education

Educational Tours to Outback Australia

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The best way to see this sunburnt country and its sweeping plains is to travel to its red centre.

From the flat horizons of the Nullarbor to the sentient giant of Uluru to the dreamtime paintings of the Kimberley’s, Australia is vast and extraordinary. Whether you’d prefer an immersive experience of Australian Aboriginal culture or a 4×4 driving adventure, a curriculum-based field trip or a trip that connects some of Australia’s most famous and remote landmarks, Second Nature offers a variety of tour options for school and university groups.

What We Provide 

  • Award-winning educators/ facilitators
  • Itineraries and Flyers
  • Information Sessions at your school or university
  • Transportation options (we arrange flights where necessary and provide options for ground and water transport)
  • Accommodation options (we provide quotes to utilise the most affordable and most appropriate accommodation to suit your needs)
  • Catering options (all food is covered through our fantastic range of reliable third-party providers)
  • Curriculum-based work-booklets (where requested)
  • Pre/Post Tour Activities (usually a PPP)
  • Risk Assessment (location specific)

Outback Australia Tours for School & University/TAFE Groups

Our Domestic Tours for school and university groups are all-inclusive, affordable and fully customised. Our Central Australia tours are optimised to support the following units or modules:

Geography

  • Year 7 Place and Liveability
  • Year 8 Landscapes and Landforms
  • Year 9 Sustainable Biomes (NSW)
  • Year 10 Environmental Change and Management
  • Year 11 Responding to Risk and Vulnerability in Hazard Zones (QLD)
  • Year 11 Hazards and Disasters (VIC)
  • Year 11 Biophysical Interactions (NSW)
  • Year 11 Global Challenges (NSW)
  • Year 11 Tourism (VIC)
  • Year 12 Responding to Land Cover Transformations (QLD) or Changing the Land (VIC)
  • Year 12 Ecosystems at Risk (NSW)
  • Year 12 People and Economic Activity (NSW)

Science

  • Year 7 Biological Sciences (QLD/VIC) or Living World (NSW)
  • Year 9 Biological Sciences (QLD/VIC) or Living World (NSW)
  • Year 11 Maintaining the Internal Environment (QLD)
  • Year 11 Biodiversity and the Interconnectedness of Life (QLD) or Biological Diversity (NSW)
  • Year 11 Ecosystem Dynamics (NSW)
  • Year 11 How do Living Things Stay Alive? (VIC)
  • Year 11 Earth’s Resources and Human Impact on the Environment (QLD)
  • Year 11 Earth’s Resources (NSW) and Human Impacts (NSW)
  • Year 12 Climate Science (NSW)
  • Year 12 Resource Management (NSW)
  • Year 12 How can Biodiversity and Development be Sustained? (VIC)

Tourism (QLD)

  • Year 11 The Travel Experience
  • Year 12 Sustainable Tourism
  • Tourist Destinations and Attractions (elective)
  • Types of Tourism (elective)

Cultural

  • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures

Undergraduate (suggestions)

  • Outback Ecology

Highlights

  • Live amongst a remote Indigenous community near Birdsville
  • Stand in the magnificent shadow of Uluru (Ayers Rock)
  • Walk across the dry beds of Lake Eyre, Australia’s largest salt lake
  • Visit Australia’s Southwest Ecoregion to discover a wealth of endemic desert plants
  • Look out for emus on a 4×4 adventure across the Nullarbor Plain
  • Watch for a diversity of native birds at Cunnamulla
  • Follow Australia’s prehistoric giants to the ‘Age of Dinosaurs’ museum in Winton
  • Relax in secret swimming holes beneath tumbling water falls at Kakadu National Park
  • Explore caves painted by Australia’s Indigenous people over 60,000 years ago!

More Information

Tour Outcomes
  • Awareness and knowledge of Australia’s arid and semi-arid environments
  • Appreciation for the diversity of organisms suited to semi-arid and arid environments
  • A basic understanding of how semi-arid and arid ecosystems work including knowledge of food chains/webs, habitats and adaptations
  • Awareness of how human activities and climate change are contributing to the desertification (and often salinization) of non-arid ecosystems such as wetlands and rainforests
  • Knowledge of the current threats to xerophytic plants and other desert organisms presented by climate change
  • Learning of sustainable behaviours that help to alleviate these threats
  • A sense of connection to and feeling of stewardship towards Australia’s semi-arid and arid environments
  • An understanding of the complex processes involved in managing our semi-arid and arid environments in a sustainable manner.
Example Itineraries

Outback Spectacular Tour

Environment and Culture in Australia

Day 1 Gold Coast -> Roma -> Carnarvon National Park
Day 2 Carnarvon National Park (QLD)
Day 3 Emerald -> Barcaldine -> Long Reach. Thomson River Cruise
Day 4 Qantas Founders Museum and ‘Age of Dinosaurs Museum’ in Winton
Day 5 Winton -> Mt Isa
Day 6 Hard Times Mine Tour and Riversleigh Fossil Centre
Day 7 Mt Isa -> Tennant Creek
Day 8 Tennant Creek -> Alice Springs (via Devil’s Marbles)
Day 9 Anzac Hill, Alice Springs Desert Park, School of the Air and Standley Chasm
Day 10 Alice Springs -> Uluru
Day 11 Uluru Base Tour and Kata Tjuta
Day 12 Uluru -> Coober Pedy (via Ghan). Spend a night underground!
Day 13 Coober Pedy -> Adelaide
Day 14 South Australian Museum and Botanic Gardens
Day 15 Adelaide -> Wagga Wagga -> Canberra
Day 16 Parliament House, Mt Ainslie Lookout, War Memorial and Australian National Gallery
Day 17 Canberra -> Sydney (Taronga Zoo/Sydney Opera House/Bridge Climb/City Tour)
Day 18 Sydney -> Port Macquarie -> Gold Coast