Chris Kuhne spent part of his teaching career covering more than 60,000 kilometres a year, now he is retiring

Mount Isa School of the Air teacher Chris Kuhne (right) has called it quits on his career.

When the internet first came to outback Queensland Chris Kuhne was part of Mount Isa's School of the Air (MISOTA) field team.

He and his wife Katrina drove hundreds of kilometres to remote properties only to carry in a large, heavy computer, run out the telephone cable, plug it all into the ADSL and teach the students (and their parents) about the joys of the internet.

Mr Kuhne has been a teacher with MISOTA for more than two decades and will retire at the end of this year.

He said it was time for him to "pass the baton" to the next generation of rural teachers.

"My wife and I were teaching on Thursday Island, and I saw an advert for a job called 'field team', and I did a bit of research on it, so we applied," he said of his move to Mount Isa.

"At the time you had to be a married teaching couple and the job involved getting a [car] and travelling across our schoolyard, which is about 800,000 square kilometres."

Bogged at border

Mr and Mrs Kuhne spent the start of their career at MISOTA driving on some of Australia's most remote roads, covering 60,000 kilometres over 30 weeks of the school year.

In one particularly hairy situation, the duo found themselves bogged near the Northern Territory border.

"I looked and honestly probably 300m away was a bore runners truck with the key in it," Mr Kuhne laughed.

After a quick radio call for permission, Mr Kuhne was able to use the truck to pull them out of the bog and continue on their way.

Mr Kuhne said the one thing that kept him with SoTA for so long was the students.

"The simple answer is the kids, the kids and families," he said.

A wedding to finish

But now with retirement looming, Mr Kuhne said he had plenty to keep him busy.

The couple own a tuition business in town and also a pool shop in Mount Isa.

A fitting end to his career will come in February at a wedding.

"The very first family that we got to visit as field team was the bride's family on Redland Park Station," he said.

"We are coming up in February where my wife and I are actually heading to Hannah's wedding.

"So it's a nice finish to see a child go from grade three to become a successful vet and getting married.

"To be a part of that is really unique as a school teacher."