Australian Salute

By Sara Rangel

Hello from Kinchega National Park! We arrived here after an hour and a half drive from Broken Hill on Saturday, February 19^th. During our bus drive past the Menindee lakes, we experienced the effects of the recent floods. There were many spots on the road that had been washed over and were now covered in mud, or even in some places still had large water holes covering the pavement! The bus went through a spot of water that was quite deep. We stopped once we got through it and got out to look at the water, which was covering the flood plain as far as the eye could see. Luckily, none of the roads was completely flooded and we were in the trusty hands of Tex, our bus driver, who got us through safely! On a brighter note, we saw many wild emus during the drive as well.

On our way we stopped at the Menindee lakes which are part of the Darling river system. There we were met by Barry Philp, who works on water management at the lakes. We started our tour at Lake Wetheral, where Barry explained the lake systems and how they manage them in times of flooding, such as right now. There is a system of man-made waterways between each of the four main lakes that allows for them to fill and drain each lake from the Darling river when deemed necessary. The largest of the lakes, including lake Menindee itself, were completely bone-dry from 2003 until 2010, but as of right now the system is full beyond capacity. Menindee lake alone contains two times the volume of water than Sydney Harbor right now. It is amazing how much water the floods have dumped into the Murray-Darling river system!

While at Lake Wetheral we climbed up 30 feet to the top of the main weir to catch beautiful views of the waterway. We later learned from a Menindee local that he never was able to go up on top of the main weir and he has lived in Menindee his whole life; and Barry our guide is even his cousin! We were obviously very lucky to get this experience. Since the waterways and lakes have been dry for so long, lots of vegetation has grown in the basins. Now that the floods have filled them, there are many trees and shrubs that have been partially or fully flooded. It is both beautiful and eerie to see so many trees waist-deep in murky-brown flood water!

After that stop we continued on to Lake Menindee, where we stopped for a short while at a nice public access area. Lake Menindee is the source of the local towns water, but it is still public access so boats and jet skis still use it for recreation. We then went to the town of Menindee and had a wonderful lunch at the local pub/restaurant. In between each of our stops, it seemed like everyone on the bus fell straight asleep, even if the ride was short. We were all exhausted!

After lunch we made our last drive over to the Kinchega National Park Sheep Shearing Station. The shearing shed on the property was built in the 1870s, so now it is a historical site within the National Park. During the afternoon we met the national park ranger, Julianne, who is here to help us with our field work projects. These projects are aimed at studying some aspect of the natural flora and fauna around us in this arid desert. We broke up into four groups of four people each, then took time to wander around the property and observe plant life. Our goal was to find a certain plant characteristic that we could ask a question about and later form a hypothesis around. Our guest lecturer for the week, Derek Ball, explained to us the idea of the scientific method, which delineates exactly how to go about field research. Though I am sure this was a repeat lesson for all the science majors on the trip, it was nice for us humanities majors who feel completely out of their element! Once we decided on our project topics we made a list of our methods for executing those tests. After that we were done with academics for the day!

We had a wonderful dinner prepared for us by a group of locals from the town of Menindee. It seems on this trip that whenever we are in the most remote of areas, we get the best food! For the rest of the night we hung out. Some people threw around a frisbee, which is a common pastime with this group! The sunset was amazing, it looked unreal. Many people took a walk out along the dirt road during the sunset to catch a glimpse of wildlife. There were heaps of red kangaroos all over the vast desert plains. It felt amazing to be in the outback, during the most beautiful sunset, hanging with the largest kangaroos in Australia. Really a wonderful experience! I feel so lucky to be here!

The next day we got up bright and early to start on our field research observations! For the first half of the day each group went to its specific observation site and began working. Ryan, Anna-Brook, Emily and Katie studied the Black Box Eucalypt to see if its proximity to the flood plain had any correlation to the trunk size. Kathryn, Dick, Jared and Marni compared the size and height of the Blue Bush plant in the red sand and the grey clay. Rebecca, John, Hanah and Alison studied the density of shrubs around trees. Delaney, Drew, Melanie and I studied the competitiveness of the onion weed and the velvet tobacco to other plants. Everyone seemed to have a fun time going out into the bush and collecting all of our data, despite the flies. The flies here in Australia are absolutely obnoxious;  they are everywhere and I am positive that their only job is to annoy us! We were told by Nat that Australians call the action of swatting a fly away from your face with your hand the Australian salute because it is done so often here. All day long we seemed to battle the flies with our Australian salutes, but the flies still won every time. We must have looked pretty patriotic though!

