Tuesday, 2 February, 2021 - 10:00

There is no denying Regional NSW has a spotlight held to it, with focus on crippling drought on the environment and economy, devastating fires and pandemic impacts.

Now more than ever our students need to understand and connect with regional areas, their economies, lifestyles and cultural influences which are un-paralleled to student’s metropolitan experiences. 

The Dubbo Region has a unique offering to schools, your students will watch the landscape change upon their approach to our region and will witness communities responding to current environmental factors which can have direct impacts on its people, society and the culture past and emerging.

The region is rich in culture and educational experiences, from environmental science to colonial history or contemporary art and regional stories students will immerse themselves in an abundant offerings from the Old Dubbo Goal where prisoner escapes and experiences come to life, or perhaps glimpses of fossils over a million years old and evidence from the mega fauna age when underground at the Wellington Caves, while the contrast of culture in the Western Plains Cultural Centre’s Contemporary Art Gallery and Museum where a 1950’s classroom is stood still in time. There is no doubt your students will grow in this unique regional experience and will take with them a new found appreciation that Regional NSW is distinct, culturally significant and diverse.

The Dubbo Region Excursion Hub is your first stop to building your itinerary, our team can tailor make your excursion around your students focus and needs. Our Bookings Officer can build an itinerary across the three sites and work it to compliment any bookings you may already have but also connect you in with other regional offerings that you may not know about. Our aim for your excursion is to see the best of our Region in the time you are here.

Contact our Bookings Officer on 6801 4448 or visit our website ExcursionHubDubboRegion.com.au

CAVES AND KARST AND THEIR HIDDEN CONTRIBUTION TO SCIENCE, CULTURE AND ECONOMY.

Caves and karst are priceless resources, hundreds of caves are open to tourism around world with many identified as World Heritage sites. Caves and karst are home to many of the planet’s most diverse, important, and rare ecosystems, supporting ecological diversity above and below the ground. The world’s most significant cultural and archaeological sites often are found in caves. 

Karst quiz – Did you know?

  • 20% of the world’s land surface is estimated to be a Karst landscape
  • 150 million tourists visit caves each year
  • Karst aquifers proved an estimated 10% of the world’s drinking water
  • Museums and palaeontologists from around the world conduct research at Wellington Caves
  • There has been a palaeontology dig at Wellington Caves occurring since 2016 by Flinders University
  • COVID-19 closures has enabled a climate study at Wellington Caves and 18 others cave sites across Australia & New Zealand to obtain a base-line reading, so now with visitor numbers increasing the study will gain a better understanding of how caves ‘breathe’ with varying visitation.
  • Australia’s first extinct megafauna was found at Wellington Caves in 1830, these finds stimulated thinking on evolution by Charles Darwin and other scientists.

We invite schools and students to immerse themselves in our underground where the ancient world coincides with modern day being able to explore, understand and protect the Caves and Karst. At the Wellington Caves students and teachers can learn about this unique underground landscape and the sciences and institutions that have and still do use this site for research and preservation efforts.

Each cave tour will take approximately 1 hour, and they offer a diverse landscape of stalactites, cave coral and a 15mt stalagmite. Our caves offer tactile environments where science comes to life, form cave wells, to endangered bats and let them experiment with sound in Thunder Cave. Then walk the fragile line of ecosystems and resources where fossils embed the walls and mega fauna lay within a WW1 phosphate mine.

While the Mine and Caves offer varying levels of difficulty and accessibility the Discovery Lab and newly opened Ancient Landscapes gives students and teachers an above ground encounter. Where the students can experience a hands on laboratory approach to fossil finding and explore ancient seas, interact with life-sized Australian Megafauna, learn about traditional Wellington Wiradjuri stories and discover what scientists are still studying on site today within the Ancient Landscapes Gallery.

Your school group can be catered to in the expansive grounds of the Wellington Caves or nearby gardens, let us nourish the kids so they can jump straight back into this underground science laboratory.

