Questacon Electoral Education Centre Australian War Memorial CSIRO Parliament house Australian Institute of Sport Old Parliament house Art Gallery National Museum

BUS TRIP TO CANBERRA It’s so exciting! Finally it was camp! I got to school at 6:30, and there was already a couple of people there. I was relieved. I had been worrying that I would be late. We left at 7:00, and I was on the small bus. There were two buses: the small bus (the one I was on) and the double-decker bus. Luckily I was with my friends on the bus. The trip was very long, 9 and a half hours! First I sat next to Maria at the front, because she got bus-sick, then I sat next to Amy. We had a couple of breaks, two for Snack and Lunch, and the others for toilet breaks. On one of the toilet breaks we saw the Dog On The Tuckerbox. It was very interesting. Finally we reached the campsite.

We went into a room, where we got introduced to the camp managers and helpers. We got told where our cabins were, and I was with Keira, Amy and Maria. There were ovals, birds, and even many kangaroos! Supper there was really nice. It was wedges and fish.

After the long drive, everyone hopped on the bus (again) we went to the Electoral Education Centre. We learnt about voting and did lots of fun activities. First we split up into groups. My group and I first watched a little movie that explained about many things. Watching the movie, I learnt lots of things I hadn’t known before. For our second activity, we went into a room and did activity sheets. We answered the questions, using information written on the walls. Some were on the computers placed around the room. We spent about half a hour there. Then we went into a fake room and we all did fake ballot papers. The options were: Peach, Banana, Apple and Orange. I voted for Orange, but Peach won.

After we left the Electoral Education Centre, we once again split into groups and went to the Old Parliament House. We had to wear gloves because everything there was very old. We went to the old Senate room and the House of Representatives. We learnt lots about how they worked back then and we had lots of fun.

At the AIS, we once again got into our activity groups. We got little name tags and a pen. We got shown around the entire AIS. It was huge! We saw a 50 metre swimming pool, an exercising area, and gymnasts training. The gymnasts were very young. After that we went to the shop, but I didn’t buy anything. Then we even did a few sports ourselves! One of my favourites was Dodge ball.

After we left the Electoral Education Centre, we once again split into groups and went to the Old Parliament House. We had to wear gloves because everything there was very old. We went to the old Senate room and the House of Representatives. We learnt lots about how they worked back then and we had lots of fun.

At the War Memorial, a man talked to us about the war. He had been in it, and he told us about his experience there. War training didn’t seem as bad as I thought it would be. Then we went into a huge room. It had 6, tiles in it, and we had a minute of silence, mourning an unknown Australian soldier. When you spoke, or even coughed, it echoed around the room. It felt sort of creepy, in that room. Then we went outside again and looked at the walls, they had the names of dead soldiers written on the walls, and poppies in the middle.

At CSIRO, we first saw a small movie about what CSIRO did. They were all about science. Our guide showed us around CSIRO, and while we did that, we saw lots of amazing places. We went into a lab and experimented. We even wore white lab coats like real scientists! Then we went to another room which contained loads of stick-insects. There were ones small than my little finger, and ones that were bigger than my whole hand! There were also little tiny mice that were very cute.

At Questacon we went to heaps of different rooms. All of them were about science, but different types of science. We had heaps of fun in all of them, but I especially liked going on the Drop Slide. It felt like your stomach was in your throat, and it was REALLY fun! We also went to the shop after we had had fun in the rooms, and I bought most of my stuff there. I bought a giant spring, a toy kookaburra, and a weird ball. It was so fun!

At Parliament house, it felt really freaky! I couldn’t believe I was actually here, in Parliament House. We saw the new Senate and the House of Representatives. They were much bigger than the ones in Old Parliament House. Unfortunately, we didn’t see Kevin Rudd there, but it was still really fun. We had some biscuits and juice there, as well. We did a small play about having a small debate. Lachlan was the Speaker. It was funny watching the people dress up in strange clothes.

We went way up to Telstra Tower! Even though we were so high up, I didn’t feel scared. We went at night, and I’m glad we did. It looked great when you looked down at Canberra, because all the lights were on, and it looked really pretty. It was windy, but not cold. It was a great experience for me. Telstra tower is m!

At the National Museum of Australia, we did lots of fun things. We learnt lots about how Canberra was found and why it became the capital city of Australia. We went into a room and watched a movie. The room revolved around and we watched the same movie in three different rooms. We also went to K-SPACE. In K-SPACE, we first took photos of each other. Then we went on interactive computers and designed our own machines. After we did that, we watched a movie that showed all our designs. It was really fun!

Now we were going home, to Melbourne! First I sat next to Keira. We talked to each other while watching the movie that was on. We had only a couple of breaks this time. About 2 toilet breaks, and a snack and lunch break. Earlier in the day we had made our lunch, and it tasted so delicious! Finally, after 10 hours, we reached Syndal South PS. Everyone was so excited when they saw the school. Mum picked me up, and it took such a long time to get my bag out of that mess. Everyone had SO MUCH FUN!