Grampians Day 1: I throw my boomerang in your general direction

Last Monday, we embarked on a 3 day field trip to the Grampians Mountain Range west of Melbourne (circle= Grampians, map above). We went with our Aboriginal History class to learn more about the area, which is very culturally significant to Aborigines.

We boarded onto our bus (Walkabout group, above), and drove for a few hours, arriving in the town of Halls Gap at lunchtime. Our first stop was the Brambuk Aboriginal Cultural Centre (above). There, we watched two videos about the Grampians (called Gariwerd in the traditional language). The first one told the story of how the local Aborigines believe the Grampians were created. I don’t remember all of the details, but basically there was a head chief Bunjil who put all of the events into action, and there was a giant emu involved. The second video was a scientific version of how the mountains were formed (heat and pressure, etc.). Then we had some time to walk around and look at the displays in the center.

The highlight of the day was when we learned how to throw boomerangs. Robbie, an Aborigine who works at the center, showed us the proper technique (above). You throw it like a baseball (overhand), rather than like a Frisbee (sideways). Some of the boys were pretty good at it (above), but I couldn’t get mine to even remotely come back to me. No one really got it to come back directly to them, it was pretty windy and we were all just beginners.

Then someone noticed that on the other side of our boomerang throwing field was a mob of kangaroos. Naturally, we decided we needed a closer look. I found a mama kangaroo with a joey in her pouch! It was the cutest little thing, just its little head and arms stuck out of the pouch. It was awesome, and was also my first time seeing wild roos. It was definitely one of those moments where I paused to think about how lucky I was: standing in between two beautiful mountains, throwing a boomerang, and interacting with wild kangaroos all for class credit.

We arrived at our hotel (above), and ate a tasty dinner prepared just for us. The end of day one.