Preschool & Primary School Excursions
Whether you are looking for a fun outing or for something more structured (but just as much fun), we will put a programme together specially for you.
Excursions - Day-time Primary School Programs
Preschool
Kindergarten (Early Stage 1)
Years 1 and 2 (Stage 1)
Years 3 and 4 (Stage 2)
Years 5 and 6 (Stage 3)
Useful Documents
Click for Bus Driver Information
Learning Environment
170 acres of old growth Australian bushland, unspoiled nature and rich cultural landscape.
- Friendly wildlife roaming free
- Aboriginal art and shelter sites
- Bush tucker and bush medicine growing along the tracks
- Knowledgeable rangers
- The real Australian bush
- Native and small farm animals
Structured Learning Outcomes
All workshops are designed to meet prescribed syllabus-based learning-outcomes. Our workshops offer different combinations of activities including animals, the bush, and traditional Aboriginal content.
All workshops are adapted and tailored for students of all ages, stages, interest areas and abilities:
- Primary and Pre-primary Students in Stages Early 1, 1, 2 and 3
- Students with Disabilities and other Special Needs
- Overseas Cultural Exchange Students
Education Team
Our education team adapts each workshops for age and ability, and tailors the workshop for you to deliver prescribed syllabus-based learning-outcomes.
- Workshops are run by trained and experienced in-house rangers.
- We have a wonderful supportive network of specialists who we can call on if you need something in their specialist area such as horticulturists, traditional toolmakers and artists.
- Our Education Coordinator is both an educationist and an anthropologist, and works with our cultural advisers to ensure that all Aboriginal content in the programs is both appropriate and respectful, and that any knowledge shared is always with permission.
- Our ranger guides are experienced in animal care and handling, as well as in conducting in-field workshops with all groups of all ages and abilities.
Walkabout Workshop Choices
You can select a workshop or, alternatively, you can ask us to recommend a workshop for you. Your students will have great fun learning in our bush classroom.
Tell us what you are doing in the classroom so that our rangers can deliver your workshop in a way that supports the learning outcomes that you are looking for.
Connecting with Country Workshops - 2½ hours (2 x 1¼ hours + break)
Choose your "Connecting with Country" workshop
$18.50 per student - minimum 20 students or pay for 20
1 Teacher free with each 10 students. Additional adults pay student price.
Choose 2 modules from:
- CC1 - Spikes, Scales, Feathers & Fur Workshop: Meet the Australian native and farm animals that the rangers care for at Walkabout Park.
- CC2 - Bush Skills: Handle Aboriginal tools made using ancient designs, make ochre paint, throw a boomerang and wash your hands with bush soap. Examine how these tools were made and what they were used for.
- CC3 - Animal Ecosystems*: Head out along the tracks to look for how animals make their homes in the bush and how they find food, from tiny termites’ giant nests, to evidence of bettongs gathering nesting materials and bandicoots digging for bugs, and other surprises.
- CC4 - People’s Shelters*: Learn how Aboriginal people would build a hut or ‘humpy’, gathering everything they needed from the bush and making bark-rope to tie things down, and visit ancient sandstone shelters formed by the weather.
- CC5 - Bush Tucker & Bush Medicine*: Go walkabout with your ranger to harvest bush tucker and bush medicine the way Aboriginal people have done for thousands of years. Learn about the seasonal nature of foods and the medicinal properties of plants.
*Aboriginal Sites Visit Extension
We can incorporate a visit to one of the ancient Aboriginal Sites located at Walkabout Park.
- Only for Stage 2 or 3 students (not Stage 1 as it is too far for little legs)
- Only for modules CC3, CC4 and CC5 (not CC1 or CC2 as these modules stay close to the Visitor Centre)
Your program will be modified so that the route for your Walkabout Workshop goes past the Aboriginal Sites, and the time to talk about the sites will fit within your overall 2½ hours of ranger-led activities.
When you book your excursion, tell us the 2 modules you have selected and that you want the Aboriginal Sites Visit Extension to be included.
Suggested Day Plan for 2½ hour Workshop
10:00 arrival and BYO morning tea
10:30 ranger-led activities 1¼ hours
11:45 break for BYO lunch
12:15 ranger-led activities 1¼ hours
01:30 workshop ends
01:45 departure
Condensed Workshops - 1½ hours - maximum 20 students
You can choose animal encounters, a bush tucker walkabout, or a blend of both. Tell us what you are doing in the classroom and we will tailor the program to support the learning outcomes you are looking for.
For any small school group up to 20 students
Designed to make workshops more affordable for smaller groups.
For small groups of students with special needs
To accommodate students with special needs e.g. behaviour or concentration issues, or intellectual or physical disabilities, you may prefer to choose the Condensed Workshop with the option for a single 1½ hour session, or 2 or 3 shorter sessions with 30 minute breaks between each.
Pricing for Condensed Workshops
$12 per student PLUS $140 for the workshop - MAXIMUM 20 students
1 Teacher free with each 10 students. Essential carers free. Additional adults pay student price.
Pricing examples: $284 for 12 students [$140 + (12 x $12)] ...OR... $368 for 19 students [$140 + (19 x $12)]
Suggested Day Plans for Condensed Workshops
Day Plan – 1 Session
10:00 arrival and BYO morning tea
10:30 ranger-led activities 1½ hours
12:00 break for BYO lunch
12:30 teacher-guided walk to sites or animals
01:30 departure
Day Plan – 2 Sessions
10:00 arrival and BYO morning tea
10:30 ranger-led activities 45 mins
11:15 break for BYO lunch
11:45 ranger-led activities 45 mins
12:30 teacher-guided walk to sites or animals
01:30 departure
Day Plan – 3 Sessions OPTION FOR SPECIAL NEEDS GROUPS
10:00 arrival and BYO morning tea
10:30 ranger-led activities 30 mins
11:00 break
11:30 ranger-led activities 30 mins
12:00 break
12:30 ranger-led activities 30 mins
01:00 break
01:30 departure
Optional Worksheets - for some workshops, check with us
Add $30 (flat rate) if electronic file sent to school
Add $30 (flat rate) + $1.50 per print (per student) if printed by Walkabout Park for students
Optional Catering - for everyone in group
Add $7.70 per person - Single Sausage Sizzle & Cold Drinks
Add $12.60 per person - Triple Sausage Sizzle & Cold Drinks
Add $15.40 per person - Sausage BBQ & Salad & Cold Drinks
Deposit and Refund Policy
A $100 deposit secures your booking.
The deposit is non-refundable because, once your booking is confirmed, Walkabout Park will turn away other business for that day.
In the event of bad weather, your deposit is transferrable to another date or to be used as credit against another booking.
Wet Weather Policy
Make sure the students and teachers bring their rain gear.
Except in extreme weather, the program goes ahead in the rain.
If the weather is expected to be too extreme for the rangers to be able to run the program, or if it might be dangerous, Walkabout Park will contact you to reschedule your excursion or give you a credit for a future excursion.
If Walkabout Park does not assess the wet weather conditions to be too extreme but you would like to reschedule anyway, we respect this and will work with you to find an alternate date.
Calga weather patterns are quite different to the Sydney Basin and the Central Coast. It can be pouring with rain down the road in Kariong or Hornsby, but dry in Calga.
You can contact Walkabout Park up to 5 days before your excursion to make general enquiries about expected weather conditions, with more specific weather information available 48 hours prior.
