ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact

Someone’s spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to get him to where he is. His teachers have spent thousands of hours educating him. Eddie Pearson has been given every advantage in his short life but he plans to throw it all in the bin.

Students across Betoota have started their final studies for the high school leaving exams next month. Some more enthusiastically than others. Most dream of leaving this twelve horse town on the fringe of the Simpson Desert behind and the odd couple are looking to put their roots down here.

Eddie Pearson, an 18-year-old student at Betoota Grove’s exclusive Whooton School For Boys, has told friends but not family that he hasn’t so much as taken the plastic off his textbooks.

“I haven’t studied at all,” he laughed.

“I’ll probably get like an OP of 25. Like you have to basically make an effort to get an OP 25. Like I’m talking avoiding your year coordinator for a year [laughs] Nah oi, I’ll probably just end up playing footy or working for Dad as a paralegal,”

“Nah, everyone thinks it’s funny. It’s cool. You get a free schooner at The Lord Betoota Hotel if you bring your OP25 to the bar [laughs] I’m 100% going to do that. Cheers. Oi don’t tell my parents I’m not studying, they’ll flip out.”

The Advocate reached out to The Whooton School for comment but they explained that they don’t provide comment to the media about students and/or school policy.

More to come.