Awards

Awarded the Best Dancing Queen Prize based on her NYE performance
Anderson, Liz

Most likely to be caught smiling for no apparent reason Award
Carrels, JD

"Constantly" singing, Kareoke Queen award
Constant, Stephanie

Most likely to be off on her own having a good time award
Forry, Deanna

Award for most memorable line spoken to a visiting lecturer—"I,  like, can't believe, like, how laid back the cops are.  Like at Festival First, like, I was urinating behind like a tree, and like, 2 cops were just laughing at me.
Foulds, Luke

I can't believe I just failed this course for referring to Reynold as Shamu the whale award
Gardner, Evan

The Graduate Award!
Hammond, Jen

First time playing in an ocean award
Heupel, Kalli

Most unlikely to speak in parseltongue Award
Johnson, Jennifer

Most consistent runner and exerciser over and above the fat-camp aspects of this course created by Russ award
Kading, Kilee

Best and most consistent asker of questions to site report speakers Award
King, Carson

Mostly likely to organize the group and make others feel good about it award
Pletts, Gentry

Worst sunburn award, based on the lost of her entire face peeling off early in the course
Profilet, Katrin

Split personality award for being both Kevin Ricke and Kmart
Ricke, Kevin

Best overall student award
Roghair, Leah

Most likely to ask questions of our visiting lecturers award
Zimmerman, Nicole

Great Barrier Reef

Sunday we, yet again, woke up early to get on our bus to go to the harbor. We boarded the Reef Experience boat to go out to the Great Barrier Reef and scuba dive. The reef was about two hours from shore so the crew talked to us about what kinds of animals we would see at the Reef and different precautions to be aware of. I signed up with a small group of certified divers and went through some of the hand signals and what our game plan was going to be. Everyone else either could snorkel or have an introductory dive. My group suited up and started our decent into the ocean. The Reef was gorgeous; between the fish and the coral the colors were amazing. Within the first couple of minutes we saw a shark which was a cool start to the dive. I saw many large clams, fish, small jelly fish (it’s the time of year in Australia where all these jelly fish wash up by the beaches but the small ones aren’t too venomous and we wear a wet suit so it was fine), sea cucumbers, and much more. There was an adorable turtle above me going to the surface to get air. We stayed down for about 45 minutes but then one of the girls in the group was running low on air so we started back towards the boat. 

After a lunch and nap break the boat went to another area of the reef where we could go out again if we wanted too. I decided to go out again with one of the guys that were in my original group for the first dive because if you were a certified diver you could go out alone and do your own thing. We both didn’t want to go out alone so decided to stick with each other. We saw two sea turtles and ended up chasing after one of them because he had a camera and wanted to get a good shot of it. I went through my air much faster this time; I think it was because of the chase and me being nervous about being without a guide. The second dive was only 30 minutes and we went to a depth of 19.6 meters. I saw a lot and had a blast so overall it was a successful day. On the way back to the harbor one of the crew members (who happened to be from South Dakota) taught us some fun facts about sharks to make the time past faster. Some facts: Sharks loose 30,000 to 40,000 teeth in their life time, and that their skin is really a combination of teeth and skin which makes it feel like sandpaper and potentially cut someone’s hand. It was a fun but very tiring day so we all came back to Gilligan’s and napped before a fun night out.

Rafting

Saturday was another very early morning to get on a bus to get to the rafting place. We drove 2 hours to a town that battles with a surrounding town on who gets the most rain. It poured the whole way up the mountains but right when we got to our departure point in the river it cleared which was very nice. My team consisted of Nicole, Jen H., Liz, Katrin, Jen and our guide Rob. We got our equipment on and then headed to our raft to learn the moves and commands. The beginning of the river was to be the grade 4 rapids which were good to wake us up. All of the rapids had weird names like birds nest, the maze, zig zag, birth canal, alarm clock, and dog poo. We got to jump in and float down some portions and then learn how to get back into the raft as well as help others get in. I was pretty good at getting in so I had to help people by grabbing onto their life vests and pulling them up.  Nicole fell in twice, one of which was scary because she got stuck in this area for a while and got pulled underneath the raft where she scraped her stomach on a rock. Evan got hit by JD with a paddle and ended up having a concussion. Luckily I didn’t fall out at all besides jumping in or being push/pulled in by the guides and others in our group. At one point we flipped our boat and then Rob asked me and Jen to climb on top of the bottom of the boat with him. I had to hold onto a rope while laying down the center of the raft while Rob and Jen stood on the other side holding my feet. Then they pulled my feet and flipped the raft over so I got to hang off the side and flip in the air. It was really fun. We stopped along the river to get lunch and take a break after seeing some really amazing waterfalls.

