school, and often studied by distance and faced uncertainties in their future,” the researchers said. To capture the “lived experience” of the young people, the CSU researchers conducted in-depth investigations in 2005 with students, their families and teachers, as well as business, community and government representatives in seven rural and remote sites at Balranald, Cootamundra and Hay in NSW, Blackall and Longreach in Queensland and Cohuna and Kerang in Victoria.