Lighthouse Keeper's Quest

1-5 Day Journey VELS levels 2-6
(Years 1-10)

Ready for the challenge?

Every day thousands of lives will be dependent on your students' success as lightkeepers. This is experiential learning at its best - pupils will relive history as part of their journey of self-discovery.

Setting the scene

It is March 24, 1848 and Cape Otway Lighthouse has just been built at the point where the treacherous Bass Strait and turbulent Southern Ocean collide. The Lightstation has been built due to public demand after hundreds of lives have been lost in shipwrecks. Superintendent of Port Philip District Lieutenant Charles Latrobe is confident the lighthouse will mean safer travel for all those taking the long and hazardous journey from Europe to Australia.

Although he was highly recommended, the first lightkeeper Lieutenant James Ross Lawrence has been sacked on the grounds of most ungentlemanly language, drunkenness and allowing the life-saving light to go out. Your students are charged with the responsibility of overcoming this crisis. They are all assigned to man the Lightstation as temporary lightkeepers until the new keeper arrives.

Aims

The "Quest Skills for Life" program provides participants with a real experience of Australian pioneer life through the daily challenges and adventures of lightkeepers. The Quest has been designed to provide unique and challenging activities that meet VELS standards across all Strands and Domains. See below for more details.

Location

The 1-5 day journey takes students on a journey where they experience the spectacular coastline and the historical Cape Otway Lightstation, where history, mystery and excitement await. The surrounding magnificent Great Otway National Park provides the perfect backdrop to achieve VELS outcomes within a unique outdoor experiential learning program.

Program

The "Quest Skills for Life" program is geared to offer young people a journey which allows them to develop their skills beyond the classroom. By taking them away from their familiar environment, they are able to enhance their experiences and skills development. This is achieved by placing young people in situations where they take on decision-making roles associated with the objectives of their mission.

The life skills they put into practice are:

• Teamwork
• Communication
• Problem solving
• Leadership
• Self assessment
• Environmental awareness
• Orienteering
• Bushcraft
• Risk assessment
• Record keeping
• Planning
• Self-esteem
• Time management

Safety

"Quest Skills for Life" programs are all about learning through experience, but never at the expense of safety. Our safety policy identifies and manages risk, reducing it to acceptable levels in all places, during all activities, without compromising the sense of challenge.

While it is not possible to eliminate risk, all activities are carried out in a manner that ensures staff and participants are exposed to the minimum risk possible. Your students will be trained in risk assessment and hazard awareness.

All leaders are carefully selected and specially trained to manage all elements of the programs, with emphasis on safety and risk assessment, management and facilitation of leadership and development.

Leave it all to us

Our aim is to make it as easy as possible for your school to take part. We look after everything including transport, accommodation, activities, equipment and meals.

Accommodation

Depending on the length of the program and agreed activities, students will typically be accommodated in historic Lighthouse quarters, bunk facilities and camping.

Food

All food is catered for throughout the program, including special dietary needs.

“ In order to achieve a common goal the students really needed to plan together, work together and cooperate during each activity. Without the team effort, and each having a turn at being leader, they would not have achieved all that was required over the three days.

From my perspective, I really valued the way Paul set up the three-day program and taught the kids. It was great to see close-up, first-hand for three full days just how dedicated he is to teenagers, outdoor and survival education. „ Helen Davis
Teacher, Lavers Hill/Apollo Bay P-12

What the students enjoyed most:

• "I enjoyed every moment that I spent there"
• "I thought it was great. We all got good exercise and learned new things"
• "Building the rafts was awesome"
• "Going into the lighthouse at night"
• "Being an active member of the group"

• → Cape Otway Environment Cape Otway Environment The Great Otway National Park includes marine sanctuaries, coastal dunes, heathland, open woodlands, dry and wet sclerophyll forests and rainforest. This rich and varied landscape provides many opportunities for students to explore the concepts of ecological sustainability and natural resource management. Lighthouse Keeper's Quest students will also visit the Cape Otway Ocean Lodge where they are able to experience ecological sustainability in practice.
• → Cape Otway Orientation Cape Otway Orientation Students will be empowered to navigate the Lightstation environment for themselves using map reading and other orientation skills. This activity enhances students understanding of the strategic importance of Bass Strait and the risks and responsibilities that were inherent in both immigration and trade during the era of sail. All Lighthouse Keeper's Quest students will have their turn at being leader of the group where they will be responsible for safely navigating the group to key points on the Lighthouse supply trail.
• → Communications at the Cape Communications at the CapeAn exploration of the history of communication in Australia as well as personal communication is brought to life at Cape Otway's Telegraph Station and flagstaff. Students experiment with alternative communications systems such as Morse code and semaphore flags and make comparisons with the modern communication rich environment.
• → Death and Disease Death and Disease Cape Otway cemetery is a perfect place for your students to reflect upon the hardships that were faced by those living and travelling in the times before modern medicine and modern communications. An examination of the headstones reveals the tragedies that all too often plagued our brave Lightstation families.
• → Immigration and Shipwrecks Immigration and Shipwrecks The wild shipwreck coast provides the stage for the drama and heartbreak of early immigration and shipwreck stories. The fate of Eric the Red and her crew are but one example of those that came to grief on this most dangerous of journeys.
• → Koori Culture at the Cape Koori Culture at the Cape The Gadabanud people spoke the King Parrot language and made Cape Otway their home for at least the last 40,000 years. Experience this ancient culture and their history as interpreted by Southern Otways Indigenous representatives today.
• → Lighthouses and Navigation Lighthouses and Navigation The oldest surviving Lighthouse in mainland Australia provides a tangible link to the terrors of Bass Strait, the most dangerous stretch of water in the world. Students are taken through the tower's technological phases, its workings, navigational role and significance in Australia's colonial history.
• → Living in the 1850s Living in the 1850s Students explore the original keepers quarters, telegraph station and associated buildings and are encouraged to use both primary and secondary historical sources and the oral storytelling of our guides to create a strong and lasting impression of life in the 1850s.
• → Remote Living at the Cape Remote Living at the Cape This remote and isolated Lightstation posed a unique set of social, economic and geographical problems. Through communication and teamwork your students will arrive at their own solutions to the challenges of remote living at the Cape.
• → Weather at Cape Otway Weather at Cape Otway It has always been the Lighthouse Keepers' role to make weather reports and still to this day an active Bureau of Meteorology weather station is in place at the Lightstation. Students are taken on a tour with weather station staff to investigate the significance of Cape Otway's wild weather.
• → Working Together Working Together Teamwork was an extremely important part of working at the Cape Otway Lightstation and we have devised a number of teambuilding exercises that are both fun and rewarding for your students.
• → World War 2 at the Cape World War 2 at the Cape Bass Strait saw a great deal of action during WWII. Your students will gain an increased understanding of the strategic role of Cape Otway in the war through a hands-on exploration of the Radar Bunker and sea mines.