To begin - Fraser Island was the first trip up, beginning April 1 at 6am. I packed up my bag and headed to campus to catch a coach bus to the coast where we were transferred to army-style 4WD cars. The cars are extremely necessary as the entire island is made of sand, and without 4WD you go nowhere. I say army style, because all the students were loaded up in the back, facing each other. We always joked while getting out that our driver was the General, yelling at us to, "go, go, go!"
Upon arrival to the Island (nothing really exciting happened on the trip except that we had an excellent introduction to bogans thanks to our tutor Scott - more on them later) we had a brief orientation, then were sent off for some "free time." Unfortunately (or fortunately?) the group had underbooked the bunks, so 10 people had to volunteer to sleep in tents. We knew about this beforehand, and myself and a couple friends gladly volunteered to camp it out for the week. Our free time then, was spent pitching a tent and making sure it was sturdy enough for the pending weather. I think the last time I pitched an actual tent was back when I was 10 and involved with Girl Guides. You can imagine it was a pretty funny scene, especially when a couple US individuals (the same guy from before) instisted on "helping us out." Yeah right.
After pitching tents and getting organized, we hit the beach for some touch footy. For those of you who don't know, footy is slang for rubgy (I think - I'm still not sure on the rules of the game!) but we did play some sort of version of rugby with a rugby ball.....it was intense. So much fun, and apparently (according to Scott and Steve, a tutor and the professor) I'm quite a natural. I managed 2 interceptions and scored a tri (not sure if that's what it is??) on one of them! It was really neat!
We had some dinner after footy and then made our teams for the following days and data collection. There were 4 of us from Canada, and we wanted to stay together and be the CCF's - the Canadian Cleavage Furrows - but we later had to accept 2 Americans, and thus had to change our name to the Hotcrossbunadons (an animal we learnt about in class - don't ask). Anyway, we thought that the team thing was just for data collection, but it turned out that the tutors and professor had a trivia night planned with prizes on the line! Of course, our group was keen to win and we did our best through 35 questions......
TO COME OUT WITH THE VICTORY!!! Our prizes were this epic Australian hat, which became the thing to wear over the next couple days, as well as a huge amount of Easter chocolate. Our team definitely bonded over some good eats and treats!
Day 2 - (okay, so I can probably do more than one day per post.....)
Began with rain in the morning, a huge breakfast (buffet style, SO AMAZING) then we headed out to the beach to conduct our first portion of data collection - the dune transect. In our teams, we had to run out a line of 100m, make all these observations and calculations along this line and collect data about the species and soil. Seems easy, and it was, but it took a long time. The only hard part was trying to crawl through intense shrubbery and getting all cut up in the process. It was all worth it in the end though - we were able to spot a couple dingoes on the walk back to the campsite!
We then had some time to analyze our data, begin working in our workbooks etc before lunch. Each day was set up so that we worked in the morning, had some lunch, and then went out on a excursion to Eli Creek and the shipwreck. Basically, Fraser Island is an entire island of sand, so the "highways" are just tracks on the beach. We drove down the highway for about 40 minutes before coming to the creek and shipwreck, snapping some photos, relaxing in the water and sun as well as playing another game of footy! Yay for footy - although this time our team wasn't so successful and didn't win. No interceptions on my part may have been a contributing factor?
Later on that night, after some more analysis, free time (spent napping) and dinner, the tutors and Steve (our prof) made some presentations on the work they are currently focusing on, and how they got to where they are. It was really laid-back, and a great introduction to possible post-grad opportunities. It was reassuring to know that most of the tutors took one undergrad degree and ended up somehwere completely opposite later on with no issues!
Then, it was early to bed for an early morning Bird-Watching session with Steve!
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