Once we started down the river again we went through some more amazing rapids including one where we got stock sideways then finally fell through, which was really scary. When Nicole fell out she switched positions with me because she was in the front and had less to hold on to. There were a couple rapids that I thought for sure I was going to be thrown out of or hit by the other girls falling into me. It definitely made for an interesting finish to the trip. We finished our journey, carried the raft to the trailer and turned in our equipment. The guides were hilarious the entire time and definitely made the trip so much fun. When we got back to Gilligan’s we were all sore and tired so we hung out for a little and went to bed because we were going to have another fun filled day on the ocean tomorrow.

Cairns

      Friday the group woke up really early to get our stuff together and leave the Tiffany. We go to the group check-in at the airport and then waited to get on our plane to Cairns. After a three hour flight we landed in beautiful area with a tiny airport. Reynold got us a coach bus which was an upgrade from our usual travel bus, and we were off to Gilligan’s. The town of Cairns is surrounded by gorgeous mountains (where it rains very often) and beautiful beaches. The town is not very big but has all of the amenities expected at a tourist town. Upon arrival to Gilligan’s we were all very excited because attached to our hostel was Gilligan’s club. We all went on a tour of the town and found out different restaurants that were recommended and where the beach was. Right when we got back to Gilligan’s we all grabbed our suits and headed to the pool. We played a fun game of pool volley ball which was a blast until the clouds thickened and it looked like it was going to rain. Liz & I went up to our room to take a nap before dinner. For dinner we went to the Greek restaurant down the street and got lamb gyros which were AMAZING, followed by some cookie dough gelato. We all decided that we would go to the club later on and check out the scene but not stay out too late because we had to be up early for rafting the next day. Gilligan’s has this huge outdoor bar area which the other night had a live band playing. They also have a huge inside area with a bar, stage, and places to sit if need be. There were tons of people everywhere and the group had a great time with the 2-4-1 drink special that they had, until we all headed to bed.

Last days in Sydney

Yesterday we had a group meeting which was terrible because we had to work on our group projects. Later in the day when we all needed a break and wanted to get dinner we went to famous Harry's Pies near the wharf. Then we all craved chocolate so we walked all the way to Wynard to go to a chocolate bar. It was incredibly worth the long walk! I got chocolate covered strawberries. Once finished we took the train home and worked on our presentations some more.

Today we had our final presentation today FINALLY! Tourism group rocked :) After all the groups presented we all headed out for lunch down the street from our apartments. Jen & I went shopping at the mall for a while but then we got tired and went back to take naps. Tonight we had the dinner cruise for the ending of our J-term class ( which we all passed yay!). The ship was gorgeous, we had our own private room and deck. Dinner was salmon which was delicious & Jen, Katryn and I split a bottle of wine :). The harbor is just as beautiful at night as during the day, and the sights were amazing. We all had a blast talking about our trip so far and how much fun we are going to have in Cairns. Nesiba and Shelly made up awards for all of us, I won constantly singing or something like that. It was a great end to a wonderful couple of weeks in Sydney.

Macquarie's Chair Handout

This is my site report on Macquarie's Chair.

Blog #11: Australia in the World Economy, University of Sydney

Today, we took the train to the other side of the University of Sydney and walked into campus on that side. We met Professor Geoff Dow who talked to us about the limits and the possibilities of politics in the contemporary world. He showed us many different graphs of variables that compare Australia to the world. One of the graphs that I thought was extremely interesting was The Wealth of Nations. Wealth is something that is accumulated over time, not income which is wages, rent, and interest.  The top three countries are Norway, Luxembourg, and the USA. Australia ranks 7^th on the list. This is interesting because Professor Dow then goes on to compare that to GDP per capita in 2010 and the Human development index 2010 ( a United Nations program that includes longevity, infant mortality, education and GDP per capita). GDP per capita shows Norway, Singapore, USA, Netherlands, Canada and Australia as the top 6 countries. But when compared to the HDI Norway, Australia, New Zealand, USA, Netherlands, and Canada are the top 7. This shows that even though a country, like Singapore for example, has high GDP it is lacking in other areas like education, longevity, etc. as shown in the HDI where it ranks last. It is important to look at these graphs to see all of the different areas a country can be ranked and what is included in each.

