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2009 TAGS Camp TAGS camp TAGS camp was brilliant! We went to Government House and Parliament House the first day, and that was very interesting. On the second day, we went to Rottnest. The weather was really good and we all had a lot of fun riding along on our bikes. On the third day, we did circus tricks. We learnt many new things such as tightrope walking and flips. On the last day, we went to scitech and looked at animation, the stars and what it takes to be an astronaut. TAGS camp was great fun and I hope we can go again next year! by Kate Dowden TAGS Camp gave me a feeling of how WA joins up: how the economy works. ‘Money’ kept coming up as a focus at Government House and Parliament House; and then in other ways through the week. Wool and gold mining were an important part of Western Australia’s money production. We learnt about that at Government House from their Book of Records where it stated that at least half of state’s income came from wool and gold. Different parts of Government House had been built on the Wool Boom first, and then from the Gold Rush. Horse sales had also been important early on. Another part of WA’s history is Rottenest, starting off as a prison. Rotto has become a part of the income of the state. When we were at Parliament House, there was an argument in Parliament about letting developers into Rotto. The Opposition said that it would make Rotto too expensive for some people to come. The Minister for Education, who is also in charge of Tourism, said that Rottenest would still have some low price accommodation. When we went to Rottnest, I thought that it was good that Rotto had been kept with a range of accommodation; I also hope that Rotto stays open. Rottenest felt like everyone who visited belonged, and the island was welcoming me with open arms. The day after we were taught circus skills by man called Scooby. He was one of the best teachers of circus skills I have had. He showed us how to climb on silk sheets hanging down from the ceiling: this was something I hadn’t done before at all. Mum said that Scooby was underpaid because circus skills help children learn. I think that Western Australia needs kids who are going to learn well. That will make more money and success for the state.
Thank you Kate for earning the prize money for this camp and I look forward to having another camp in the future. By Timu King
All the TAGS kids got to go on a camp to Perth for 4 days. On the first day we went to government and parliament house we discovered a lot of things like a cellar that the tour guide showed us it was full with wine! And Kate discovered a secret shoe polishing stash that was not as exciting as the cellar. We saw a lot of paintings which were lovely. The second day was great we got the complete day of riding around Rottnest Island, we saw Quokkas and peacocks and a lot more, it was nice. Then we went to the beach it was fun! We dug a massive hole! Then we took a ferry back. Day 3 was fun. We got to go to the circus training. We tried to learn the Diablo and tight rope walking, it was amazing. There were only the TAGS class. It was good to have a small group, and we leant a lot of new stuff like the devil sticks. Day 4 was great we went to Scitech and into the horizon theatre, we saw a movie on astronauts, it was cool. Then we had free time. We saw a lot of cool stuff like the airplane, it was really fun. So over all it was great fun! By Emily Dowden On Tags Camp I had a wonderful time which included 4 super fun days! On Day One we went to Government House where the Governor of Western Australia, Dr Kenneth Michael (to me, Your Excellency) lives. He has been to Austin Downs and I have met him. I particularly liked the dance floor (because we got told the story of a murder at a ball there) and the dungeons (because they were full of rooms). Then we went on the Ferris Wheel and we got lifted at least fifty feet in the air. We could see Government House from there and also Parliament House. In Parliament House the politicians were arguing. I wanted to yell down to them ‘sort it out!’ but I wasn’t allowed to speak. On Day Two we went to Rottnest Island and went (mostly) around the place on bikes. We also now know that peacocks are nasty because one peacock butted Emily on the back so she dropped her ice cream. We also saw some quokkas and one was very tame. I wanted to spend more time at Rottnest because we didn’t explore the entire island. On Day Three we went to Fremantle to do Circus Skills. The Circus Skills building was very exciting: all the monkey bars and the trampolines. We got to do juggling with cloths and bean bags. It was hard work but it was very fun. I found the head rolls and the trampoline very difficult. We had lunch at a café. On Day Four we went to Scitech. We got to learn how to use SAMAnimation in the studio. I got some stuff wrong because I didn’t keep track of my blue arrow but I liked the program better than the one we used last year. After the studio we went to the Planetarium. Once you are in the Planetarium you can get out but you can’t get back in. I stayed in but I had to go to the toilet immediately afterwards. We were taught about space and one of the voices sounded like Ben Kenobi. We learnt about what changes your body undergoes in space. We also learned where the Southern Cross was and we found a fake Mars. There was anime at the end about what could happen in emergencies. There was a cartoon astronaut whose name was Cad and he went through the forces of space controlled by a mad scientist. Then we had free time. At night we stayed at Debbie’s place in the city. We saw bandicoots at night. I thank Debbie for the camp and hope to have another one. By Sam King Here are a few photo's from the TAGS Camp
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