Highlights and delights of East Gippsland
Sale and Bairnsdale hosted students on their Year 2 rural placements recently and a myriad of activities were well received by all students.
Bush Tucker Day at the Bairnsdale campus proved to be a real highlight, held to promote Aboriginal culture and heritage. Students were treated to a display of traditional items including a decorated gathering dish and other handmade utility items and were also involved in hands-on activities including making echidna-quill necklaces.
The day was led by Cassie Harrap, a local Aboriginal woman soon to become an elder in the area.
Following the activities at Lakes Entrance, students were treated to a Lake Tyers foreshore walk where Cassie enlightened them about edible plants, such as Warrigal Greens and pig face. Warrigal Greens is a leafy ground cover which can be used as a substitute for spinach and any recipe, in particular a quiche. More information on Warrigal Greens can be found at the following link: http://www.thebackyardfarmer.com.au/byf7/green.html
Cassie’s passion for her heritage, the lore and the art of her people, has been passed on from her father and she now works closely with secondary schools and other businesses to pass on her knowledge.
A highlight for Deborah Hewetson, the Year 2 coordinator, was an invitation extended to staff and Year 4C students by the Year 2 cohort, to a last night barbecue held at Paynesville on the lovely Gippsland Lakes.
Sessions in the skills lab were also held for the students, under the instruction and supervision of Deborah and Laurea Atkinson, the SLE project officer at Bairnsdale campus. The students were able to experience the simulation equipment, the majority for the first time, and had half day sessions with ALS, SimMan, and SimMom, a particular highlight being the delivery of a baby.
Feedback from the students was excellent, albeit with humorous undertones!
In Sale, Year 2 students Sale spent an early and rather foggy morning visiting a dairy farm at Denison, half an hour’s drive from the Clinical School.
Dairy farmer Matt Coleman had already been up for some hours milking his herd of 250 cows, keeping just a few back ready for the arrival of the students at 7am. Matt and tutor Jason McAinch, also a dairy farmer in the district, took students through the procedure associated with milking, cleaning the lines and storage of milk.
Matt emphasised that the dairy farm is a ‘food production facility’ and so requires exemplary hygiene standards. Students were given the opportunity to sample “real milk” and there was some promotion of milk by Jason as a healthy diary product versus soy drink. As Jason said “soy is not a milk…it is made from a bean!”
Students were shown the array of equipment used on a daily basis by farmers including tractors, hay forks and 4-wheelers. Jason emphasised the risks involved in the use of such machinery, issues of complacency which can lead to accidents and the need, as potentially rural doctors, to be aware of the risks often taken on farms.
Students were intrigued by the echidna quill necklaces, demonstrated by Cassie Harrap