Geography’s Big Week Out is a mix of stimulating and hands-on geography activities, focusing on fieldwork, designed to challenge and extend high-performing senior students. Sixteen students are selected to participate from the Year 11 level of the Competition.
The 2025 Geography’s Big Week Out (GBWO) was held from 28 September to 2 October in Canberra and Jindabyne. Sixteen Year 11 students from around Australia were invited to participate, based on their outstanding performances in the Australian Geography Competition:
Student | School | State/Territory |
| Angus Mackay | Canberra Grammar School | Combined Territories |
| Ava Pierce | Carine Senior High School | Western Australia |
| Eli Hollis | Unity College | South Australia |
| Felix Martin | Caringbah High School | New South Wales |
| Henry Pritchard | Shore School | New South Wales |
| Jake Parker | Hobart College | Tasmania |
| Jerry Wang | Ormiston College | Queensland |
| Jun von Chrismar-Stocks | Carey Baptist Grammar School | Victoria |
Lucy Ma | Lauriston Girls’ School | Victoria |
| Madison Davis | Fraser Coast Anglican College | Queensland |
| Rob Davison | Hale School | Western Australia |
| Sienna McNamara | Danebank Anglican School for Girls | New South Wales |
| Sophia Bakker-Ness | Hobart College | Tasmania |
| Tara Bartlett | St Dominic’s Priory College | South Australia |
| Ziyaan Ali | Darwin High School | Combined Territories |
| Zoe Muller | The Riverina Anglican College | New South Wales |
Students carried out fieldwork in Kosciuszko National Park and in Canberra, across five sites in total. In teams of four, they assessed each site’s engagement with youth tourism and sustainability. Activities included: recording numbers and demographics of visitors; interviewing visitors; mapping tourist infrastructure; investigating environmental, ecological, and management considerations for a case study of the endangered Stocky Galaxias with a Kosciuszko National Park Ranger; discussing park values and threats to sustainability with the Perisher Ski Resort education team; engaging with an arborist and the education team at the National Arboretum; and discussing sustainability practices and opportunities on offer for Geography-related careers at the National Zoo and Aquarium.
There was also time for fun activities, such as a gondola ride to the top of the range and a ride on the Alpine Coaster in Thredbo, and riding through the National Zoo and Aquarium in open vehicles.
Throughout GBWO students worked in groups, splitting tasks between the groups and then sharing their data and uploading it to a common website.
On the last day the students sat a test from which we select the team to represent Australia at the 2026 International Geography Olympiad to be held in Istanbul, Türkiye. The selected students will be announced in early 2026.
The activities were led by Michael da Roza and Ella Williamson, from the Geography Teachers’ Association of New South Wales and Australian Capital Territory, John Tasker and Rachel Honey, from the Australian Geography Competition Committee and Peggy Bakalis from the Geography Teachers Association of Western Australia.
Geography’s Big Week Out and Australia’s participation in the Olympiad are supported by the Australian Government Department of Education, the University of Melbourne, the University of New South Wales, the Australian Institute for Disaster Resilience and Flinders University.
Students participating in the 2026 Australian Geography Competition will have the chance to represent their state/territory at the next Geography’s Big Week Out and their country at the 2027 International Geography Olympiad in Jelgava, Latvia.
