Year 9 & 10 AEP Excursion to Canberra, 2024

Students from Belridge Secondary College recently undertook an education tour of the national capital, Canberra from 4 to 9 August 2024. Students were given the opportunity to participate in a variety of educational programs with a focus on Australia’s history, culture, heritage, and democracy. The Australian Government recognizes the importance of all young Australians being able to visit the national capital as part of their Civics and Citizenship education. To assist families in meeting the cost of the excursion the Australian Government contributes funding to our school to the amount of $510 per student under the Parliament and Civics Education Rebate program towards those costs. The rebate is paid directly to the school upon completion of the excursion. The staff and students at Belridge Secondary College are very grateful for this financial support, as for some families, this would not have been able to happen without the funds provided. All information for this financial support can be found at: https://www.pacer.org.au/

I would also personally like to thank Mrs Green, Mr Macdonald and Mr Richardson for attending the Canberra AEP Trip with me. Their efforts throughout the week made it so enjoyable for myself and the students attending. We are very grateful for the their time away from their families to create a great experience for the Belridge Academic Extension students. 

Some of our Year 9 students have generously shared their experiences of the trip below. Enjoy the read!

Ms Linto
HOLA - Humanities and Social Sciences

Sunday, 4 August 2024

"To start our trip in Canberra, first we had to get there! We took off at around half past 4 in the morning, landing in Sydney at about 12 noon, where we got to stop and eat lunch, with some of us getting a bit lost on the way to the bus. The drive was really long, or it certainly felt like it. We finally arrived to camp at about 6pm, and settled in.

Monday, 5 August 2024

First on our agenda was Australia’s Parliament House. The architecture inside and out was really interesting, boasting its twenty-two-kilogram flag on top of the building. The flag is larger than the size of a double decker bus. The two Houses of Parliament inside were massive, which we got to see from the glass press boxes, about 30 feet above the floor. Next, we had the opportunity to view the Governor General’s residence. It had some really nice gardens, and a great view of Molonglo River. They showed us the dining hall, which had a 60-odd foot table, which took over a year to carve. The most interesting thing we got to see was the Governor General’s Rolls Royce, Phantom IV, painted in a deep blue colour. We then reboarded the bus, and went up to the top of Mount Black, then to the AEC, which is housed in the back of Old Parliament House. They gave us a short talk about voting, and how to register to vote, and then we went back to the camp. Finally, we went indoor rock climbing, which we were stoked about! They had a cool inverted section, where you actually climbed, while hanging from the roof.

Tuesday, 6 August 2024

First up on Tuesday, was Geoscience. We got to look at some awesome rocks, and add a layer of sand to the tubes, which have layers of sediment from every school that has ever visited, going back almost 25 years. We got to see a seismometer and make it register all of us 42 students jumping up and down on the floor.  Afterwards, we visited the National Arboretum, which is a vast garden with lots of nice trees. Next, we visited the war memorial, which had some very interesting war memorabilia, like a MIG-15, and a P-51 Mustang, which both would have witnessed the theatre of war, and the walls with all the servicemen and women names, that passed away at war.The War Memorial was a definite favorite for many students on the trip.  After this was a drive up to the top of Mount Ainslie, which had a nice view and lines up perfectly with the Parliament Houses, which was amazing to see. Finally, we visited the National Museum, which had some really cool installations, like a steel beam, bent over itself by Cyclone Tracy, some sick surfboards from the Olympics, and one shaped and painted by an Aboriginal shaper, covered in traditional art, and some of the whaling guns from Albany’s whaling station.

Wednesday, 7 August 2024

The first stop for the day was the tour of the Old Parliament House, which was really interesting. The architecture inside blows the doors off new Parliament House, sporting enormous, intricate carved wooden walls within the two Houses and large illustrious chandeliers. Next off was the National Art Gallery. There was some beautiful art hung in the building, but we didn’t stop to look, as we were on a tour, and had to follow along with our guide, who explained to us what she thought the artworks meant. One of the pieces of art - the NGA - is a $75 million Jackson Pollock artwork, that raised many questions about the value and purchasing of Art by the Government. The Botanical Gardens were probably the highlight of my trip. It was absolutely beautiful. There was a long rainforest trail, sunken about 15 feet below ground level, which wound its way approximately 150 feet through an artificial ravine. It felt like stepping from Canberra, into northeast Queensland’s rainforests. We then drove through the embassy district of Canberra, which seemed to go on forever. Interestingly, The United States’ embassy, was built entirely on a foundation of American soil, shipped over expressly for the construction of the embassy. Finally, we visited Canberra’s deep space satellite array, which assisted as the final visual checkpoint for Apollo 11, followed by the satellite in Carnarvon, WA. Here we got to see how we can support the work of NASA by helping them analyse the billions of images they are taking of space by going onto a website and picking a few photos to examine.

Thursday, 8 August 2024

In the morning our first stop was Questacon, which had some fun exhibits like the drop test, and the massive Tesla coil. Next up was the AIS, which had some things from the Olympics, like jerseys, bikes, and surfboards, used in Teahupo’o. They had some interactive things upstairs, such as skiing simulators, and a skeleton sled simulator, which were really fun. Penultimately, we went shopping at Canberra’s Canberra Centre, where some of us got some nice clothes from the skate shop and talked to one of the owners about Canberra’s up and coming skating scene. We went and got some awesome jorts from a surf shop - weird for a place with no waves, right? Finally, we were off to the CIT for a silver service dinner, where we enjoyed cured salmon, and some great duck. Students received awards for fun and positive things they had done during the trip.

Friday, 9 August 2024

We left for Sydney early, arriving around 12 noon. First stop was a quick trip to Bondi Beach. Then we headed off at Mrs. Macquarie’s chair, built for her to watch the inbound ships coming into the harbour, opposite the Opera House, where we walked to for our tour. You can’t appreciate how big it really is until you are standing right next to it. It was a real miracle of Australian design, in my opinion. The sheer magnitude of concrete involved is immense, even more than was required to build the entire Sydney Harbour Bridge. What was probably the best part (for me at least) was Bondi. I was super stoked to see the surf breaks, and also be standing at the place where surfing was introduced to Australia, in 1915 by Duke Kahanamoku. We didn’t get to see it, but the board he shaped while in Sydney is displayed in the Sydney Surf Life Saving Club. Drawing our amazing trip to a close, we got back to Sydney Airport, had dinner, and then flew back to Perth."

Note: We would also like to acknowledge Ashleigh Cove in Year 9, who presented  a talk on the trip to the Wanneroo Rotary Club at their recent meeting. It is great to see students share their learning with the local community.