3/4 Ballarat Experience Camp

Ballarat certainly turned on the amazing weather for the three days of our camp. After weeks of preparation and anticipation, we set off on a sunny morning to spend the day at Sovereign Hill, where we explored STEM in the 1850s, and the ways in which people during those times found solutions to their problems. We panned for gold, watched a confectioner make raspberry drops (and got to sample them!), watched gold being smelted, and explored the Red Hill Mine tour. After we set up our rooms and had dinner, we had a fun and frenzied evening of disco bowling. 

Day Two saw us visiting the Ballarat Art Gallery, where we made our own art journals, and spent some time learning to appreciate art, and explore it with all of our senses. We saw some wonderful creations, and had some fantastic discussion art, and how it could mean so many different things to different people.

Our next stop was the Wildlife Park. After a lazy lunch watching the crocs swim around, we took in the sights and sounds of some amazing wildlife, including snakes, monitor lizards, the Galapagos turtle, alligators, wombats, kangaroos, koalas, llamas, dingoes, tigers, and meerkats. We saw the dingos, Tassie devils, and tigers being fed, and learned some amazing facts about them. We got to pet some snakes, lizards, and turtles. We were quite popular with the kangaroos and spent some time feeding them and lounging around before we went back to our cabin. Miss Stephan bravely faced her fear of kangaroos, but unfortunately we ran out of time for Mrs Jacobs to confront her fear of Emus (she was NOT disappointed by this!). 

After dinner and a much needed rest, we headed off to the Aura sound and light show at Sovereign Hill. One word: AMAZING! It started with a 3D presentation that had us in awe, and we then went on a bus to the outdoor theatre. It was an interesting history lesson, packed with surprises and special effects.

After breakfast and pack-up on our third and final day, we set off for Bird World, where we got to meet some birds with big personalities and some mean dance moves! We fed the rainbow trout, and explored the maze. After a quick lunch, our final stop was Xtreme Bounce, where everyone seemed to get a burst of energy. Miss Stephan and Miss Mawby were unbeatable on Xtreme Battle – a match between the two of them ended in a draw. Then it was back to Beaufort, exhausted and happy.

We would like to say a special thank you to Mr Reid and Jaeban Royal for coming along to help. We would not have been able to have our camp without them, and we appreciate them spending their time with us. We hope they had as much fun as we did!

Miss Mawby, Miss Stephan, and Mrs Jacobs are extremely proud of all of our students. We received so many compliments about everyone’s manners and behaviour everywhere that we went, and it was wonderful to see our 3/4s showing kindness and respect not only to each other, but to the people we encountered over our three days away. All of the 3/4s should be congratulated on their conduct and their can-do attitude; it was a jam packed three days, our legs were sore, we were tired and hot, and sometimes it was hard to be patient, but we had an absolute blast.