Year 11
Central Australia Trip
On Wednesday 26 June, 40 girls and 4 four very excited staff members met at Kilbreda, ready for an adventure to the 'Centre'!
Our adventure began in the morning at 6:30am when we met and said goodbye to our families and hopped onto our bus bound for Melbourne airport. With feelings of excitement and anticipation, we waited to board our Jetstar flight to Uluru.
After a relatively uneventful flight, we were on the ground at Yulara rRsort, where we were met by 'The Team'; our driver Roger, his off-sider Joel, our fabulous cook, 'Queen Dee' and Dee’s assistants, Michelle and Sienna. In no time at all our coach headed for our first campsite where we were shown how to set up our tents.
Later that day, we watched the magical sunset over the Rock, watching the colours change on the Rock and in the sky. It was breathtaking.
The following morning, after breakfast, we headed back to Uluru, where we met our guide, Leroy, who gave us insights into the Marla and Waterhole walks. Most of us walked almost the circumference of this great monolith, after which we visited Kata Tjuta.
Our next destination was King’s Canyon, where we enjoyed a long but rewarding walk around the rim and down to the ‘The Garden of Eden’ and took in some fantastic views along the way.
Two days were spent in Alice Springs. Highlights here were the Alice Springs Desert Park, Simpsons Gap, Standley Chasm and the John Flynn Memorial.
We visited the Royal Flying Doctor Service and an enlightening visit to the old prison. This has been converted into the National Australian Women’s Hall of Fame, celebrating the achievements of many Australian women in all fields of endeavour. Included was our own past pupil, Annette Kellerman, who is one of a number of people credited for inventing Synchronised Swimming.
We also arrived in town on market day in Todd Mall, which was popular for souvenirs.
A couple of huge days of bus travel were interspersed with spectacular scenery at the Devil’s Marbles and the beautiful thermal springs at Mataranka. We eventually made it to Katherine and got up early the next morning for the Katherine Gorge cruise. On arriving at Cooinda (Kakadu), we had a cruise with a very knowledgeable guide, Dennis, who enlightened us about the wildlife and the indigenous heritage of the region. This was followed by a sumptuous breakfast buffet!
Our final days were spent exploring Darwin, where we learnt about Darwin’s involvement in World War II and a visit to the Darwin Museum, where, among other things we saw ‘Sweetheart’, a well-known, four-metre long crocodile. We found out all about Cyclone Tracy’s devastation on Christmas Day, 1974. That evening, we visited the Mindil Beach Sunset Markets and had dinner while watching the sunset over the beach. It was eerie to see so many people on a beach and not one person in the water, warning signs told us crocodiles could be in the water!
Image: Gabby Rocks visits The Rock! :)
Our second day in Darwin was a fantastic day enjoying lunch at the Darwin Harbour followed by the water slides at a nearby water park. After a pizza dinner and packing our bags for the last time we headed to nearby Casuarina to catch a movie before farewelling our crew and heading for the airport for our 1.45am return flight. A very long but none-the-less fun filled day.
The trip was definitely an experience to remember. We learnt so much, not only about Australian culture and destinations, but about ourselves and the people we shared this journey with. We are so grateful that we got the opportunity to go on this trip and make memories that will last forever. We never thought we would do something like this but we are so thankful that we did! We definitely recommend it to all the younger years as you will be amazed at how beautiful Australia is and create stronger friendships with people in your year level.
Year 11
Central Travellers
Leadership Day
Recently, a group of ten Year 11 students, together with Ms Dempster and Miss Flynn, attended a Student Alliance Networking Group meeting at Strathcona Baptist Girls' Grammar. This was an interactive leadership meeting in which we were lucky enough to hear from an amazing and strong woman, Sheryl Thai, CEO and Co-Founder of the League of Extraordinary Women and founder of Cupcake Central.
Through an intriguing and inspiring story, we heard all of Sheryl’s highs and lows along her journey of following her dream. After being made redundant from what she thought was her ultimate career choice, Sheryl followed her passion and started up a cupcake business. She could never have imagined how big it turned out to be.
Through a journey filled with setbacks and negativity, Sheryl has created an amazing business called ‘Cupcake Central’ with five stores now across Melbourne and over 85 staff. Now moving on to bigger and better things, Sheryl has followed her passion in wanting to change the world by starting up The League of Extraordinary Women to make a difference in our society through mentoring programs.
Five of the most important tips and words of advice Sheryl had for us the upcoming generation of women were:
- Practice makes perfect
- Dream the impossible
- Surround yourself with good people
- Success leaves clues
- Learning never stops
We were all left feeling extremely grateful and inspired by Sheryl’s story, and took away priceless guidance about the importance of motivating ourselves and acting on dreams through setting goals. This can all be kick started through using the relationships around us and using the inner strength and will power to do exactly what we think is impossible.
Keely Ortland
Year 11