This semester I came to Australia to study abroad. During my time here I thought it would be a good idea to find somewhere to volunteer—after all, I didn’t want to be a complete drain on society!
My uni had set me up with the best internship with Inspire Foundation and I had been working for ActNow for a couple of months when I noticed one of the other interns was writing a fact sheet about finding the right volunteer opportunity. She listed several websites and one day I decided to visit some of them and see if anything looked good to me. I have always been an outdoorsy kind of girl—anything to do with nature is particularly appealing to me—so I visited the website for Conservation Volunteers Australia. Their site was so easy to navigate which made it really easy to find a fun opportunity.
Since I had been in Sydney for two and half months and still hadn’t made it to the Blue Mountains, I decided I would look into an interesting project doing weed removal and construction there for a weekend. Not wanting to do this on my own, I recruited five other exchange students to come with me. In the days leading up to the weekend I felt incredibly nervous; I was the one that had suggested the weekend and I thought I was responsible if it was a bad experience. Thankfully the trip was a huge success.
My crew and I arrived at the meeting place at Central Station a little before 8am on the Saturday of our project. We had met a girl on the bus who was coming on the same trip; she is a grad student at our uni. We must have only waited about 15 minutes but I was getting really nervous about the whole thing. Then we saw the conservation van pull up and I felt a little better. Our group for the weekend consisted of our leader, Dennis, a couple of grad students from another uni and my friends and I. We headed out of Sydney and up to the lower Blue Mountains where we would complete our project. The weather looking quite threatening but it decided to be kind to a bunch of foreign students and held off.
We met the ranger at the park entrance and were shown to where we would be camping and working. The campground was very cute—a nice little valley complete with heaps of kangaroos. I must admit, being an American, I thought that kangaroos would be all over Australia; I hadn’t seen one yet so this was quite the thrill. The ranger took us through the goals for the next two days and showed us our equipment. I decided I was better suited to non-native species removal (weeding) than I was to fencing, so I headed off with my knife to kill some pesky weeds.
It might sound superficial but I was really excited about being able to wear the cool conservation volunteers’ vest and the cool gloves. We were even weeding in a restricted area. I felt really special. My friends and I spent the entire morning weeding this very small area. There is something quite satisfying about weeding. I don’t know if it’s being able to see the results of my work or what, but at the end of the day I really felt as though I had accomplished something.
Conservation Volunteers Australia strikes a good balance between work and play on their trips. In the afternoon, after finishing up our work, we set up camp. Having not pitched a tent in a while, this proved to be quite a challenge. We headed into town and got some food for our evening meal and breakfast and lunch the next day. We didn’t just get a little food. We ate like kings. I don’t know why, but food always tastes better when it’s cooked outside.
Overall I had a fabulous time while volunteering through Conservation Volunteers Australia. If you like the outdoors and want to make a difference to the environment I highly recommend a trip with them. There are many day trips all around Australia that are free to participate in and weekend trips cost $20 a night for students—a bargain if you consider the cost of camping, eating and transportation. For a list of all the opportunities available please visit their website at
http://www.conservationvolunteers.com.au.
