During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic governments across the world closed schools, forcing billions of students to undertake their education remotely. Despite the attention this situation received, learning at a geographical distance from the teacher is not a new form of schooling. Distance learning, or distance education as it is also known, can be traced back to the introduction of compulsory education. This article examines the development of distance learning in Australia, and the adoption of communication technologies that have assisted this form of schooling to expand and diversify.