Craig Challen & Chris Fleming

Class Acts: Episode 02

In the early 1980s at Perth’s Eastern Hills Senior High School there was no way teacher Chris Fleming could have known that one of his Economics students would go on to be at the centre of “one of the most perilous and extraordinary rescues in modern times” … the retrieval of twelve boys and their soccer coach from deep inside a flooded cave in Northern Thailand.

In 2018, the Thai cave rescue captured the world’s attention. In the Foreword of Against All Odds, “Titanic” director James Cameron said it was “an epic underwater adventure … But this isn't some Hollywood screenplay - this actually happened”.

And it led to former Eastern Hills student Craig Challen being named 2019 Australian of the Year. 

In this episode, Craig returns to Eastern Hills Senior High after more than 40 years to thank Chris Fleming for the enormous impact he had.

Craig says “I have a lot of esteem for the teachers who work in the public school system. Everything that I've achieved in my life, I really put down to the education that I received for nothing. It's been a wonderful thing that this country has given me”. 

We also meet a host of former students who Chris Fleming inspired to take up a career in teaching themselves.