SENIOR SCHOOL
Service Learning Tour
The Guildford Grammar School Kimberley
tour, led by Alison Lang, Andrew Beck and
myself, took place over the April school
holidays. This service tour was run in
conjunction with Rustic Pathways.
This inaugural event saw students enjoying
time out and about in the Kimberly region
including Kununurra, The Bungle Bungles, El
Questro and Glen Hill Station. They not only
had the chance to explore their stunning
country and learn more about its culture, but
give something back by engaging in service
work with the local communities.
The trip was brought about by a desire for
our students to see and understand some
of the disadvantages faced by people right
here in Australia. Often when we think of
community service tours, we think about trips
overseas to Asia or Africa. However, we have
communities that face great disadvantage
within our own state. We wanted the
students to have an appreciation of this, and
understand that there was something they
can do about it. The tour lasted 13 days, and
was an opportunity for the students to see
some beautiful scenery and interact with the
local people of the area.
The first stop was to Jungdranung School
at Glen Hill Station among the Mandangala
Community. This remote school has varying
attendance levels that so far this year has
varied from 15 students to 3 over the
course of a term. The school services a small
community that can be transient. Due to the
mobile nature of the community there are
only two people currently running the school,
Sue the Principal and Gary her husband,
who acts as a grounds keeper. There is a
considerable amount of work to do and they
are responsible for all of it!
During the dry season there are around
30,000 ground based visitors every year,
and the rangers have to complete an
unimaginable amount of work to make sure
that Purnululu National Park is prepared. Our
students worked closely with the rangers to
help with that preparation. The boys cleared
paths and tracks, picnic areas, and removed
invasive weeds from natural vegetation. The
boys left with a much healthier respect of the
work needed to keep areas like this tourist
While out at Glen Hill we were able to lend
a hand with some of the work that needed
to be done on the school grounds. The boys
helped fix garden beds, clean classrooms,
organise the library, and plant trees. The
students managed to achieve a great deal
in four hours, which would have taken the
employees of Jundranung the rest of the
holidays.
From Glen Hill we travelled out to the Bungle
Bungles. Here the boys were able to take in
some of the spectacular and awe inspiring
scenery of the Kimberley region. They were
able to visit some of the amazing gorges,
such as Cathedral Gorge and reflect on their
experiences so far.
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springs and see work performed on the
cattle station. The boys enjoyed the gorges,
particularly being able to swim and jump off
the rocks into the beautiful pools of water. A
particularly enjoyed experience was going to
the natural hot springs in the morning and
being able to relax in the hot water before
the day really began. The staff also enjoyed
the chance to drink proper coffee again!
Finally, we headed back to Kununurra. It
was here that we had a chance to work with
the more socially disadvantaged people in
the area. Working with Save the Children,
the boys helped with organising a BBQ and
supervising swimming and other activities at
the river. The boy’s life guarded, cooked and
played games with children from the ages of
5 to 15. Here the boys had a chance to talk
to some of the locals and came away from
the experience with a better appreciation of
some of the issues faced by local kids their
own age. The next day they worked with
Save the Children again to run a football
game. This was attended by kids of various
ages. The boys played a long game of
football in 40-degree heat, and conducted
themselves well despite being hot and
exhausted. They got to know some more of
the local kids, and some of them even tried
to jump in the car to travel home with us!
friendly, with one of the boys commenting
that he did not realise that paths and roads
needed to be cleared at all and that they
stayed like that year round!
As a conclusion to our trip the boys visited
Lake Argyle, and did a scenic cruise. It was
the perfect way to end a pretty amazing trip
and gave us all the time to reflect on what
we had seen, heard and participated in over
the course of the last 13 days.
Next was El Questro Station. Here the boys
had a chance to fish, hike, relax in the hot
Ms Selinna Forward
Director, Service Learning