BOAT JOURNEY
Straddie Study
A DAY TRIP TO DISCOVER ISLAND LIFE Photos by Aram Kancachian & Patricia Fitzgerald
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or our day trip to South Stradbroke Island, there were 13 homeschooling kids, one parent, two JWEEC staff, and the Educat skipper. We all met at the Horizon Shores Marina in Woongoolba. My parents dropped me off via the Boat Gold Coast catamaran. We met the other homeschoolers up on the shore next to the cafe. The marina was busy with boats. The Educat skipper and the JWEEC staff all have extensive experience conducting these trips with kids.
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with his noteboo
In June 2021, a group of home-educating children went on a day trip to South Stradbroke Island, as part of the Jacobs Well Environmental Education Centre (JWEEC) program. Organised by a homeeducating parent, the day trip for 9 to 12 year olds started at the Horizon Shores Marina to board the Educat. In his own words (mostly), ARAM KANCACHIAN, a 10-year old participant, writes about the excursion.
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k and camera.
The Educat is a catamaran with an open drawbridge at the front. Inside, there is a research table and four rows of chairs. They use the Educat for research purposes sometimes.
On the boat, all the kids were chatting along with each other. Most of the homeschoolers were from Brisbane. Everyone was excited, including me. It took about an hour to get to the island. On the way there, the JWEEC team conducted a safety briefing and other information. Stradbroke Island is a cultural piece of land for the Aboriginal people. This island was called either the island of the sun or the island of mosquitoes. (Note: Before South Stradbroke separated from the bigger island that is now known as North Stradbroke Island, there was only one island called Minjerribah, the name currently referring to the bigger North Stradbroke.)
is smaller than a kangaroo. Golden wallabies are, by the name, golden. (According to the information on the Queensland Museum website: “Isolation on Stradbroke Island has favoured the establishment of a golden colour phase, which is particularly frequent on South Stradbroke and now sporadically recorded from the northern Gold Coast to the Nerang National Park. No other local wallaby is as dark on the back or as ginger on the belly, or has a white-tipped tail; no similar species.”) Water is another one that is a necessity for life, actually even more important than food. You may think that water is easy to get. Nope. Water needs to be purified to be able to drink it. There are, however, oases that have fresh water. Shelter, now this one is easy (relatively easy). The easiest way would just be to sit under a tree. You can get some fallen trees and make a tipi. There are loads of trees on the island. Protection of trees is an important matter. On the island are different trees and leaves. And as you know, trees convert carbon dioxide into oxygen; therefore vital to people. Trees have been cut down, even though it is illegal. They use the wood for fire. I saw a big area with trees cut down. It’s hard to catch the people who cut them down, because of the island having no police patrols.
As you know, food is a valuable resource to support life. Food would be hard to find on a remote island; however this island is not that remote. In fact, there are loads of fish surrounding the island. There is what can be considered a rare wallaby, the golden wallaby, also known as “stinker” (I do not know why it is called that.) on the island. We need to know the difference between normal ones and the golden wallabies. An easy way to know the difference would be to know facts about these two types of wallabies: a normal wallaby
Dipping into the creek wate
OCT - DEC 2021
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