With accommodation onsite, the Wellington Caves Complex means your group can stay over-night and hit the ground running for the next leg of your excursion or return home.

Wellington Caves have experienced tour guides that will share with your group not only the science and geology of the region but what relationship it has with the people of Wellington from traditional custodians to colonial times and today.

The Wellington Caves are located within the Dubbo Region, known for its diverse cultural offering any excursion can easily extend into a 2 or 3 night expedition so begin your search with The Dubbo Region Excursion Hub. This should be your first stop to building an itinerary, our team can tailor make your excursion around your students focus and needs. Our Bookings Officer will build an itinerary across the three sites and work it to compliment any bookings you may already have but also connect you in with other regional offerings that you may not know about. Our aim for your excursion is to see the best of our Region in the time you are here.

Contact our Bookings Officer on 6801 4448 or visit our website ExcursionHubDubboRegion.com.au

ANIMALS IN ART – CULTURAL EXCURSIONS FOR CREATIVE MINDS

What makes the Western Plains Cultural Centre distinct from other Galleries and Museums in NSW is our focus on the Animal in Art. The Dubbo Region has a longstanding relationship with animals from our first custodians of the land and Wiradjuri Nation to early settlers and colonial times to of course today our world famous Zoo. 

The Dubbo Regional Art Gallery is home to a permanent collection, an exhibition that explores through art our connection with Animals our education program has a range of creative workshops and experienced tutors to take students on a creative journey where they can explore our exhibitions and express their thoughts and ideas across a various creative forms.

If its history you are seeking for your students, than the museum and its popular Wool Wagon holds a stoic and significant place in our Museum and our regions history. Students can sit under its bulky presence and learn of an industries that relied on not only hardworking hands but creative fingers when wool was transported from fields into delicate clothing and material.

Creativity and curiosity has no bounds at the WPCC and our educators will test the critical thinking of your students in a venue so unique it lends itself to any learning experience or outcome.

With touring and in house curated exhibitions this contemporary Art Gallery and Museum has the added benefit of our Community Arts Centre where rooms are designed for drama, sculpture, art and more.

The Western Plains Cultural Centre is located in Dubbo, within the Dubbo Region, known for its diverse cultural offering any excursion can easily extend into a 2 or 3 night expedition so begin your search with The Dubbo Region Excursion Hub. This should be your first stop to building an itinerary, our team can tailor make your excursion around your students focus and needs. Our Bookings Officer will build an itinerary across the three sites and work it to compliment any bookings you may already have but also connect you in with other regional offerings that you may not know about. Our aim for your excursion is to see the best of our Region in the time you are here.

Contact our Bookings Officer on 6801 4448 or visit our website ExcursionHubDubboRegion.com.au

A MODERN DAY VIEW INTO COLONIAL PRISON

The Old Dubbo Gaol has recently had a facelift, this 19th Century prison system exposes students to a life where discipline, punishment and harsh living conditions were a reality. Classes will get a realistic sense of life for prisoners, their daily routines and exercise with the foreboding gallows at the centre.  This Gaol was operating as a penal institution from 1847 until as recently as 1966, a fascinating insight that will send a chill up their spine.

Let students explore by themselves or listen to the Tour guides amuse with their tales of escape, or set a sombre scene where punishment was inevitable.

Exhibitions within the Gaol are an immersive mix of digital, sound and light which play to the realities of prison life.

The Old Dubbo Gaol is located within the Dubbo Region, known for its diverse cultural offering any excursion can easily extend into a 2 or 3 night expedition so begin your search with the Dubbo Region Excursion Hub. This should be your first stop to building an itinerary, our team can tailor make your excursion around your students focus and needs. Our Bookings Officer will build an itinerary across the three sites and work it to compliment any bookings you may already have but also connect you in with other regional offerings that you may not know about. Our aim for your excursion is to see the best of our Region in the time you are here.

Contact our Bookings Officer on 6801 4448 or visit our website ExcursionHubDubboRegion.com.au