The Year 8 Inaugural Central Camp

On Sunday 29 April, all Year 8 students embarked on the inaugural camp to Central Australia. After a 6.00am departure by bus from St George’s Road, they travelled to Melbourne Airport, flew to Adelaide and onto Alice Springs arriving at lunchtime, where they were met by the tour operators who would look after them for the next six days and five nights. Travelling in House Groups on two buses they interacted in small groups with allocated staff. Over the five nights, the students became very adept at putting up and packing up tents, packing their bags and sleeping mats in the dark.

The trip included two nights in Alice Springs, where the students visited the School of the Air and participated in a televised lesson, the Women’s Hall of Fame and prison, the Royal Flying Doctor’s service, and a visit to Anzac Hill, as well as a ‘reptile experience’. The tour continued onto Wallace Rock Hole where local landmarks were visited. At Wallace Rock Hole, the students participated in an indigenous art activity, tasted damper, and learned about bush medicines.

They then went on to Kings Canyon where they walked around the canyon and enjoyed the awe-inspiring scenery and the geological history of the landscape. The students were introduced to local indigenous culture, which began with a smoking ceremony, and included an explanation and demonstration of hunting techniques, identification of bush medicines and seeds, an explanation of the roles of women and men, as well as a cooking demonstration on how to locate and cook witchetty grubs. The group then travelled onto Yulara where they spent a further two nights. They visited the inspiring Uluru cultural centre, then walked to various sites around the perimeter of the rock and finally enjoyed a bicycle ride around Uluru. Other activities included a sunset viewing of Uluru and a walk to the viewing platform of Kata Tjuta, followed by a walk into the domes. A highlight for some girls was ‘singing’ at the Kata Tjuta lookout with spectacular scenery in the background.

There were many highlights over the six days and the students fully immersed themselves in the experiences of the program.

Student highlights

The highlight of the camp for me was the bike ride around Uluru. I feel proud that I can now say I have ridden all around Uluru. Although I may have been a slow bike rider, I think I enjoyed it even more as we could all just take our time and have a good look at the environment. I really loved the group I was in and I thoroughly enjoyed King’s Canyon, despite the walk being hard, the scenery was just amazing. Lara Thorn

I also enjoyed seeing the sunset and sunrise at Uluru because the scenery was beautiful, especially the sky, and with the wind blowing the clouds were exceptionally beautiful (I’ve never seen such fast-moving clouds in real life). I liked going to visit the School of the Air too, because it was interesting to see how other people learn. It was amazing to think that these children lead completely different lives to us, and have never experienced a real physical classroom. Angela Yu

I enjoyed the cultural experience walk because I got to learn a lot of new stuff like that you can find witchetty grubs in a special bush and that you can eat it raw or fired! They say it tastes like egg with lots of butter. Jeneath Wong

I really enjoyed the camping experience because I don’t usually go camping so it was really fun learning how to set up a tent and sleeping in it for a week. Madeleine Farrer

Our visits to the Royal Flying Doctor Service and School of the Air were really memorable. Watching a video about the history of R.F.D.S. really showed us what a fantastic service they provide and how fortunate we are to be so close to medical facilities. Sarah Marriott

Central Australia camp was definitely a highlight. it was an inspiring and educational journey through the NT. My knowledge of the indigenous people, NT and Australia’s history has definitely tripled. Yasmin Jayasekera