After we collected our data we made presentations based on our results. Later on in the afternoon we started brainstorming for our second project, which was to study animal behavior. After the project planning we all hung around, ate dinner and had some free time. One of the Uncles from Wollombi surprised us and showed up at our camp that afternoon. It was great to see him!  During sunset we all went on a walk out to the open bush. We saw lots of kangaroos, and of course a breathtaking sunset which touched a full range of emotions! It was so relaxing to be in the middle of nowhere, with no worries, surrounded by a great group of people.

Drive to Menindee and Kinchega National Park. Flood waters everywhere!

Bus on partially flooded road!

Stopped to take picture of flood waters

The group on top of the main weir at Lake Wetheral

The main weir at Lake Wetheral

Sunset at Kinchega National Park

Group sunset walk

Where the bloody hell are we?

By Allison Perry

While studying here in Australia, I have made it my own personal mission to create an all-inclusive list of slang words unique to Australia.  During our week at Aboriginal camp, I added more words to my list than ever before.  Words like mob, meaning a group or family group, and yarn, the Australian equivalent to shooting the shed, were taught to us by our aunties and uncles during the camp.  However, my favorite words that we learned were not Australian slang, but rather Wiradjuri.  Bingi and mingaan are the Wiradjuri words for brother and sister, because even if we gained nothing else throughout that week, we all definitely became brothers and sisters.

After many tears were shed and hugs were given, we left Wollombi—but what we left was not nearly as important as what we left with.  It wasn’t until our last few hours at camp that we realized our time there had really touched a full range of emotions.  Constantly being challenged and always learning, even from our very first minutes at camp, forced us to step out of our comfort zone and become much more flexible.  By the end we felt closer to one another—can you say triple bunk beds?—and more importantly we got to know ourselves a little better.  But don’t forget about the learning (because trust me, we learned). We became sponges and soaked up as much as possible about music, dance, native plant use, lore, astronomy, sustainability with the land, bush medicine, and language.  However, that list did not begin to cover what we learned through a simple yarn or a dip in the river.   We learned a little about what it’s like to be a modern Aboriginal Australian and especially how important family and one’s mob are.

Drew and Emily learning the lightning dance from Uncle Wayne while at Aboriginal camp.

Our wonderful aunties and uncles, who were our teachers throughout the week.

One of our leaders, Philip, brought up an idea that, even a week and a half later, I cannot stop thinking about.  The idea was that despite everything our Aboriginal aunties and uncles have gone through, including loss of access to their sacred lands, racism, and neglect, they are still very fortunate because they have their culture.  This is something that I think we whitefellas need; they have everything that we are lacking, from a sense of solidarity with their people to the implementation of the phrase "it takes a village to raise a child."  By the end of the week, I felt a twinge of jealousy that our aunties and uncles would continue to live with the ideals and customs that we had a mere taste of for the week and we would head back to our western ways.  A stronger sense of family, history, and shared cultural practices is something I wish we had a little more of.

And so we left.  Two hours later, we were right back into the hustle and bustle of Sydney.  We arrived at a hotel smack in the middle of the city, which left at least some of us feeling something close to culture shock.  As soon as we got into the lobby of the hotel, our strings were cut for our first week off for independent study.  We were left with our stipend, hotel room keys and instructions to follow our cardinal rule of the trip, which is to not die. I am happy to report that we were all able to successfully follow that rule.

For the week off, our group scattered all over Australia.  A large faction went off to explore what Melbourne had to offer.  While there, some went to the music festival Good Vibrations, saw an Australian Rules football game, and basically got to know the capital city of Victoria.  Emily and Sara went to visit one of Australia’s most iconic places: Uluru.  They learned all about the famed rock from both the Aboriginal and white perspective, took in the oppressive central Australian heat, and got to add a dingo to our list of wildlife sightings.  Marni spent her week being productive while in Sydney, working to edit her upcoming novel.  Melanie also spent the week working on her independent project by visiting Bundanoon, a town outside of Sydney that has banned the sale of plastic water bottles.  She interviewed a city council member who was a pivotal player in making that happen.

