Matilda Ballinger has become a dedicated student on the high seas. Picture: Andrew Tauber Source: Herald Sun
MATILDA Ballinger is more comfortable studying in a cabin than a classroom.
The year 12 student has spent almost all her schooling years sailing the world with her family.
And it's taken VCE exams - starting today - to bring this young adventurer back to dry land.
Matilda will tackle the English exam in her home town of Apollo Bay, on Victoria's southwest coast.
But most of the hard yards have been done in the family yacht, which her fisherman father, Warrick, has navigated from the likes of South Africa to Singapore.
"I used to think (living on a boat) was normal, because that's what I'm used to," Matilda, 17, said.
"But then I went to boarding school for one year, and I thought, 'no, normal life is boring'."
Apart from completing prep and year 10 at regular schools in Apollo Bay and Geelong, Matilda has become a dedicated student on the high seas.
VCE student Matilda Ballinger studies on the family yacht. Picture: Andrew Tauber Source: Herald Sun
Along with siblings Gillian, 15, and Rip, 12, Matilda sticks to a Monday-Friday study timetable, with material from the Distance Education Centre Victoria.
After classes, they enjoy socialising with locals and fellow "cruisers".
The Ballingers spend many months at a time moored at different countries, mainly across South-East Asia.
The most recent long-term stop was Bali, while other destinations have included the Philippines, Borneo, Brunei, Malaysia and New Zealand.
And they have lost count of how many nautical miles they have covered since they bought the 20m schooner Anitra May, when Matilda was in kindergarten.
Matilda's mother, Sonja, a surveyor, said if there were any negatives to her family's unusual lifestyle, they were more than outweighed by the positives.
"It's been very, very rewarding," Sonja said.
Matilda hopes to study geoscience at the University of Melbourne next year.
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