My Coral Conservation Volunteering in Australia

Arrival/Arrival

Logically, my journey to Cairns took a long time, as it is a very long journey. Nevertheless, everything went well and I arrived safely at the hostel. The jet lag bothered me a bit for the first few days, but that soon subsided.

Orientation program

For the first two days I was in the office and learned a lot about coral and fish species that I didn't know that much about before. I was also able to learn a lot about the Great Barrier Reef and my local activities. That was really very interesting!

Areas of responsibility

My classic work week consisted of two office days (Mon & Fri), two reef days (Tues & Thurs) and a turtle day (Wed) on which I was allowed to feed sick and injured turtles.

On a classic office day, I was in the office at 9:00 a.m. and analyzed the data collected from the reef days. I also had to work a lot with dictionaries in order to be able to identify corals, which in turn taught me a lot. At 12:00 p.m. I had about an hour's lunch break and between 15:00 p.m. and 16:00 p.m. I was usually allowed to go back to the hostel.

On the reef days we met at the harbor at 7:30 a.m. and then we took the boat to the Great Barrier Reef. We went there once in the morning and once in the afternoon, snorkeling or sometimes diving. In between there was always a good lunch on the boat. We were usually back in Cairns between 16:00 and 17:00 p.m.

On Turtledays I also had to be at the port by 7:30am. From there I took the boat to Fitzroy Island where the Turtle Rehabilitation Center is. There I fed turtles and then cleaned their pool and changed filters. I was off at noon and could either take the ferry back or spend the rest of the afternoon on the island.

Home & Living

I stayed in a 10 bed dorm in a hostel. You didn't have much privacy there, but it was still a good experience because you met a lot of young people from all over the world. The hostel also had a shared pool, shared kitchen and shared bathrooms.

Essen

The food in Australia is very expensive compared to Europe and that's why I usually cooked something myself in the hostel. Otherwise there is similar food as in Europe (burgers, pizza, pasta, Asian, etc.).

leisure

Since unfortunately no other volunteers took part in the project, I was completely on my own in my free time. That means I could think about what I wanted to do myself, but I often had to do it alone. As a result, I had to be more open to other travelers and I also learned a lot. My favorites were a tour to the Daintree Rainforest and Cape Tribulation. I also went bungee jumping once, which was really breathtaking! Otherwise, I explored Cairns in my free time and went skating a few times because I brought my skateboard from home.

Special experiences

What I liked best about this project was that I was able to learn so many new things about marine life and then apply my knowledge when I was on the Great Barrier Reef. I really liked being told again and again that I was a helpful support to the organization and that I knew I was doing something good for the environment.

Why RGV?

I chose RGV because I received very good advice and the project really appealed to me. Overall I really enjoyed it and will definitely recommend RGV.

Field report from the volunteer project "Protecting corals in Australia", by Julian H., October 2022