Comet Bay College geography students travel to Brisbane for 'Big Week Out'

Two Year 12 students were recently treated to a trip to Brisbane for Geography’s Big Week Out (GBWO) after producing impressive results in last year’s Australian Geography Competition. 

Both of WA’s representatives, Amad Arzavi and Justine Thomas, hail from Comet Bay College.

The pair joined 14 other students from across the nation is a week of fieldwork activities that focused on investigating public spaces in central Brisbane and assessing their quality.

Three different sites were assessed – the City Botanic Gardens, a central city square and a pedestrian mall in a downtown area – and tasks included mapping, surveying users, estimating transient populations, and analysis and visualisation of data.

On the last day, students sat a two-hour test to determine which four participants would go on to represent Australia at the 2022 International Geography Olympiad (iGeo).

Ms Thomas won a place on the team and will return to the Gold Coast to reunite with her teammates to compete in the virtual contest.

“It was an amazing experience,” Ms Thomas said.

“It was great meeting like-minded peers and we were exposed to a lot high-tech spatial technology.

“I’m looking forward to the Nationals to learn more about the connectedness of places. Geography is a such a relevant subject to study because it connects to so many other subjects and the world around us.”