Diverse Activities

We wrapped up our week in Traralgon with vocational visits and a dinner with the Mirboo North Rotary Club at the Grand Ridge Brewery. This is an active club of about 14 members. They have been very busy with bush fire recovery.
At Morwell Park Primary school I participated in the English as a Second Language program for Sudanese students. I also learnt a great deal from Robyn Cox. She works with aboriginal students and is a curriculum leader.
Jenna was able to meet with the folks at Image Direct to discuss marketing and media technology.



Dolf ended his Victoria parks tour with Tara Bulga National Park. There they put him to work and leaches drew blood!
Shelley accompanied students from the La Trobe Special Developmental School on a field trip to the mall’s food court. She was also exposed to different approaches to occupational therapy at Noah’s Ark Inc in Morwell.

We have had an amazing journey!
A big thank you goes out to everyone involved in this exchange. It has been tremendous.





































Throughout our trip people have shared their experiences with Black Saturday and the terrible bush fires. This week we actually went with a Rotarian and his wife to the burnt remains of their home. Everyone was moved by this couple’s desire to rebuild and move forward.

























We visited Loy Yang Power’s brown coal mining facilities. It has been operating for over 25 years and expects to mine the brown coal for many more years. Shelley and Jenna enjoyed trading their thongs for communal safety boots for this visit.





















Pru, a former GSE team member to Kansas, gave us a tour of Gippsland Aeronautics, which manufactures Air Van airplanes worldwide. The planes are used to transporting goods into remotes areas.










While the team had a visit to Monash University and the educational precinct, Carolyn had an opportunity to visit the Gippsland Multicultural Services Centre in Morwell. This is the only rural multicultural centre in Australia and it is in very capable hands. Lisa, the director of the centre, was inspiring and had a refreshingly realistic perspective on immigration issues in this area.

Our District Farewell Dinner was well attended and it was fantastic to see our friends and hosts again. Many people traveled considerable distances to join us for this farewell dinner. We presented our last Canadian presentation and shared our Australian reflections. It was moving to hear how the trip has affected each team member. We have certainly gelled as a group and although we said good-bye to many friends last night, we are grateful that we still have a few more days together here in Australia.

Wednesday we toured Walhalla and took a vintage train that is run by volunteers. Here we also toured a gold mine that opened in 1865. We joined a Grade 9 communication technology class for this gold mine tour and enjoyed their interesting questions.