By

Australia. This paper addresses three issues: satellite television and distance education in Australia, distance learning as a general issue, and some possible implications of distance education and technology for Asia. Australia is a comparative newcomer to the satellite field, because, although we have been accessing international satellites for more than a decade, it was only in August last year that the national communications satellite AUSSAT was launched from the U.S. into a geo-stationary orbit 36,000 kilometres above the north of Australia. In fact there are two satellites each carrying four 30-watt and eleven 12-watt transponders, which can provide television, voice and data communications across Australia in a "national beam " and four regional or spot beams. For a country as vast as Australia, satellite communication would appear to be a logical and perhaps even a necessary strategy. However, when one takes into account the fact that Australia's population is only fiftee