Our meeting point after our independent week was in Adelaide, South Australia.  Because some of us were in Adelaide for just one night, we were unable to really get to know it.  However we did find out that Adelaide is in a different time zone than the east coast of Australia—a thirty minute difference. This difference is bizarre and completely off-putting; I didn’t even know there could be time differences in increments less than an hour.   Despite this confusing quirk, our whole group managed to make it on time to the rendezvous point.  We then set off for Broken Hill, a small mining town north-east of Adelaide, and back in New South Wales.

As we drove I became increasingly happy watching the landscape change from city to bush.  I have recently found that many of my favorite experiences thus far on the trip have taken place when we are away from major civilization, and I got really excited when we drove away from all of the big buildings and traffic.  Along the way we were lucky enough to see wild emus, or ‘dinawan’ as we called them at Aboriginal camp.  Eight hours, two movies and several country towns later we made it to Broken Hill.  Contrary to its name, Broken Hill is actually a very cute place.  We explored a little before dinner, found out that there really is not that much more to the town than a main street, and ate dinner.  After a long day of riding in the bus, we were all in the mood for a relaxing evening.  It’s incredible how doing nothing will wear you out.

We woke up bright and early the next morning and started off our day by heading out to The Living Desert Wildlife Center just outside of Broken Hill.  We were met by Mark Sutto, a ranger and local Aboriginal expert who told us about the local people, who call themselves Danggali or Barkindji.  While at Aboriginal camp, we were taught all about skin groups or moieties, which in essence are large family groups.  We learned about and became members of the different skin groups: Ipai, Kumba, Cubby and Mauri.  However, at the nature preserve we learned about the two different skin groups of this particular region, the Kilpara and Makwara.  These skin groups help with the management and protection of their totem, or guardian species.  Because moieties are charged with knowing everything about and watching over their totems, they manage hunting, fishing and harvesting practices of their totems.  These methods seem to be the Aboriginal equivalent to modern conservationism.

One of the rock sculptures present at the Living Desert Wildlife Center.

Mark talking to us about Aboriginal shelters or ‘kurli,’ made out of Cyprus pine trees.

Despite their efforts, the landscape of this region has undergone dramatic changes throughout the past 200 years.  When minerals were found beneath the surface during European colonization, trees were cut down at the astonishing rate of 1000 tons per day, changing the landscape forever.  The trees have never re-grown, and now low-lying shrubs are the major ground cover in the region. 

Our next stop of the day was Penrose Park in Silverton, a little town northwest of Broken Hill. We ate a quick lunch and then went to the Silverton Hotel and Pub, where for a small fee of two dollars you can take a “test” and become a member of the Silverton Hotel for life.  Our fearless leader Nat took the challenge and passed with flying colors. (PICTURE)  Looking around the tiny town, I caught myself wondering: where the bloody hell are we?

A lunch break is not the same without a playground—this is the one we found at Penrose Park.  

Nat “taking her test,” first by balancing a potato on her forehead, then by rolling the potato into the funnel in her lap. (Photo credit to Anna-Brooke Gutzler)

Where the bloody hell are we? The view from Silverton.  

We then moved onto The Pro Hart Gallery.  Kevin ‘Pro’ Hart is one of Australia’s most famous artists, and he was originally from a town just outside of Broken Hill. The art was beautiful. If any of you back home are interested in finding out a little more about Pro, he also starred in several DuPont stainmaster carpet commercials.  They’re pretty entertaining and here is a link to one of them: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qb4n8yc2so.

Our final stop of the afternoon was at the Royal Flying Doctor Service airfield and museum.  The Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) is an amazing organization that provides medical attention to people in remote locations across Australia. This institution has been around for 83 years, with their first flight taking place on May 17, 1928.  Each year RFDS flies a distance equivalent to seven trips to the moon and back, and last year the Broken Hill location assisted in 432 emergencies.  Not only does RFDS provide emergency attention, they also travel to remote locations and host clinics to perform routine check-ups. While at the airfield and museum we took a quick tour, watched a movie and checked out the museum. I found this organization to be unbelievably cool because they provide aid to places that would otherwise have no options to get help.  With a country so large I cannot imagine how scary it is to need medical assistance in almost complete isolation.

