‘There is just a lake with crocodiles!’: hope and homkesickness for Kiribati nurses in the outback

A Pacific labour scheme has been transformative for Kiribati families but the loss of nurses has hit the country's hospitals hard

Every night, sitting in her room in the remote Queensland town of Doomadgee, Bwerere Sandy Tebau calls her husband and daughter 4,300km away in Tarawa, the capital of Kiribati.

There is no sea!" Sandy says, when asked about the difference between her new home in the red desert of Australia and her island home in the central Pacific. There is just a lake and in the lake are crocodiles!"