Laura’s Diary – Tourism Student Work Experience

Not long after I arrived at Crystal Creek Meadows, Chris took me to Booderee National Park (winners of the Responsible Tourism Awards for best Conservation of Culture); he knows one of the Aboriginal manager of the Botanical Gardens.

We had a special guided tour around the gardens and I learnt so much about the culture and lifestyles of the wreck bay community. As we wandered through the rainforest, we stopped at almost every plant for a tale about how it is used for medicinal purposes, for cooking or for keeping away dangerous wildlife, tips that I have implemented in my Aussie lifestyle (I wouldn’t be impressed if a snake came to say hello, I am English after all.)

We heard stories about how terribly the community have been treated in the past, and I was really shocked that anyone could be so discourteous to such a fascinating community. On a brighter note; I found out that now nearly 80% of the Booderee’s contractors and staff are local indigenous people, which I think is just great.

There is a great outdoors education area that has recently been built and I hope that local schools have excursions there to educate the children, I am unsure what the curriculum includes but I am sad to admit that I didn’t learn anything at school about the aboriginal people of Australia.

I had a wonderful day at Booderee and I hope that I get the opportunity to work with Chris in some of his projects that include the aboriginal community.