The Royal Flying Doctor Services airplane hangar.

After a quick dinner and relaxation break, we continued our marathon day by having a lecture about the Murray-Darling River system.  Brian Stevens gave us a ton of background information on how dramatically droughts and heavy rains affect the Darling River system.  Due to the lack of rainfall in 2003, Broken Hill was three weeks away from completely running out of water.  I thought this statistic was particularly striking because water is something I know I take for granted.

I am definitely looking forward to spending the next few days out in the bush and disconnecting from the outside world for a little while. That’s all for now, but rest assured we mingaan and bingi are having the time of our lives.

Keeping an Open Mind

Note: Portions concerning our experience at Aboriginal immersion camp have been removed from this post. Why? We don't want to diminish the experience of next year's program participants by giving away what's best discovered with a fresh and open mind. For this reason, we have decided not to post anything else concerning Aboriginal camp, which ended up being a very intense and personal experience for all of us. We hope you understand.

--Andy Bernstein, program leader

By Drew Hubbard

It is time for yet another blog post for all the family and friends to read. Just for reassurance, we have all been good students and followed the most important rule, which is not to die; for anyone who is concerned, no crocodile death rolls or poisonous snakebites have occurred. Hooray! We have all learned that, as in any land, if you respect and are aware of your surroundings, then you will be just fine. We have also followed the second most important rule, which is to learn. I believe I speak for everyone when I say it is easy to learn here. Not only does the beauty of the country and the climate make learning all the more enjoyable, but the classes are also absolutely amazing and full of so much information we never would have been able to experience in the states. This combination has made this experience already surpass any of our expectations, which we are all very thankful for. Thanks moms and dads!

The most recent educational lecture was on Feb 4^th by Dr. Adam Shoemaker, a professor and Deputy Vice Chancellor at Monash University. Our fearless leader Nat explained to us how privileged we were to receive this lecture. She was spot on, as it was extremely fascinating. Dr. Shoemaker has been working with this program doing this lecture for more than 20 years out of the pure love and passion he has for the subject. He has enough passion for teaching this subject that he actually flew down for the morning just to do this particular lecture, even though he had to be back in the afternoon. He started things off by asking a seemingly simple question that pulled a deep discussion out of our group. That question was, “What is Australian literature?” This brought up other confusing questions, such as whether an “Australian” writer had to be a citizen from Australia living in Australia or could be someone who was an Australian citizen but lived in another country. A good example he brought up was a famous Australian author Thomas Keneally, who has written many Australian-based books, but his best-selling book was Schindler’s List, which had nothing to do with Australia. Is this Australian literature? I guess the complexity is what makes this topic so exciting. Another writer, Peter Carey, is an Australian citizen who writes about Australia from New York. I guess there is an element of what writers claim to be which makes them an Australian writer of Australian literature. We then explored the history of Australian literature over time.

Of course, the first Australian “literature” comes from the Aboriginal peoples. Their stories were carried on through oral tradition as well as art found on natural surfaces of rock and tree bark, but they did not develop a written language or history. Much of this was composed in order to tell stories as well as pass on the knowledge that the elders knew of creation and the natural world that surrounded them. We then learned about literature as it progressed after the settlement of the British.

Late 18^th century and early 19^th century literature consisted mainly of shipboard diaries and letters from the convicts coming over to settle Australia. This type of literature was full of writing that aimed to make sense of the unfamiliarity surrounding them and stylistically often resembled British literature. From the mid-19^th century, literature increasingly contained a sense of pride in being different from the homeland. Much of it was strongly influenced by the land, which can be seen through poetry known as Bush ballads depicting the “true” Australia. The 1890’s brought two of Australia’s most famous poets, Henry Lawson and AB ‘Banjo’ Patterson, who depicted the environment and hard work in the bush. Their work was so influential in establishing an Australian identity that the late Henry Lawson received a state funeral in which the state premier read his eulogy. During the 20^th century, literature was strongly influenced by Federation (in 1901 the Australian colonies established a federal government) and war. We then went into how Aboriginal literature evolved through these times.

