For government school teachers interested in applying for an overseas excursion, please read the Department's Excursion Policy and related documents at https://www.det.nsw.edu.au/policies/student_admin/excursions/excursion_pol/PD20040010.shtml The advice and application pack can be downloaded at Overseas Excursions - Advice and Application Pack
Advance notice of the excursion is required at least nine months prior to the planned date of departure.
Contact your local Educational Services office for information on the appropriate procedures for appoval. A list of contacts for schools is available at http://www.edservices.det.nsw.edu.au/
Six Mullumbimby High School students along with four adults have just returned from an adventure of a lifetime, having travelled to the jungles of Kalimantan in Borneo and the city of Yogyakarta in Java. The group of years 9 and 11 students from Mullumbimby High School departed for their ten day Indonesian excursion on
June 25.
Highlights of the trip included a three day house boat journey through Tanjung Puting National Park viewing orangutans and other endemic wildlife in their natural habitat, a visit to Camp Leakey Research Station and
observation of rehabilitating orangutans at feeding stations in the jungle. In Jogjakarta students visited the ancient Buddhist temple Borobodur in central Java and tried all forms of local transport including becaks (pedicabs) and dokars (horse drawn carts).
The student participants in the excursion are all studying Indonesian Language at Mullumbimby High. The main purpose of the excursion was to allow participating students to consolidate and extend their knowledge of Indonesian in a real life context and to experience Indonesian culture first hand. Elke Buhrich, the excursion organiser, believes that “interacting with local people, staying in local hotels, eating in local eateries, and being surrounded by all things Indonesian will have a profound impact on students’understanding of Indonesian
language, culture and way of life.” Elke Buhrich, who worked for the Orangutan Foundation International in Kalimantan for 4 years, has extensive experience of orangutans and was able to share her knowledge and her local friendships and contacts providing students with a very unique insight.
Mullum High students started fundraising for The Orangutan Project (TOP) early last year. Money raised was used to adopt an orangutan called Bunga and safeguard orangutan habitat. Further fundraising included a mufti day where the whole school wore orange clothing. The excursion to Central Kalimantan provided students the opportunity to see first hand how their hard earned dollars will be spent on orangutan conservation.
Money raised was personally presented to workers at three different conservation centres in Central Kalimantan; the Orangutan Foundation International Quarantine and Care Centre where ex-captive orangutans are rehabilitated before being released back to the wild, the Friends of the National Park Foundation Pesalat
Reforestation Project, and the Yayorin (Yayasan Orangutan Indonesia) Conservation Village, where local people are provided training in low-impact, sustainable income-generating activities. Students also planted orangutan friendly trees at the isolated Pesalt Reforestation project.
Indonesian teachers Elke Buhrich and Linda Keyte hope the trip will become an annual event to encourage students to study Indonesian at high school. The students hope so too!