A great Australian educational tradition is the overnight excursion. At St. Bernard's, this tradition begins in year 4 with an overnight stay in the nation's capital, Canberra (pronounced Can'bra - accent on the first syllable). Our two-day, one-night excursion departed on Thursday, September 18, at 7:30 AM and arrived back in Batemans Bay on Friday, September 19, at 5:30 PM.
We boarded a Marshall Bus Lines coach at 7:25 and were off. Our ascent up the Clyde Mountain in the luxury vehicle, piloted by Peter Marshall, was smooth. We made sure the air in the coach was cool (to avoid motion sickness), and that there was a good supply of cool wet towels to place on the necks of those children experiencing any sort of travel sickness (this really works!).
We arrived at the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) in Canberra for 10AM. If you are wondering why Australia does so well for a country its size in the Olympics and Commonwealth Games you need not look too much further than the AIS to see the amounts of money put into facilities, coaching, and athlete support. We were given a tour by two athletes, one an aspiring national volleyball player and the other a golfer. It finished with a 45-minute session in the activity room where students could match themselves against virtual Olympians. It was great fun. From there we headed to the Commonwealth Science Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO).
At the CSIRO, our tour consisted of conducting mini- experiments and obser- vations, a 3D video, and hands-on presentations with mice, turtles, and stick bugs. This too was a great visit. After a visit to the Canberra Botanic Gardens to ha
ve our lunch we were off to the Australian War Memorial (see previous blogs). There is never enough time in one day to see all that must be seen here, and every child and teacher goes at their own pace. We ended up focusing on conflicts from 1945-present, WWII, the ANZAC Hall, and finally, a moving lament played on bagpipe at five o'clock to officially close the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
Our accommodation for the evening was a Best Western holiday park; imagine a campground environ- ment with upwards of 300 motel rooms. After getting into our cabins we headed to a dinner at the motel dining room then headed off to Belconnen Bowl. Strikes and spares were the order of the evening and all had a great time. Sleep came amazingly quickly to the tired, but excited, students when they got back into their rooms for the night. Breakfast next morning was hearty and substantial; just what everyone needed to keep them going for what was going to be a very interesting day.
Questacon is a Australia/ Japan joint venture to bring science alive to children and adults alike. We arrived at 9AM and told the students to enjoy as much as they could because we were only there for a relatively short time. Well, as we were leaving at about 10:45, we were informed that Questacon was in lockdown due to a strange substance found in one of the theatres. To make a long story short, Questacon did a fabulous job to make sure all the groups were well watered and fed, and provided entertainment in addition to all the amazing features the exhibits provided already. Not enough could be said about the attitude of the students who were super throughout the whole ordeal (cooperative and positive are two suitable words to use to describe them). At 1:05 we were permitted to leave; the substance was determined to be non-toxic and harmless. We ended up missing our appointment at the National Museum as a result of the lockdown so headed off directly to the National Gallery of Art which holds many national and international treasures.
After a short snack on the steps of the Gallery we proceeded into the lobby where we were met by.... a power outage! What next? An impromptu tour of the statue garden. We were broken into four groups and given a wonderful 30-minute tour of a garden we probably would never have bothered to experience. Halfway through this tour a representative of the Gallery asked if we were heading to Questacon next because the power outage at the Gallery was fairly general and probably affected Questacon as well. "No," we said, "we've already been locked down in Questacon and didn't have any intention of returning too soon." Poor Questacon.
Our final stop was the Telstra Tower. We had great views of the city and surrounding hills; Canberra really is a beautiful city. We left at 3PM and arrived back in Batemans Bay at 5:28PM. Parents were waiting and 44 exhausted children had heaps of stories to tell.
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