The tiny community of Punmu in the Pilbara, Western Australia built barrel train to get kids to school.
According to ABC News Punmu co-ordinator, John Reudavey got the idea of building a train carriage when he was in Perth. He saw four drums there and he immediately thought it would be a great way to get children to school.
The community is encouraging kids to attend school and 20 metal drums have been used to turn them into train carriages.
Punmu co-ordinator John Reudavey told ABC News: “I saw four drums being towed behind a ride-on mower and the parents were paying $2 for the kids to putt around the footy oval, and I just thought ‘What an awesome idea,” “Obviously we had to make it more robust because of where we are and the conditions we live in.”
School principal Sarah Mortimer finds it something positive and she hopes that the train would encourage students to arrive on time.
She said: “It’s something positive, it’s something safe and it makes it much easier for families that have younger children at home,”
“One of the challenges is getting the kids to school early and getting them to stay all day,” she said.
“You can say a child has 100 per cent attendance because they’re coming every day to school, but if they come at 10 o’clock that’s different to coming at 8 o’clock.”
“In the morning it’s freezing cold, but to see three or four kids at each house standing out on the road shivering and waiting for the train to come past was an awesome sight,” said John Reudavey, community coordinator in Pilbara.
Kids are also happy with the idea and they enjoy being transported to and from school, they love travelling together on the Barrel Train. The idea actually helped them to attend school.