Enjoy reading the day-to-day itinerary of the Year 10 Winton camp below - written by Peter Brookes.

WINTON SERVICE LEARNING - THE MURALS

A group of students under the guidance of Rebeckah Brodie, Olivia Wilkins and Erin Keogh have created two murals. One at Winton State School, and the other at Barty's Place. The shared design celebrates the heritage and history of the outback, the town on Winton and the long standing connection between our communities. The students worked non-stop for two days to complete the works, and in the process engaging the Year 9 students of Winton State School in painting their own mural. It has been a wonderful opportunity to see art created by these students, from two blank walls last Thursday morning to two beautiful murals by Friday afternoon.

The students have taken such pride in what they are creating, as well as the legacy they are leaving behind at both sites. And now the work of our students is on display, and no doubt there will be opportunities for future year groups to leave a similar mark.

WINTON - DAY 3 - SERVICE LEARNING

For a second day our students immersed themselves in their service learning projects in the Winton community and around Barty's Place.

Our students worked with the students of Winton State School to join in with their NAIDOC Celebration Day. Students joined classes from Kindy up to Year 12 to take part in the activities led by the school and indigenous educators. The connections made between some of our students over the two days have been wonderful to see. We have left them a supply of musical instruments that our Term 2 fundraisers paid for, as well as music programs generously donated by our Arts faculty.

Our intrepid bunch of gardeners, fresh from the amazing job they did clearing 25 bags of weeds from the famous Arno's Wall, carried on the job of preparing Barty's Place for the Semi-Formal, as well as planting some new shrubs in the travellers rest over the road from our base.

The day ended with a campfire gathering to celebrate two days of extraordinary service learning in the Winton community.

WINTON SERVICE LEARNING - THE CEMETERY

A number of our Year 10 students took on the task of clearing and caring for graves in the Winton town cemetery. It is fair to say that some were not initially inspired by this task, but they were lucky that they were accompanied by Mr Tim Grosser - A.B.'s very own bush poet! He encouraged them to read the stones and consider the stories they told about the town, the outback and the individuals. From this engagement sprung a genuine care for the space and people they were working with. The students have truly shown excellence, care and commitment to the task over the day and a half of hard work in the sun. Such was their commitment that they asked Mr Grosser if they could go back in the afternoon, and this then encouraged another 12 students to join them.

The work they did tidying and clearing the graves may possibly be the first care they have had in decades; one group spent nearly an hour searching the cemetery for pieces of a broken gravestone so they could repair the stone and 'put family names back together'. The heading image for this post is that repaired and cleaned grave that they worked so hard on. I have included some more before and after images below. 

In 18 years at this College, I have always been proud of our students, but never more so than this.

WINTON - SEMI-FORMAL PREPARATIONS

Last Saturday afternoon, students have come together to set up for their Semi-Formal dinner and dance. They worked all afternoon to create a wonderful venue that will undoubtedly make for an unforgettable evening for them.

Once again, a huge thank you to Rebeckah Brodie and her semi-formal organising committee who have been planning this event since term 4 of 2024.

WINTON TRIP - DAY 6 - LONGREACH

On day 6 we packed up and said our farewells to Barty's Place. There is no doubt that the four days we spent in Winton had a significant effect on some our students and, judging by the number of people who approached staff in the street and at the cinema, a positive impact on the Winton community as well.

We have certainly left a number of locations in the town better for our presence here this year, and this legacy from 2025 will ensure that there will be many more service-learning opportunities in the town for future cohorts.

On Sunday afternoon, we arrived at Longreach Station, owned and run by Dan Walker and his family. They have a long relationship with our College, having generously hosted and entertained our students for many years. They now own a wonderful facility to accommodate our students in what to them is comparative luxury (i.e. beds).

As soon as we arrived, we had lunch and moved straight into our first activities which included; making our evening meal in camp ovens, meeting and feeding the pigs and learning how to crack a whip.

In the afternoon, we headed out to the actual station for a history lesson and the inaugural A.B. Paterson Outback Olympics.

WINTON TOUR - CAMBDEN PARK SUNSETS

Our first evening in Longreach was a visit to Cambden Park Station to enjoy some time with 'one-armed Davo'. A great character and someone who has been shearing every year for 30 years despite losing an arm in a car accident as a young man. He kept the students  captivated with his combination of jokes, history, poetry and passion for the country life. Students also took part in the Outback Olympics. Unfortunately our staff were so captivated by the beauty of the outback sunsets that most of the photographs we took were of the natural beauty our students have been enjoying for the past six days.

On Monday, we had an early start, off on a river cruise in the morning, with damper for morning tea. In the afternoon we visited the Stockman's Hall of Fame for more insight to life in the bush.

WINTON DAY 7 - RIVER CRUISE & DAMPER MAKING

On Tuesday morning, students woke up refreshed after a night sleeping in an actual bed, had an early breakfast and then jumped on the buses to travel out for a morning of damper-making and a relaxing river cruise.

WINTON DAY 8 - BARCALDINE

This morning, we packed our bags and loaded them onto the bus to begin our journey back to the Gold Coast. We bade a fond farewell to our wonderful hosts, the Walker family. Once again, their generosity in hosting our students and ensuring the had a packed schedule in Longreach was greatly appreciated. They are already looking forward to the arrival of our Year 6 students in a few weeks.

From there we travelled to Barcaldine, via the Ilfracombe Heritage Mile, to meet the wonderful Cheryl. Cheryl is a passionate educator, and many students remember their experience with her under the Tree of Knowledge in 2021. Cheryl guided our students through the Australian Workers Heritage Centre, giving them a social insight into the story behind 'Waltzing Matilda' and the work of Banjo Paterson in publicising the plight of the striking shearers in Barcaldine.

We then moved to the Desert Dreaming Centre, where students got to create their own boomerang, illustrating it to tell the story of their journey over the past 8 days. Some chose to show the physical journey we have been on, some went for a more philosophical approach. Either way, all students were extremely engaged in the process. Students were also given the opportunity to write a card of gratitude or wellbeing for another member of our touring group, again this was something that many of them took considerable thought and time over.

Our time on Barcaldine will conclude with some Dream Dust Dancing and dinner. After this we board the coaches and begin our overnight drive home.

There are lots of tired students (and staff), but it has been wonderful to see this group of students come together to support, encourage and care for each other over the last week. So many students have stood out for their leadership, engagement and compassion at one point or another. It really bodes well for their progress through the next two years at the College.

This morning the students thanked our wonderful drivers and caterers from Kangeroo Bus Lines. As ever they have gone beyond their jobs to become part of the group. It says so much about their relationship with the College that two drivers deliberately changed schedules so they could take this year group to Winton for a second time.

None of this would have been possible without the constant support and encouragement of a wonderful team of staff throughout the tour. A huge thank you to Shane Barr, Lauren Brake, Rebeckah Brodie, Tim Grosser, Jayde Hartfiel, Callie Hewitt, Erin Keogh, Tom Lee, Jake Turner, Oskar Tycho, Terri Wagstaff, Maggie Brignone and Olivia Watkins for being such a proactive and positive team throughout the tour. They set the tone right from the start for students to seize the opportunities on offer to them during our tour.

HOMEWARD BOUND

We finished the tour with a night of dancing with Cheryl and will be making our way back home in the morning.