In the remote Northern Territory highway town of Katherine there is a push to get young people and school children protected against COVID-19, with parents urged to speak to them about being vaccinated.
Shamiah, 16, and her brother Xzander, 12, rolled up their sleeves at Katherine's COVID-19 vaccination clinic.
"It didn't hurt, which I'm happy about," Shamiah said.
Xzander said he was feeling a little bit nervous before getting the injection but, in the end, it only felt a "bit tingly".
"I talked about it with my dad, and he gave me an opportunity to get it," Xzander said.
Their father, Phill Harnas, happens to be the manager og the clinic in the town 317 kilometres south of Darwin.
"Today I'm here as a parent as well," Mr Harnas said.
"My wife and I are both health professionals, so we had our vaccinations a while ago.
"So, this has been a real topic in our house for a while, but I think both the kids have made an informed decision to get their vaccination today."
The Pfizer vaccine is now available to anyone in the Northern Territory aged 12 years or older after the Northern Territory government said it wanted to get as many people as possible vaccinated before Christmas.
Mr Harnas said the push to get younger community members vaccinated would accelerate in the town in the coming weeks.
Katherine is a regional centre for health services.
Later this month, the NT Health-run vaccination clinic will partner with local Aboriginal health provider Wurli-Wurlinjang to administer vaccines at Katherine High School.
Mr Harnas said parents should have received some information and consent forms for their children already.
Katherine clinic picks up pace
Meanwhile, vaccinators in Katherine are doing their best to deliver doses to anyone in the community, including travellers passing through.
The Katherine vaccine clinic opened in May as a three-day-a-week service with fly-in, fly-out vaccinators, but has since expanded to a five-days-a-week service staffed by locals.
Staff had one of their busiest weeks during a Greater Katherine lockdown in August, delivering almost 1,000 vaccines, a huge number for the regional community.
Mr Harnas said there were plenty of appointments still available and urged everyone to book online.
"If you don't know how to book online and come here, there might be a little bit of an extra wait, but we're not going to turn away anyone from a vaccination," he said.
Mr Harnas said staff were working hard to hit the high vaccine rates needed to keep everyone safe.
Australian government data from the end of August shows 42 per cent of people aged 15 and older in the Katherine region had received one vaccine dose, while a quarter of people in the region were fully vaccinated.