Aboriginal literature during the 20^th century was very dynamic. David Unaipon was a writer who sent his material to the first major magazine in Australia, the Bulletin. He was a very influential political figure, and the Bulletin put his writings together into a book. Unfortunately, Unaipon had gone traveling for nearly a year in western Australia when the Bulletin wrote to him to get permission to publish his work, so he didn’t respond to the letter that the publisher had sent. William Ramsay Smith took advantage of this and bought the publishing rights and published the book under his name. Sadly, this did not break any rules. Eventually after many years Unaipon’s family acquired the rights to the book and published it in the original version that was intended. This was an extremely interesting lecture about literature, and that is coming from a science major.

The rest of our last day in Sydney was full of busy packing and shipping out large amounts of excess clothes brought with a much colder climate in mind. I mean really, why in the world did I decide to bring over 4 pairs of blue jeans? I know for a fact I’m not the only one! This day was particularly tiring because of the combination of packing as well as the intense heat of the day. I have to say, I have never sweated so much while packing in my life. And for that matter, I have never sweated so much doing nothing at all. A good night’s sleep involves falling asleep covered in sweat, waking up covered in sweat, and sweating immediately after the morning shower. Although I really can’t complain too much; I’m writing this from Australia, while the majority of you are reading this having to deal with cold weather. I don’t miss the Oregon weather one bit and I hope you’re enjoying it! As the night drew to a close, it was clear that the weather had gotten to us all, and we just wanted to go to bed early and get ready for our journey the following morning.

After the last sweaty night of sleep in Sydney, we all woke early in the morning and set off toward Aboriginal immersion camp in a bus. As the bus drove over the harbor bridge, we said goodbye to the city we finally understood well enough to give directions to lost tourists on the streets. I have to say that it is always a good feeling to give directions to someone in an area that 3 weeks ago seemed like a different planet.

That feeling of being on a different planet soon returned the moment we were dropped off the bus for the Aboriginal immersion camp. . . . We were asked to walk behind them in a single file line until we arrived at a circular dirt ring used for ceremonial purposes. Here we were told the importance of using smoke from a fire to purify ourselves, so we all took turns kneeling before the fire and prepared our minds and hearts to learn from the uncles and aunties at camp. This whole experience of entering someone else’s country and following the rules was already teaching us their ways.

Uncle Paul and Uncle Wayne then taught us the 6 L’s in their culture: Lore, love, look, listen, learn and lead. Lore, in short, is the idea of the dreaming or creation and how knowledge surrounding it has been passed through generations over time. It means the stories for everything in the nature that surrounds us as well as the laws that indigenous peoples must abide by. Once you begin to know these things as you are taught in their culture, you begin to love them. It is through looking and listening that you learn, and if you learn enough and understand Lore then you will become a leader. This is a person who is chosen to pass on the knowledge as a knowledge-keeper. These are the people, such as Uncle Paul, to whom you must pay respect, because they hold the knowledge that has been passed down for thousands of years. After this introductory lecture, we were then placed into separate Aboriginal groups that were to be our “mobs.” We were then each given a plot of country to which we belonged. We learned that the land does not belong to us, but we belong to the land because it gives us everything we need. We then were given time to explore our country and to understand the animals and the plants within it. . . .

Nothing is as simple as it seems because everything in their culture has a specific purpose and story. This has been such a beautiful learning experience, and being immersed in such a rich culture has made it hard to describe in words. We are being taught the ways of their culture, which is over 200,000 years old. To me, this is something so beautiful that I can humbly say my words do not grasp it one bit. I am very sorry for the length of my blog, but I think some things such as this shouldn’t be explained vaguely. To all of you caring friends and family at home, know that we are learning and having an experience that none of us could fathom before we came. I guess it’s time to go to bed because everyone is covered in lots of bugs! Wish us luck and maybe that way we won’t get eaten by all of the bugs in camp.

Favorite quote from my leader Uncle John: “For every great man, there is an even greater woman behind him.”

I apologize for the lack of pictures, but the last day of Sydney no particular photos were taken of worthy note. The first day of Aboriginal immersion camp no photos were taken because we were all unsure of how they would take that.

