1973 School Magazine

We departed from the lagoon as soon as every one had finished and the teachers were satisfied with our work. We returned to school in time to clean ourselves up before leaving for home and to put away our water samples where they would not be thrown away as they would be required for our next Biol lesson. We left for home, many of us glad to be able to deposit our "clean" gym tunics with our unsuspecting mothers. "One of the Fifth Formers" SENIOR. GEOGR.AFHV WEEKEND From the 9th to the l lth March this year, Heather Torney, Margaret Culpan and ourselves braved a weekend on an inter-school senior geography camp held at the country town of Maleny, about 45 miles north of Brisbane. With eighty other eager guys and gals we were boarded at the "semi-luxurious" Maleny High School and from this central point our numerirus educational (and otherwise) activities took place. Between the four of us, we studied the urban characteristics of the area and the native flora and fauna of the outlying districts. The second part of our educational weekend was spent treking over unde- veloped countryside observing the effects of nature and man on the environment. Our journey to a twenty foot deep waterhole through Obi Obi Gorge, was enlivened by an electric fence, (courtesy of a friendly farmer) shoulder-high thick grasses and tangled bracken, and countless crossings ofhazardous rapids. Our reward at the end of that exhausting cross-country was a welcomed swim in the cool, serene, Ieech-infested pool. However after all these trials and tribulations everyone agreed it was an extremely successful and worthwhile weekend. Leigh Wishart 6C and Kathy Pollard 6D. STUDENT ItrISTORY CONFERENCE As Susan Blake said last year - "Why go seven hundred miles to attend five days of lectures on history during the holidays'l Six girls from B.G.G.S. were thinking exactly that, on Sunday May 13th as they travelled to Sydney, and then by train to Bowral, with over one hundred other students from all over Australia, to the H.W. Baker Memorial History Conference, On arriving at Bowral station after dark, we awakened that sleeping town with our rabbled chatter amongst newly made friends, and cries (especially from Queenslanders) of "I'm freezingt" and "my toes are ice already," as our buses drove through the streets. We were soon to learn.that morning temperatures of -4o were most invigorating! The Conference was held, once again, aI Chevalier College, a most beautiful ald spacious Christian Brothers' School, just outside Bowral N.S.W. On the first morning we girls were woken by exclamations of "It's been snowing!" and "Oh isn't it beautiful!" Beautiful it was, but the white on the grass was not snow, but one inch of frost. From the girls' large, first-floor centrally-heated dorms, the

ffimw&Kx.ffi&wxaw A Fifth Form tsiology Excursion

We departed from the school at 8.30 a.m. with the four classes of Biology students spread evenly between three buses on our way to spend a studious day at Sandgate Lagoon. We had been told earlier that we could wear whatever we wished but that grm tunics would be the best as we would be wading in the water collecting samples for further study back at school. UGH! I remembered the rather slimy, muddy lagoon which I had passed many a time. Half a day was spent collecting samples of the water from the top, the middle and from the muddy bottom. We had been informed previously that with our samples we would be required to have a sample of plankton. This organism was to be found out from the shore in the deeper water. An old tree trunk which had fallen across the water seemed to be just in the right position to stand on to catch the plankton - however this was easier said than done. To climb out you needed both hands, so that when you reached the right position another member of the group had to hand you the net and bottle. This procedure was carried out until one unfortunate girl slipped and fell in while reaching for the bottle. We all turned at the sound of the splash to see her standing in about a foot of now muddy, murky water. To avoid anyone else having the same mishap she stayed where she was and supplied many groups with specimens.

We all continued on our way collecting the rest of the samples. Our group seemed to finish fairly quickly because of superior efficiency and large numbers, so as soon as we spied a goup of swings and a slippery slide we were off! ! The teachers must have thought we had gone back to early childhood when they finally caught sight of us. Whenever a swing was vacated a goup of girls would rush for it, numerous ways were tried of zooming down the slippery slide, one very daring girl going down on her stomach feet first, unfortunately let go of the slide and a few seconds later was lying flat on the ground. The roar of laughter following this escapade attracted the attention of the teachers and Mrs. Quinnel promptly told us that we were too big to be playing on such things. Did she mean age wise or size wise? We still don't know.

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