Getting Started - Centre Trip

In August 1979 initial discussions began regarding the possibility of a Year 10 trip to Central Australia as part of the Year 10 CS work on Aboriginals. Colin Youl and Jack Mechielsen presented the idea to the school Board who agreed, suggesting that the students raise some money towards the cost of the trip.

After a class discussion, we (Year 9 students of 1979) fervently began organizing cake stalls, car washes and even a ‘Wake-a-thon’ to raise money for our Central Australia Trip the following year. Our fundraising efforts continued in 1980 and by early June 1980 we had reached our fund raising goal of $1,000!

At 6am on Saturday 5 July 1980, a group of 32 very excited Year 10 students met in the school car park and boarded a hired coach, which was to become our home for the next 14 days. Colin Youl and Jack Mechielsen led this expedition along with Mrs Jones (English teacher), Lesley White (Andrew White’s wife) and Mr de Jong (a student’s parent). John and Lynn, a husband and wife team who worked for Expo Adventure, were our coach driver, cook and tour guides for the 14 needay trip.

Some of the many fond memories I have of that trip include:

Singing songs and playing games on the coach
Fossicking for opals and sleeping underground at Coober Pedy
Finding a grader to jump start the coach 30 km from the SA/NT border
Pushing the coach over the SA/NT border
Camping in the Ayers Rock National Park, approximately 1 – 2 kms from Uluru, and waking up each morning with an amazing view of ‘the Rock’
Climbing Ayers Rock and watching the sun rise and set over it
Walking through the Aboriginal campsite at Ayers Rock, speaking to the local Aboriginals and buying artifacts from them
Watching an old Aboriginal man sing songs and dance around a campfire at Ayers Rock
Walking through The Olgas
Exploring Alice Springs for an afternoon by ourselves
Travelling along the Oodnadatta track
Bush camps, singing songs around the campfire and ‘sleeping under the stars’

I felt privileged to be a part of the first group of students from MECS to go on the Centre Trip. Experiencing first hand the Aboriginal culture, the vastness of our land and the many rich and varied experiences that this trip offered are memories I will never forget.

Yvonne Verhagen (née Dubbeld, class of ‘82).

It's all new

We hired a driver and Cook/Second driver with a bus. Very few of us had ever been to the Centre. It was all new to me.

My memories include the following: the bumpy gravel road from Port Augusta all the way to the NT border - hour after hour in a low gear; the temperature inside the bus - cool each morning, very hot at the peak of the day; the absolute silence, out beyond everything; what a wonderful experience. To borrow from Banjo Paterson, “And at night the endless glory of the everlasting stars” - a totally new experience for us from the distant south and the big city.

In Alice we made contact with Dr Trevor Cutter, who encouraged us to think about one day visiting an Aboriginal settlement. From this little seed grew our school’s wonderful, rich relationship with Yuendumu. Trevor introduced us to the Central Australian Aboriginal Medical Association, where we learned a bit about some of the issues facing the people in the Centre. Pat Dodson, currently a major figure in the Reconciliation movement and well known aboriginal leader came and spoke to us at our camp site in Alice. Through such activities we entered the steep learning curve which has brought us to today.

These are my rather adult and teacher-like memories. They have a rather educational bent to them. Sorry about that. It’s what I am. Other memories include: meals around the camp fire, the wonder of the painted caves of Uluru, the sheer size of that amazing icon, ‘love’ blossoming among the youngsters… some rather one-sided and not encouraged by the poor recipient (no names, no pack drill, although my tongue might be loosened under certain circumstances). Sleeping underground at Coober Pedy - the unique dusty smell of the place, sickness on the road, kangaroos, emus and perhaps a dingo out the bus window, the absolute glory of sunrise painting the clouds above our grimy crew already under way for the day. It was all so new. We were all so fresh. Directly out of those experiences grew our own second attempt, a trip we built ourselves, and out of which, in turn, grew the Trips that went on for many years and has now morphed into the Discovering Country trip through Victoria.

Colin Youl, Retired Secondary Teacher

“After sitting for a while just watching and listening, my ideas about Aboriginals changed. Those we saw weren’t lazy; in fact they worked constantly, making things for gawking tourists like us to buy. Whites always talk about the natives of the country they invaded as being drunkards, but I would like to know who introduced liquor into the natives’ society.”

Student Reflection

“Going to Central Australia really gave me an eye-opener to what the Aboriginal people are like and their lifestyle. I learnt more talking to the Aboriginals than I could have ever learnt from books. I found that they weren’t lazy as people said they were. Also I could understand why they do sometimes bear grudges against us, since it was us whites who took over, treated and still do treat them as inferior human beings. It would be difficult to change ones lifestyle because of another race coming to Australia and this is what the Aboriginals had to do. Aboriginals were expected to change to our European lifestyle without question.”

Student Reflection

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