I am delighted to complete this article on behalf of Suzanne Camm. Week four has been another memorable week with students participating in a ‘Place and Time’ focus day, which saw them visiting many local sites of significance. Highlights of the day included visits to an Aboriginal Birthing tree that is over 600 years old; an exploration of Mt Franklin, a dormant volcano, where students fossicked for crystals in and around the mouth of the volcano; and a visit to the Australasia Mining site in Creswick, where students heard the story of Victoria’s worst mining disaster. The TIC group (Teenagers In Clunes) have been productive this week negotiating sleep ins for all on campus, putting forward helpful suggestions on the way the campus can run more smoothly and planning a disco extravaganza in the upcoming weeks. The highlight of the week, however, was the build up to and the running of the ‘Boys to Men Campout’ and Women’s Gathering as part of the ‘Self’ focus days. Robert Grant reported that the ‘Boys To Men’ camp out was cold, yet enthusiastic and productive with great participation for both older and younger men. The Women’s gathering was also a success, with the younger women involved sharing stories and insights well into the night. It was fantastic seeing so many of you at the second of our three visiting weekends and we look forward to another eventful week as we head towards ‘Collective Potential’ and our final visiting weekend.

In the first week of running we started doing 3km runs. That week we started doing our Friday challenges. The Friday challenge is when we run up and down a hill as many times as we can in 10 minutes. After one week of doing 3km we added a hill in. After one more week of 3km we started doing 5km. The back people are getting faster and the front people don’t have to run back as far. Not many people are stopping any more and our pack running is getting so much better. Everyone is doing really well and pushing themselves harder each week.

Last Sunday the Bike to Beckworth group jumped on bikes and started riding the 20km to and from Mt. Beckworth. We all rode well and were quick to yell out calls to keep the bike fleet safe such as “car back,” “car front,” “stopping,” and “slowing.” It took us about an hour and a half to ride the 10km to the base of Mt. Beckworth. Once we arrived we stopped and had lunch in a clearing of trees. During our break we started some environmental homework. After about 45 minutes we all got back on our bike and began to ride back to the campus. On the way back, those who wanted to, rode through all the big muddy puddles. It was a great excitement and many would agree it was the highlight of the trip. It was a great ride and we all enjoyed it thoroughly.

Last Saturday night we had International Night. We all started the night in our houses by cooking an international meal. We then chose a country that we wanted to be and then met in the Jubilee Hall. Throughout the night we had to answer questions all about different countries. One of the favourite rounds that we had was the music one. In this round we could get up and dance to gain extra points. Another way to get extra points are through sucky bonus points, these are when you are nice to the teachers. The night was really competitive but in the end House 4 won, and they got a tin of Milo.

Every Friday night, those who want to, make their way down to the community center, when the others stay on campus during quiet time. We arrive at the basketball court and split into teams with some of the locals that want to play as well. Once divided, we play a very relaxed but exciting game of basketball. It is lots of fun for everyone-those who are experienced in the game of basketball and those who maybe aren’t quite as skilled in the area. It is an anticipated event of the week and is a good way to meet some locals that are more our age.

Shopping.
Last Saturday, one of my housemates got lazy, and so instead of her, I got to shop for my house. I had $30 left over from the last person who shopped, so I had $400 to spend in total; that left me $200 dollars for the supermarket, and the rest for the Greengrocer’s and the Butcher’s. I’d thought $200 would be more than enough for just my supermarket list- but by the end I found myself struggling to keep under my budget, even with $30 extra! (This probably had something to do with my housemates putting “Milo” and “Kraft Singles” on the “necessities” list.) So off I went, on my big adventure, shopping list and calculator in hand, ready to face the unknown. The first hurdle I experienced came up when I approached the bread stand- they were out of English Muffins. It turned out this was good thing, because otherwise, I probably would have had to settle for Black&Gold Ice-cream, which tastes like I imagine frozen baby vomit would. Yeeuuuchhh. (I say “imagine” because I have never tasted frozen baby vomit, so if anyone has and would like to contest my judgment, feel free to email me.) So, calculating each price as I went, I bought everything on the “necessities” list, and then went back. In the end, I managed to buy everything on my list apart from Barbeque sauce and Paprika, and I was $1.75 under. After I’d packed up all my food and loaded it into the truck, I went down to the Greengrocer (who coincidentally looks exactly like the guy in a mildly disturbing kid’s video I have from when I was about four- it’s called the Francis Henry show, and includes a guy making a pancake that tries to kill him and then his roof comes off and he flies into space. Weird.) We had tonnes of money to spend at the Greengrocer’s, so I didn’t need to use my calculator, and it was easy to stay under budget. Because of the extra money, I actually bought a massive pumpkin. A whole pumpkin, because Chloe said she needed “a pumpkin” for her pasta. I knew she probably meant a butternut pumpkin or some small type, but I had the money and there was an awesome pumpkin there, so I bought it. My house later named the pumpkin Cletus. (Cletus is currently recuperating after having a quarter of him eaten for a roast.) Even the strawberries I bought were delicious, and they aren’t even in season! So the greengrocer’s was definitely a fun part of shopping. After I lugged Cletus up Fraser Street, I headed off to see Bob the Butcher. All of us had put in our meat orders the week before, so all we had to do at Bob’s is give him our house number and off we go with our meat.
And there it is! Shopping. It’s awesome (especially if you buy a whole pumpkin).

