Safety comes first at Noosa’s beautiful Main beach and is followed by a very musical afternoon!

What a great day! Noosa has some beautiful beaches and none more so than it’s main beach where we went for our first outing of the day. Safety is so important when swimming in Australian water and the students were given a talk about how to be safe whilst enjoying the beach, how to read the signs and even how to look out from the lifeguard tower and spot trouble.

The students learn all about beach safety and have the chance to be a lifeguard!

After the morning at the beach the students had some time to go shopping on Noosa’s famous Hastings Street which were busy as usual while the locals did some last minute christmas shopping.

Then it was back to the school for a lesson on how to play the didgeridoo, an old Aboriginal instrument they called the ‘yidaki’ that the natives used for rituals and entertainment.

The instructor ‘Scott’ told them that each song had a story behind it and that the Aboriginal tribes each had their own unique songs. Celebratios are common within these tribes and special songs are performed for these. One in particular is the ritual of when a boy becomes a man at the age of 12 or 13. These celebrations can last up to a week.

Inspired by the stories that Scott had to tell the students found these oddly shaped instruments interesting and were soon keen to give it a go themselves. For the next hour students were blowing into their didgeridoos and successfully making the desired ‘drone’ sound of the instrument.

The students and Scott with their didgeridoos!

 More music was to follow when we went to a local church for a Christmas Carol service. The church and the service were both beautiful and we watched a video of the nativity made by the church themselves and all sang songs which the students throughly enjoyed.

After a long day and lots of singing, music and celebration the students went back to their host families to celebrate an Australian Christmas!