Ridgee Didge ToursDesert Dreaming Centre · Barcaldine
School students in blue uniforms seated in a circle on the Corroboree grounds, listening to a guide standing in the centre.
School group package (half day) · Half day (2:00pm – 8:30pm)

The Queensland Desert Mob Experience

A specialised Dreamtime Guide tour catering for school groups

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About this experience

Nowhere else in Australia will you see so much culture and story squeezed into one compact location than at the Desert Dreaming Centre. Here you will begin your immersion into the Dreaming of the Yiningai (Yin-in-gee) people beneath the covers of our sacred Corroboree Grounds and the brightest Milky Way seen anywhere in Big Sky Country.

Your Dreamtime Guide: Cheryl Thompson

Itinerary

  1. Australian Workers Heritage Centre -Tree of Knowledge Talk

    A totally different experience of the Tree of Knowledge from your Dreamtime Guide Cheryl Thompson. Local knowledge shared history, story telling, experiences of growing up in Barcaldine and how the Great Shearers Strike of 1891 changed Australia’s worker.

  2. Ultimate Town Shared Histories Tour

    Join Cheryl on a Town Tour of her hometown of Barcaldine as she shares with you the iconic locations around the town and surrounds that have both meaning to the settlers and to her tribal ancestors. Learn how these two groups came together to build together a shared history.

  3. Desert Dreaming Centre – State your Business

    Upon your arrival you will be greeted and then receive a tribal ‘Welcome to Country’ by Yiningai woman, Cheryl Thompson. Here you will be asked to ‘State your Business’ which if you are a student, your business here is to learn. To learn, we then must look and listen. Once your business has been stated you will have the ceremonial ochre applied to your forearm and you will be allowed to join your tribe at the seating area of our Corroboree Grounds for a briefing with Cheryl where she will introduce you to her tribe of helpers for the evening.

  4. Choose your cultural workshop

    • Boomerang Workshop - Where the laws of physics meet tribal art — Be immersed in the knowledge of the most iconic tribal technology, the boomerang in its three distinct manifestations. Using tribal symbolism and totemic knowledge, decorate and learn to throw the returning boomerang
    • Message Stick Workshop: Where tribal visual art meets the spoken word — Learn a new language and create a personal keepsake or a gift for a loved one as a memento of your special visit with us

  5. DESERT DUST DANCERS Evening Extravaganza Show and Meal

    regather at the edge of the CORROBOREE GROUNDS to witness our Desert Dust Dance Troupe dance up a storm. We will present to you a series of local and other tribal stories through song and dance. After these presentations, it will be your turn. Here you will be invited to join us on our sacred bora ring and learn how to imitate our totemic animals and other basic dance steps to join with us in dancing up a further storm. Dinner included: Students- Pizzas, chicken nuggets, chips. Adults- Chicken Parmigiana, chips and salad

School group add-ons

Add-onPer student
Big Buffet Brekky at the Barcy Base Camp (BBC)
Experiencing more Outback Hospitality and great food at the ‘Tucker Tables’ Cooked breakfast, includes choice of hot beverages, chilled water, and juices		$18
Lunch at the ‘Tucker Tables’
Sandwich platters and assorted refreshments including fruit		$18
Sunrise at ‘Barcy’ Beach: where the Artesian Basin becomes the Inland Sea
Embrace the sun as it rises over the water, experience a unique outback over water sunrise and a time to play. Recreational options such as: Dreamtime Mentors Yoga, Boxing, Meditation Paddle boards, Kayaks Self-guided walk around the beach		$8
Camp fire dinner Under the Big Sky
Outback Fringe Camp Resort Grounds Camp fire dinner Yarning Circles Smoking Ceremony		$45
Packed Lunch option
Cold meat and salad Wrap, small salad, fruit / nuts, Anzac slice and juice		$22

Per student, GST inclusive.

At the Centre

Dancers performing on the sand of the Corroboree grounds in daylight while school students watch from the grass.
A guide holds up a decorated message stick to explain it to a workshop group.
Visitors painting message sticks at a paint-splattered workshop table.