Last Sunday 15 of the Wesley students went down to a lake in Creswick for Environmental Art. We spent the afternoon at the lake making pictures with the environment around us. There was a variety of art around the lake; some people made a sculpture with the rocks they found lying around the place and some people made abstract art with the grass and plants that were already in the ground. The colours of the scattered leaves were a mixture of yellows and oranges. They were all very vivid and bright. The lake and the surrounding trees were very colourful and vibrant. The mud around the lake was very dry until we got closer to the water. As we started walking back there were some very muddy feet amongst us.

On Thursday all the girls spent all day in the Jubilee Hall. We had two guest speakers come in and talk to us. The first guest speaker, Lin, spoke to us about her life and her ways of getting through things. We all listened to her amazing story in awe and were all very grateful at the end that she had shared her story with us in complete ease. Before Lin came we all finished off our timelines of our own lives, which was really interesting to see how similar all of our stories are. With our second guest speaker, Kim she answered all and any of our questions we had. We spent the whole afternoon asking questions and discussing what we thought, so that everyone got a say, which was really good. I am sure everyone got something out of this incredible day.

This Saturday Houses 1 & 4 all stayed on campus for house time. As House 1’s leader was sick we went with house 4 into the Jube. Two teachers looked after us and taught us how to make bracelets. We picked out different colours of string and made bracelets for ourselves or to give to someone. They were a bit complicated and it was hard for some of us to do. The ones that worked turned out well and looked really good. While we were making our bracelets we tried to watch a movie at the same time. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off was the movie of choice and was a good pick. It was very funny and made us all laugh. The movie was good for a lazy Saturday afternoon and was very fun.

Lately the weather in Clunes has been very mild. The mornings have been very chilly with frost on the grass. The nights have also been very cold and jumpers have been essential. There hasn’t been rain this week and the sky has been blue and clear during the day. Clouds have been very scarce making it nice and sunny. During the day it has been warm and is better to be outdoors than inside. We have been very lucky with the weather and hopefully it will stay this good. The autumn weather is very lovely and the colours of the leaves are very pretty.

On Fridays the students that didn’t choose music on a Friday morning complete a community service. Some of the services are going to the health center, walking with the senior citizens, the Tinikoori animal farm, Widow Twankies, newsagency, hairdressers and the Clunes and Talbot primary schools. Community service is a great way to meet some of the Clunes locals. I have really enjoyed visiting the health center and talking to some of the Clunes senior citizens. When I visited the health center we were taught how to line dance and then performed for the seniors. It was a very rewarding experience to talk and listen to some of the stories they had. It was great to see the smiles on the seniors faces when we were dancing. I thoroughly enjoyed my time at the health center. I have also visited the Tinikoori animal farm; we hand fed a baby joey and lambs. There was a cockatoo that could talk and dance. We all found this hilarious. We held guinea pigs and rabbits. We also fed emus, turkeys, and deers. I fed a huge black pig called Pablo. All of the Tinikoori animals have been rescued.

Cleaning is a requirement that is fulfilled every morning, the majority of the time not to everyone’s enjoyment. Houses make a roster, allocating a person to each job each day. Jobs include washing dishes, drying dishes, sweeping the hallways, stairs and laundry, cleaning the dining room and pit area, bathrooms and toilets, bins and helper. Everyone is in charge of cleaning their own bedroom. Our house is then inspected at 8.45 on Mondays to Thursdays and 12.45 on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. If we do not pass inspection our laptops are not unlocked, so everyone tries really hard to complete their jobs to ensure they get their laptops.

Thursday night was a big one for Yellow and Red clusters. The night set off silently with both clusters walking to the community center silently in order to gain extra points. As both teams arrived, they were given just five minutes to create a chant that had to involve a part where the girls were frozen, and part where the boys were frozen and then one where both the girls and the boys were moving. Yellow started off and set the standards with a short but loud and well-organised chant. Red then took the lead by showing off a well-played chant that made them take out the win. After the chants, ring toss was played; a netball like game where one member of each team is given a stick and the other six team members had work together to throw a ring onto the stick. Yellow took out a big win, showing great teamwork and winning 7-3. The Next game was ball tag where one team has to try and tag the other team, with netball rules. Red started and got everyone out in just one-minute thirty-eight, setting high standards. Yellow then thrashed reds score by getting all of Red out with fifty seconds to spare. The final game was Ultimate Frisbee, a game that is played with a Frisbee but involves both netball and rugby rules. A student from Yellow took an amazing speckee, making the highlight of the night. Yellow showed great teamwork once again and took out another win.

Golden Era is one of the time and place choices. We had this session on Tuesday. Other choices instead of this include Modern Era, Indigenous Study and Pre History. For the morning session, we worked in our groups, organizing our projects; nearly all of the groups are making videos except one. Some groups are basing their projects on gold rush bushrangers. For the afternoon session our teacher took us to the old Australasian Mine site where he told us the story of the mine collapse, where over twenty-seven were trapped and only three ended up surviving the traumatic ordeal. After this we climbed the piles of mud that they pulled out of the mine and went exploring around the area. Golden Era is a great class where we get to learn about the gory and evil side of the gold rush instead of the more well-known and civilized areas.