Professor Dow also talked a lot about unemployment as a major variable to compare Australia to the world. He shows multiple graphs that show its unemployment against the rest of the world before the financial crisis and during. One of his graphs show unemployment from 1974 to 2004 and has Australia at 6.6% the OECD at 6.4 (which is Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development which is somewhat of an average) and the United States at 6.2%. Then another graph shows unemployment in 2009. The USA is at 9.3% the OECD is 8.3%, and Australia is at 5.6%. Dow presents this information and says that the reason for this is because of the mining boom hitting Australia when it did. Unemployment is interesting to look at because recent events in the Global Financial Crisis have impacted so many countries and these numbers show how Australia has been hit less than others. Unemployment is important to look at because it shows people without jobs that have been looking for a considerable amount of time which is a sign of economic stability.

 

Another variable that Dow talked about that I thought was interesting was the average annual hours worked per person in 2009. Korea was at the top of the list with 2256, Greece is second with 2119 and then USA is 8^th with 1802 hours. Australia is 1690 which is about 100 less hours than the United States. This is interesting because Norway, which was at the top of the Human Development Index talked about earlier, is near the bottom of the list with 1407 average hours worked per person. This is important to look at especially when comparing it to the GDP graphs mentioned above. Norway shows us how even though they don’t work as much as some other countries they still have high HDI and GDP.

We also heard the enthusiastic Frank Stilwell speak about Australia as the "Lucky Country". He talked about why Australia has been lucky in economic times including the Australia is close to Asia which is experiencing major growth especially in China who is buying Australia's natural resources, efficient government policies to get consumer spending up, and continuing population growth. He talked about some problems with this like the imbalance of economic, social, and ecological sectors. 

Something that was talked about earlier in the course when Jones spoke (Blog #6) was performance of Australia since WWII.   Jones also did a great job providing an overview of Australia’s macroeconomic performance since WWII. In the 1950’s Australia boomed with agriculture expansion and manufacturing development such as autos and petrochemicals. The 1960’s began a massive resource boom exported to mostly Japan. This boom was followed by a general economic crisis in the mid 1970’s.  In the 1990’s there is another resource boom mostly to China.  These events changed Australia’s GDP, unemployment, inflation and external balance greatly. Currently, Australia’s GDP and inflation has rose 3% in the past year. The external balance on current accounts in Australia has been negative which means that the imports have been greater than the exports. Today Australia’s primary trade and finance partners include China, Japan, Korea, India, and the United States.

Blog #10: Globalization in Higher Education: University of Notre Dame Australia

Today the group went to the University of Notre Dame Australia to hear Gerry Turcotte and Sean Lennon speak about Globalization in Higher Education.  Notre Dame was gorgeous; the sandstone bricks made the architecture look much older than it actually is. Notre Dame was one of the first private schools in Australia it was founded in 1989, Bond University is the other. It is funded by the government but is not constrained by problems with church and state like the United States. The government can support any schools of any religion. For Notre Dame, the government gave them money for land and research. This helps the University because it can better compete with other Universities who do get funding.  Australian Private Universities are different from U.S. because they don’t have to charge as much for tuition because it is funded by the government, they are much more recent Universities (the United States opened Harvard in 1636), and there are not many in Australia.

 We met the Dean of Arts and Sciences who gave us a presentation about Notre Dame and their international students. He talked about how Notre Dame only allows about 2% international students and how this is to promote abroad students to be emerged in the Australian culture. He shared some interesting things that they share with their international students before emerging in the program. For example, how they pronounce Aussie could become offensive. Gerry was very interesting and made his presentation fun which was nice, he also made us understand from a University stand point how they deal with international students.

