This week, the group arrived in Newcastle, Australia, to begin our week of volunteer work with the CVA (Conservation Volunteers Australia)! We were split up into two different groups for the week–Neil, Courtney, Sadie, Tommy, Abbott, and me (Sienna) stayed in Newcastle, and Macy, Ally, Rob, Taylor, and Kitch were driven out about three hours to a farm, where I’m sure they’re having a blast.
My group is staying in the CVA house, and we have awesome roommates from Luxembourg, Germany, and the UK. It’s so great to meet new people and they’re all so interesting and funny, especially Philip from Germany who is definitely the favorite. We get up around seven in the morning to make breakfast and pack our lunches for the day, and then the awesome Jolyon comes and takes the Carpe group out to different locations. Jolyon just graduated from Uni, worked in Kenya, looks like Jonah Hill, does Krav Maga and is generally the best person we ever could have imagined.
The first day of work was on Saturday, and we were driven out to the BLue Gum Hills to weed out invasive species. Another guy named Boyd also came out to help us, and he was awesome too. We were getting rid of the Crofton weed, lantana, wild tobacco, and thistles. We all wore neon yellow vests and big sunhats–we looked very fetching. The tobacco trees were difficult to remove because you had to chop them down and then immediately put poison on the roots so it wouldn’t grow back. But then a wonderful thing happened…Sadie and I were sitting on a stump when an adorable wild wallaby hopped by. It was amazing! Only in Australia, everyone.
That day, the CVA was great enough to have a barbecue with steak sandwiches! It was so incredibly generous and of course, delicious.
The next day, Sunday, we headed out to Glenrock Conservation Area to collect seeds. We were collecting Spotted Gum, Acacia species, and Egg & Bacon (pea flowers). Those seeds are meant to rehabilitate an area that was sadly destroyed by a fire a while back. We also were given sharp knives to cut out the invasive asparagus fern. Tuesday we were back at the Blue Gum Hills, which is also home to the Treetops Adventure Park. There was a giant pile of mulch waiting for us, and the whole day we shoveled mulch into wheelbarrows and distributed it around this outdoors kids’ maze so they wouldn’t slip and fall and hurt themselves on any exposed rock. It was hard work but satisfying because we could easily see our progress. Tuesday, the boys were all feeling sick, so it was a team of girls plus Jolyon who went out to Ash Island to weed Juncus Acutus in the Kooragang Wetlands. These weeds were quite spiky and painful, so I got out some aggression by pulling them out as violently as possible.
Today was Wednesday and we were back at Glenrock pulling out the Bitou Bush, which was quite fun and relaxing because for the most part, the plant comes out easily. Some people had to cut down lantanas, but thankfully there weren’t a lot of those.
The town of Newcastle is really sweet. We’ve been frequenting Coco Monde, a chocolate cafe, that serves the best churros, milkshakes, and cheesecake ever. There are a bunch of cool shops and restaurants all around, and some people made it out to Sundae Fundaze, a really fun music thing. At home, we switch off cooking dinner with the other people in the house, and we all have been enjoying movies at night like Quantam of Solace, The Shining, and FLubber. Working for the CVA has been a great and rewarding experience, and I’m sure the group out at the farm is having fun too. Tomorrow we are going to Blackbutt Reserve to see and possibly even hold koala bears. We’re all very excited for what’s to come!
–Sienna Cohen (November 21)