A blog entry later than expected due to a tumultuous couple of days. Having been excited to start my project I was more than a little disappointed to find my first couple of days mainly consisting of weeding and rubbish collection, and in sanctuaries rather than the wild. It became apparent that we were doing daily projects that repeat each week rather than an ongoing project that you joined for x amount of weeks. Whilst I appreciate that this is still conservation work, it is not what I thought I would be doing, is not what my notion of conservation is and not the way it had been portrayed in the real gap advert at all… Tomorrow we are even cleaning a warehouse… It feels a bit like cheap local labour… The reason I chose this programme over other shorter ones was because I had believed it was a longer and would be more substantial and hopefully allow me to reconsider geography as a career move.

Disappointed, I spoke to one of the staff to ascertain if there was anything else in the rest of Australia that lasted a bit longer and would allow me to feel like I’ve achieved something. She got back to me with a week long seeding project on kangaroo island or a 2 week planting project in kangaroo valley near Canberra. Told that I may have to pay yet more money to potentially secure a place on the kangaroo island project I am more than a little frustrated with this situation. With the belief that there will be more people in kangaroo valley with the opportunity to meet more people, Lynn’s travel list with kangaroo island on it and the opportunity to spend a week there culminating in a festival, and the objective of focusing on output and achievement from a project, I have not quite decided which way to go… Wanting to come back to Melbourne after, kangaroo island may let me do the great ocean road, kangaroo valley – the opportunity to see somewhere that wasn’t even on my radar… Options presented and decisions to be made, this is maybe the time for a straw poll….