Back from Aboriginal camp

Dear family and friends,

Yesterday we arrived back in Sydney after spending five days at Aboriginal camp.  Today is the start of independent travel week, so we're off to various locales.

Because we didn't have an internet connection at camp, we've fallen a bit behind on the blogging, but we'll catch up over the next couple of days.  On that note, please read Anna-Brooke's post below!

Cheers,

Andy Bernstein, program leader

Walking Sydney

By Anna-Brooke Gutzler

Dear Readers,

During the past few days many questions were raised. For instance, how did Sydney change over time? What is a Wooloomooloo? How come Internet in Australia is so expensive? What makes a film Australian? And of course, Why is it so HOT?! Most of these questions were answered, not only from our wonderful lecturers, but also from our very own peers during our student directed Sydney walking tours.

Tuesday morning, we welcomed Marc Brennan to our classroom for an introduction to Australian media. A synthesis of the British style broadcasting and the American model, Australian media emphasizes state sponsored television and radio while being defined by privatized media entities, especially press. Something I found interesting was that in some rural areas, community radio is the only available media outlet. Australia also relies on imported American TV shows and movies as the country lacks the infrastructure provided in America by Hollywood. For instance, as many of us have found out, you can watch all your favorite shows, like How I Met Your Mother, or least favorite shows, like Vampire Diaries, on some of the private channels. They are usually, however, a season or two behind. The focus of our discussion was the relationship between media and society and the effects consumption of the media has on Australian's national identity. Apparently, there is an enormous push for purely Australian productions, especially in the film industry. As Greg Dolgopolov discussed Thursday morning, many Australian films are subsidized by the government on the premise that they portray purely Australian stories. As we found, though, identifying a purely Australian movie is complicated. Finding Nemo, for example, is set in beautiful Sydney harbor and employed many Australian actors, but this movie is not considered Australian. On the other hand, Happy Feet, set in a landscape not found on the Australian continent and employing mostly American actors, was produced here in Sydney and therefore is classified as Australian. One movie that is without a doubt an Australian film, however, is Rolf de Heer's 2006 Ten Canoes. I recommend this movie as a great example of uniquely Australian, cross-cultural film.

After our lecture on Tuesday morning, the afternoon was devoted to our group neighborhood projects. During the past few weeks, in groups of four, we have been researching the history and present conditions of neighborhoods throughout Sydney. Through web site archives and trips to our different regions of Redfern, the Rocks, Wooloomooloo and Bondi Beach, each group was able to piece together the unique histories of our neighborhoods. We began our tours with classroom presentations Tuesday afternoon, describing our findings with the help of old photographs, maps and time lines. After our presentations on Tuesday and on Wednesday morning, each group conducted its own walking tour of their neighborhoods.

Redfern, an area defined by “chain migration” of Indigenous Australians in the 1940s and racism against them, boasted murals speaking to the social injustice as well as the pride of the community. Our peer leaders led us to the train station which at one time employed Indigenous Australians in workshops and offered English classes to any willing to learn. We were also shown the Redfern Health Centre where many would go to avoid racist medical practices as well as the WW1 memorial park where the 1992 Redfern Address was delivered. The speech, in which Prime Minister Paul Keating claimed responsibility for all European abuse towards Indigenous Australians, is considered one of the most unforgettable speeches in Australia.

The next neighborhood, the Rocks, is considered the birthplace of Australia as this was the first place of settlement by convicts who disembarked from  the First Fleet in 1788. While the indigenous Cadigal people who were actually the first to settle the land called this area Tallawoladah, the English convicts named it the Rocks due to the sandstone cliffs from which they eventually derived building material. The area started out as a site for convict labor and settlement (there was no jail for the convicts as imprisonment was not a term sentence, “only transportation”), though during Governor Macquarie's term, from 1810 to 1822, the neighborhood was marked by rapid expansion into a commercial hub. Throughout the years, the Rocks was also defined by the working class residents who lived in terrace style housing. The peer group lead us to Susannah Place Museum, which is an icon of the neighborhood's working class heritage as the restored homes survived demolition during the 1900 plague outbreak. Also, during the 1970s, residents worked together with unions to fight redevelopment and thus succeeded in preserving many historic buildings across Sydney. The Rocks is now a popular tourist destination just west of the Sydney Opera House.

