Geocaching – Orienteering on a grand scale

Travelbug-GPSr
Image via Wikipedia

Recently quite a few of the QCCC Outdoor Education staff team has become hooked on Geocaching. 

Geocachers are an underground network of people living in your community and every other community in Australia, a network of people from all walks of life who are connected through a common interest.  They often behave suspiciously and you may even have seen some and wondered, but they are essentially safe and you need not fear them. 

This hidden network of people are engaging in what can best be described as a giant, worldwide game of hide and seek.  Here’s a Wiki explanation:

Geocaching is an outdoor sporting activity in which the participants use a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver or other navigational techniques to hide and seek containers, called “geocaches” or “caches”, anywhere in the world. A typical cache is a small waterproof container containing a logbook.

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Drop some pilots

In a recent magazine article our Director of Camping, Andrew Grant, wrote “one thing that has fascinated and challenged me recently is that the deep and continued goodwill towards camping from people across generations is somewhat dampened by a sense that life has crowded in and made camping less achievable’.

The rainforest walk at Mapleton

He went on to say ‘I’m confident that camping retains a great relevance to modern life. Our role is to make camping accessible to ensure the potential of camping is unleashed in the lives of people.’

Over the last year we’ve spent a lot of time and made a lot of progress in assessing what we have in QCCC, and how we can grow and expand our services, and more importantly grow our ability to service camping and conferencing in our State.

Some of these involve some left-of-field thinking, where we’ve taken an innovative approach to push the envelope and broaden horizons, delivering camps with a difference.

Over the next few weeks we’ll throw out some ideas ideas we have for the future in an attempt to find churches, schools and groups to consider partnering with us in some pilots.  We’d like to soft-start some of these ideas with innovative partners to make sure they can work. After review and trouble-shooting we can then offer them to a wider audience.

Chappys stay free at QCCC

In recognition of the important role of chaplains in Australia’s school communities, Queensland Conference and Camping Centres (QCCC) has decided that chaplains accompanying school camps will stay free at QCCC facilities for the duration of their school camp.

Chappy's stay free when joining their school camps in enjoying the amazing QCCC facilities.

QCCC is growing partnerships with other, like-minded organisations and the staff bodies of the three QCCC Centres are firm believers in the validity and importance of chaplaincy in schools.

Camping establishes an environment for out-of-the-ordinary experiences, which tend to be remembered more than experiences in ordinary settings. QCCC would like to enable school chaplains to be a part of this process as much as possible and will therefore waive all charges associated with a chaplain’s attendance at a school camp.

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Brisbane school camps thrive here!

Brisbane is a sought after destination for school camps and QCCC Brookfield is ideally located to cater for an excellent school camp, retreat or conference.

School camps Brisbane Queensland
Brookfield also has lots of facilities to help your group to relax when on-site.

As State capital of Queensland Brisbane has a wealth of educational and recreational facilities. These are easily accessed from Brookfield, just 15km or 25 minutes from the CBD and even closer to the many attractions in the south west, surrounding Mount Cootha.

The QCCC website now has a specific page for Brisbane school camp groups to access, highlighting the many activities enjoyed by our guests during their stay at QCCC Brookfield and providing website links where possible. The website currently lists nearly 40 activity options in and around Brisbane, more than enough to crowd out a school camp program with a spectacular tour of the Queensland capital.

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QCCC Tamborine’s new Meeting Centre

QCCC Tamborine will offer a new Meeting Centre facility in 2011 to enhance its growing reputation as a quality provider of affordable retreats, conferences and school camps.  With breathtaking views over Brisbane and just a short drive from the Gold Coast, the Meeting Centre will be a welcome addition to QCCC Tamborine’s quality accommodation and catered facilities.

Gold Coast Brisbane Conferences Retreats School camps
The new Tamborine Meeting Centre enjoys spectacular views from a beautiful garden setting.

Available from early January 2011 the Meeting Centre is located next to QCCC’s CMS site and enjoys sweeping views off the escarpment over Moreton Bay. The building is set in tranquil garden surrounds and also has a deck to enjoy the view, the trees and the bird life.

Inside the Meeting Centre contains a main meeting/performance area that can hold up to 70 people and several smaller seminar rooms that can contain up to 20 people.  This makes the Meeting Centre ideal for a range of applications including conferences and seminars, music and drama camps and school spiritual retreats. 

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Carnival Night

We’ve just waved goodbye to the latest Mapleton Adventure camp and we really hope that each child takes away with them amazing memories of fun, mayhem and friendship.

The jumping castle is the visual centre-piece for a lot of surrounding activity

One of the stand-outs of the September MAC is Carnival night.  This is the first September MAC I’ve been involved with, and I have to confess I was impressed with its scale and impact.  I now understand why the QCCC staff (and their kids) eagerly awaits each MAC, and why Carnival night is an event on the calendar not to be missed.

Through the year hard-working volunteers comb through stores in Brisbane taking hold of a massive range of plastic toys, food nearing its use-by-date and anything else that might please a child’s heart. 

The campers come into Kirkwood Hall that has as its centerpiece a giant jumping castle, a visual centre piece that sets the carnival atmosphere.  Each child is given a show bag stacked with goodies and a bag of plastic tokens.

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Super Mario Arena

This week QCCC Mapleton is hosting the September edition of the Mapleton Adventure Camp.  It’s a camp we host twice a year in partnership with Scripture Union Queensland, a week-long frenzy of fun for 120 kids drawn from the Brisbane area.

The quiet before the storm

Our aim is to make each Mapleton Adventure Camp as memorable as possible.  The theme for September camp this year is Super Mario Brothers, and on opening night (Monday) we decked out our meeting hall for the first round of games and activities.

The kids are pretty fresh and energetic when they hit camp on the first day, and many of the kids are just getting to know each other in their dorm groups.  So first night is all about an exhausting round of games and competitions to get the teams to gel and to make sure the kids are ready for bed when it’s lights out.

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Fathering Adventures: Coming Soon

QCCC has been in discussion with Fathering Adventures, about bringing a 2-night Father/Son adventure weekend to South East Queensland

Sea kayak Queensland Father son weekend
Sea kayaking is an integral part of the Father/Son weekend experience

Fathering Adventures have been succesfully conducting Father/Son weekends and expeditions for several years in North Queensland

QCCC and Fathering Adventures share a similar heart to energise the father/son relationship and have been working together for several months to bring the succesful North Queensland Father/Son format closer to the large population base of Brisbane and surrounding Coasts.

We’re currently putting the finishing touches on the first South East Queensland Fathering Adventure, to be staged in 2011. 

We hope to cater to ten father/son pairs at the modern QCCC accommodation on breathtaking Tamborine Mountain.  The weekend will include a half-day Dolphin and Straddie sea-kayaking expedition to complement the usual well-balanced combination of group activities, and intentional one-on-one time to better explore relationships between father and son.

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Activities on camp at QCCC

 

Climbing Wall Sunshine Coast
The climbing wall at QCCC Mapleton

 

Anyone who has visited QCCC Mapleton will know it has an amazing range of outdoor education activities to choose from – a massive climbing wall, abseil tower, canoeing, flying foxes, giant swings and archery, to mention a few. 

Each of our sites cater to different guest needs and event styles.  QCCC Tamborine is a wonderful location for retreats, conferences and has close proximity to the major Gold Coast attractions.  QCCC Brookfield is conveniently located near the heart of Brisbane and is a great destination for schools doing Brisbane camps.  Its up-market facilities also make it highly sought after for conferences and corporate retreats.