Mathematics
Scale, rate & systems
Drive-time vs distance; fuel and water logistics; ratios and proportions; scale on topo maps; cliff height & gradient estimation; Murray-Darling confluence systems at Wentworth as a real data problem.
Bunda Cliffs
Great Australian Bight
Thriver · Big Bight Expedition
Year 9-10 · Nullarbor & Outback
Eighteen days on Country: whales, underground camping, and deep time at the edge of the continent.
Explore the expedition
Away 17 days. Accommodation and travel are in fees. Budget separately for snacks, souvenirs, lunches and some dinners.
Led by the Conductor, John Stewart · Rob Roberts · Gary Ivison · Katie Stewart · Alan Orchard · + female staff
Signature experiences
These are the days students will talk about for years, highlighted because they sit at the heart of Living School expeditionary culture.
Peak-season Southern Right Whale calving from cliff-top boardwalks, then the sheer 100 m limestone edge of Australia. Stationary camp day, depth over kilometres.
Pitch tents below ground at Riba’s: cool dugout campsites, opal country, and desert skies without light pollution.
August is calving season at Head of Bight, one of the world’s great shore-based whale nurseries.
Take a Big Bight of Australia · whales · Coober Pedy · Mungo · Wilpena · Parkes · on Country
Feature stay · not a motel: a campsite below ground
At Riba’s, the group uses underground camping sites: pitching tents or rolling swags in dugout bays carved into the hillside. This is expedition camping with a Coober Pedy twist: thermal regulation from the earth itself, shared camp routines, and a night under desert stars. It is a rare Australian campsite experience, not underground motel rooms.
Academic merits · Stage 5
Every stop feeds Maths, Science, History and English, with reading, Writeonline™ travel-companion journals and a Thriver rite of passage threaded through the seventeen days.
Mathematics
Drive-time vs distance; fuel and water logistics; ratios and proportions; scale on topo maps; cliff height & gradient estimation; Murray-Darling confluence systems at Wentworth as a real data problem.
Science
Ediacaran fossils; karst & limestone cliffs; arid ecology & ethnobotany; whale calving behaviour; opal / inland-sea geology; Woomera & Parkes, forces, waves, telemetry.
History
Freedom Rides civil rights; First Nations deep time at Mungo; Maralinga’s impacts; Cold War aerospace; historic Wentworth Gaol & river-port frontier; Dunera wartime internment; living on Country with respect.
English
Speculative / dystopian links in desert landscapes; bush poetry on the Hay Plains; persuasive and reflective writing from primary sources and lived experience.
Writeonline™ · travel companion
School kit iPads · offline Journey packs · ~50 min journal windows on the coach. Observation, sketch, question, claim — synced later via Drive. WordPress coordinates only; media stays on-device.
Character · rite of passage
Eighteen days as a supported threshold: responsibility for self and team, challenge by choice, bushcraft habits, help-seeking, and coming home with earned confidence.
Take a Big Bight of Australia is more than a trip; a Stage 5 threshold. Students leave familiar routines, carry real camp responsibility, meet Country with respect, and practise the VAST capacities (Values · Attitudes · Skills · Trust) that Thriver names as bushcraft, survival and VAST rites. Journal entries, peer check-ins and a final expedition synthesis make the growth visible: not as a grade, but as capacity.
The arc
≤5 hours driving per day. Camp by 4:30 pm. Sealed highways for the coach: ambitious, not reckless.
The trek
From the Northern Rivers to the Great Australian Bight and home again, thousands of kilometres of sealed highway, desert sky and coastal cliffs.
Walgett · Ivanhoe · Mungo · Wilpena · Woomera · Coober Pedy · Ceduna · Nullarbor, ~4,377 km of sealed coach highway into the continent.
Wudinna · Port Pirie · Wentworth · near Parkes · Dish day · Dubbo transit · Tamworth → Lismore Friday, ~3,200 km home with purpose.
Google Maps satellite route overviews for families. Click either map to open full size. Day-by-day detail follows below.
Week 1
Archaeology → deep space
Civil rights history through regional NSW; Willandra Lakes archaeology; Adnyamathanha Country at Wilpena; aerospace at Woomera; underground campsite night in the opal fields.
Week 2
Desert → whales: THE BIG BIGHT
Ethnobotany at Port Augusta; Maralinga’s legacy at Ceduna; Dingo Fence; then the signature day: whales and Bunda Cliffs from Nullarbor Roadhouse basecamp.
Week 3
Homeward with purpose
Granite inselberg, Port Pirie environmental monitoring, then Wentworth (historic gaol and the Murray–Darling confluence). Homeward via the Hay corridor to a camp nearer Parkes — no overnight in Parkes. Thursday: Dish day visit, transit via Dubbo, Tamworth last night. Home Friday late afternoon.
Planned programme · being finalised
Year 9-10 Nullarbor & Outback · 12–28 August 2026 · 17 days. Venues and overnight sites are actively being confirmed, this table is the working plan for families.
*Day 3 unsealed park access is weather-dependent (support 4WDs). A few overnight venues are still being locked in, final pack before departure.
Honesty note: Day 1 departs ~7:30 am for booked Walgett (~8–9 h with stops). Port Pirie, Wentworth and Hay camps still confirming. Drive times are coach rolling hours plus stops ~every 2 h. There is no overnight in Parkes — the Dish is a Thursday day visit; Tamworth is the last night; home Friday. Day 15 travels the Hay corridor toward Parkes; Day 16 may use Dubbo as a supervised fuel/lunch transit only. [email protected] · (02) 5632 1218
For families
Dates: Wed 12 - Fri 28 Aug 2026 · 17 days away · Return Lismore late afternoon Day 17 · weekend recovery. Included in fees: accommodation & travel. Family budget: snacks, souvenirs, lunches & some dinners. [email protected] · (02) 5632 1218
VAST · Thriver · rite of passage
Pack light. Pack smart.
One soft duffel (~60 L) + daypack. Label everything. Inland August nights are cold.
Leave home: excess snacks, valuables, gaming devices, aerosols, knives, anything banned under school policy. Soft bags only.
See Living School’s unique Expedition Learning Journal - Arrive, Notice, Language, Campfire - with parent mockups of the pages students fill.
Photo credits (Wikimedia Commons & illustrative place photos). Full attribution list: ATTRIBUTION.txt. Images illustrate places on the route; underground camping is at Riba’s campsites (not motel rooms).