Another area that escaped much redevelopment into massive housing complexes thanks to the opposition of residents and unions was Wooloomooloo. Difficult to pronounce but rich in history, this area was once a swampy mud flat. As our tour guides uncovered, the area has been continuously transformed since its founding as a farm in 1790 by waves of immigration, industrialization, and gentrification. What is most fascinating about the neighborhood is that one may walk a few blocks north from the murals depicting civil rights heroes on the viaduct under which many homeless are camped to the Finger Wharf, where affluent Australians, including movie star Russell Crowe, have taken residence in the converted shipping terminal. To the northeast of the Finger Wharf, the naval base at Potts Point can be seen, its enormous naval ships docked nearby. The naval base, which belonged to the British until 1911, prides itself on having the largest dry dock in the Southern Hemisphere, and therefore played an important role in many of Australia's wars.

Via bus, we were transported to the most anticipated neighborhood, Bondi Beach. Our hosts highlighted the Waverley Council headquarters, responsible for keeping order in the area around the time the Bondi Beach became available to the public in 1861. We were also led to the historic site of the Chinese flower market, a central point of the community since the late 1800s. The most prominent aspect of the tour, however, was the Bondi Surf Bathers' Life Saving Club. Established in 1907 in Bondi, the club was the first of its kind and remains a volunteer based organization, as well as Australian icon.

By the end of the tour, the temperature was over 90 degrees F, so many of us were ready to cool off in the crystal clear water and relax in the soft sand. It had been a long, hot day, but not long or hot enough to keep us from enjoying the beautiful Australian Shore.

This picture, taken by Melanie in Redfern, is of the flag representing Indigenous Australians designed by Harold Thomas in 1971.

Dick points out the Argyle Cut in the Rocks. The "Cut" is a passage through the sandstone originally created by hand using convict labor in 1843, completed in 1855.

Our group pauses in the shade in Wooloomooloo across from where the fish market once stood.

John explains the history of the Pott's Point naval base across the harbor. The crane in the background is the base's dry dock, the largest dry dock in the Southern Hemisphere.

The Bondi tour guides pose in front of the beautiful beach.

Unplugged

Hello blog followers,

Just wanted to let you know that you won't see another post for the next seven days because tomorrow morning we're headed to an Aboriginal camp where there's no internet access.

Cheers,

Andy Bernstein, program leader

A Trip to the Loo

by Hanah Goldov

Greetings from sunny Sydney,

As we are well into our third week here in Australia, I feel that I can say with some confidence that we are all starting to get into the rhythm of Sydney life. This past weekend we had three free days, which were full of many new experiences. However, much of this time was spent working on our independent projects.

Throughout the semester, each of us will be doing individual research on a topic of our choice that addresses people and their relationship to the environment. Because all of us come from different backgrounds and are interested in different things, the variety of topics is extensive. Some people have chosen to take a physical sciences approach, while others have elected more of a humanities or social sciences approach. On Friday, we spent some time all together discussing our projects, and many interesting questions were brought up.

Here are a few examples of project topics: Emily will study how human relationships with whales have changed through Australian history. Whaling has been very popular in past years, although I found it interesting that whales are nowadays more profitable alive than dead due to the tourism of whale watching. Other people hope to take more of a biological approach; Katy will study the epidemiology of skin cancer and how the social practices of skin care have impacted today’s statistics on skin cancer. Jared will look at the introduction of invasive species and their impact on Australia. Rebecca will study the ecological and social implications of logging in Tasmania. Some members of our group want to focus on the indigenous populations of Australia; Aboriginal people are often stereotyped as having poor health, and Allison will study how diet and environment directly affect diseases in indigenous populations. Delaney will learn how the environment is depicted through contemporary Aboriginal art. The floods in Brisbane have also brought up some interesting topics; John is going to study the effectiveness of the social response and recovery with regards to the floods. For my project I will try to understand how the built environment has been adapted to Australia’s harsh and varied climate. For example, I have learned about one opal-mining town called Coober Pedy whose residents live almost entirely underground in converted mining shafts due to unbearable daytime temperatures.

This is a church in the mining town of Coober Pedy.
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Everybody’s project is fascinating and I look forward to hearing the final presentations. Most of all, what this weekend showed us is that there are many ways to approach our chosen topic and we all have a lot of work ahead of us. In the end we will hopefully have gained an understanding of how people relate to their environment in Australia.

Speaking of the environment, on Friday night many of us had our first big spider sighting! We saw a Huntsman spider in the lounge room at the Arundel house. Huntsman spiders, which are also called Giant Crab spiders because of their large size (the one we spotted was about as big as the palm of a hand), are not poisonous and are commonly found in homes and buildings. As adults they do not build webs, but rather hunt and forage for food. One startling thing about these spiders, which we learned first hand, is that they are able to travel extremely fast, often using a springing jump while running. They also tend to cling onto things if they are picked up, which makes them very hard to shake off (luckily none of us had to experience this). Seeing the spider spring towards me, with all eight legs and ready to pounce, touched a full range of emotions.

Here is the Huntsman spider in the Arundel House.

Allison Perry

In addition to our independent project we are also doing group projects about neighborhoods in Sydney. Each group will be giving a walking tour of a Sydney neighborhood later this week; during the weekend many of us prepared our tour. My group visited our neighborhood, Woolloomooloo (which is often just referred to as “The Loo”). The Loo is located along the Sydney Harbor and is one of the first places that was settled when Europeans first came to Australia in 1788. Woolloomooloo (which could get its unique name from Wallabahmullah, an Aboriginal name for a young black kangaroo) has gone through many phases as a working class suburb, but recent gentrification has made it into a very affluent part of Sydney. The Loo’s main attraction is the Finger Wharf, which is in the Guinness Book of World Records as the biggest wooden structure in the world. The Wharf was once used as a deployment point for troops joining the World Wars but today it has over 300 apartments, a hotel and many very high-class restaurants. The famous Australian actor and musician Russell Crowe lives at the end of the Wharf in a $14 million penthouse.

This is the Finger Wharf in Woolloomooloo.
Hanah Goldov

Here is the "Loo” in a sign for Woolloomooloo.

Hanah Goldov

On Monday we visited the Australian Museum and the Art Gallery of New South Wales. At the museum we spent a couple hours in the Indigenous Australians exhibit, which was put together with the help of many Aboriginal people. When we first walked in, there was a sign directed towards Aboriginal people that warned them that there might be content that would upset and offend them. Any museum that depicts stories of deceased indigenous people must put up this sign because in Aboriginal culture it is disrespectful to talk about people who have passed away. The exhibit focused on themes of spirituality, culture, heritage, the land, family, health and social justice. It covered Aboriginal art and history from before Europeans arrived to the present day. Because Aboriginal culture is so distinct from my own, I found it difficult to fully grasp the concepts and stories that were told.

One interesting thing about the art was that much of it depicted themes of European culture and Christianity through traditional Aboriginal styles. Although the presence of missionaries in Aboriginal communities often changed and contributed to the suppression of Aboriginal culture, we learned that some Aboriginal people adopted Christian beliefs and truly made them their own, despite the history of coercion. Mostly what all of this art showed us is that it is very difficult to define what is Aboriginal art. Aboriginal art can be classical Aboriginal designs created by native people but can also be created by non-native people. Sometimes Aboriginal art is created for a more utilitarian purpose, to tell a story or as a weapon, while other times it can be created for solely viewing purposes. There were also periods of time when indigenous people were forced to create art for European intentions. Is this also Aboriginal art?

At the Art Gallery of New South Wales we were given a tour of the Aboriginal art gallery. We saw indigenous art created traditionally on tree bark, using ochre as paint. Shades of red, yellow and brown were common in these paintings. They had many themes of animals and landscape and always told a story. At the gallery we also saw contemporary Aboriginal art on stretched canvas using acrylic paint and varied bright colors. This art is equally as “Aboriginal” as the more traditional-looking art and conveys many of the same messages. No matter how it is presented, Aboriginal art serves many different functions and is often used to pass on messages from generation to generation.

The last few days have been amazing. We have learned a lot and still found some time to spend lounging at Manly Beach in this hot, sunny weather.

Here are Emily, Ryan, John and me at Manly Beach.

Melanie Frank