On the other hand, Sean Lennon talked about his end of the spectrum at The Education Abroad Network. He deals with connecting students with Universities instead of through an exchange program. He talked about how he started up the business with his partner and how they send students to many Universities including University of Sydney, University of Melbourne, Notre Dame, etc. In the reading there was a list of the world’s top 200 Universities and the University of Sydney is #37. This really surprised me because I had no idea that Australia had such wonderful universities. Sean talked about how Australia uses University education as an export because they get international students to come to school in Australia where they purchase educational services.  This sector has been challenged by events such as the problems with the Indian media covering the Indian students being killed and mugged. Also, as the reading talked about, visas are becoming a problem because they are starting to be harder to get and have more restrictions.  There are issues with students being able to work. The article reads that currently students can work an average of 20 hours when school is in session but that may change.

After the two speakers, we left the University and went to get lunch and then head back to our apartments. We all got together and worked on our group projects and finished our questions for the final exam. Later, we all got ready and went down to Circular Quay where we were planning on having dinner at Phillip’s Foote. The restaurant was really different because we got to pick out the kind of meat we wanted and then we took it and grilled it ourselves. The food was wonderful, there were many different sides that you could choose including salad, fruit, pasta, bean salad, and much more. It was a great end of the night and it was good to see a different area of the harbor.

Sunday!

Sunday morning Jen, Nicole and I went to Darling Harbor to go to the Aquarium and the Wildlife Park. We saw sharks, jelly fish, dugongs and much more. All over the building there was statues made out of thousands of legos. We got to go in tube walkways underneath the water to see all of the sea life up close. It was really interesting to see Dugongs because they are going extinct.  After, we went next door to the Wildlife Park. We saw a platypus, cassowary (one of the most dangerous birds), koalas, kangaroos, and nocturnal animals. It was a lot of fun to see all of the animals and hang out together.  And then we had to file a police report, which was a first for me.

Once we got back to the apartment we rushed to get ready and ate sandwiches with all of the girls who were going to Le Grand Cirque. We got on the train and started walking the harbor side towards the beautiful Sydney Opera House. We took some pictures and then got out tickets to enter the show. Our seats were in the last row but it didn’t even matter because it didn’t seem like we were that far away. The acts were awesome; the muscles on some of the men were huge and made their movements look effortless. There was a steel cage which three bikes got in and were driving in at really fast speeds, among other acts. Overall it was a wonderful show and a definite highlight in my Australia trip. On the way out of the Opera House the Harbor Bridge was all lit up, so we all took pictures with that and the Opera House. We then stopped at one of the restaurants and got some dessert which we shared.  The entire weekend was full of exploring and entertainment. I am very lucky to have experienced all of this because it truly made this weekend unforgettable.

Saturday!

This weekend is free weekend for Australia in the Global Economy students! Friday night we went to the biggest club in Sydney which was awesome! Saturday, Jen H., Nicole, Leah and I went to the Sydney Tower to get a great view of the entire harbor and city. We could see the Harbor Bridge, Opera house, Manly Beach, Sydney University and everything in between. The views were excellent thanks to the good weather.

We then decided to get on the train to go to Paddy’s Market. We passed through this really pretty park on the way there which seemed like a relaxing place to hang out on a nice day because of all the grass and shade from the trees. We finally got to Paddy’s Market where we quickly found that there was everything and more packed into one building. This was great because we have been having issues finding reasonably priced shopping centers and this gave us the opportunity to find things that we liked and not pay a ton for them. I got a couple souvenirs, a dress, Australia tee shirts, sandals, and other trinkets. We had a late lunch upstairs and then went back home to get ready for Festival First Night.

When we were finally ready, the group got the train to Martins Place where thousands of people lined the closed streets listening to music and hanging out with friends. We wove our way to get closer to the band but eventually the crowd was too closely packed to be able to have enough space to move. We enjoyed the music of Rusted Development and then, after the show ended, went in search of a bar. We were instructed that Oxford St. was the place to be so we started to walk there & ended up having a lot of fun.

Video of Festival First Night!

Blog #8: American Consulate and Reserve Bank of Australia

Today we took the train to Martins Place which is one of the most iconic public places in Australia. It is Sydney’s largest pedestrian area in the heart of the business district. We made our way to the American Consulate where we had to go through security similar to an airport. We entered a room on the 59^th floor which had an amazing view of the harbor. Then we were introduced to Chris Corkey who is an economic officer for the United States who was prepared to talk to us about what the consulate does and current relations in Australia. He explained that the American Consulate handles many things including voting for American who are abroad, pregnant Americans wanting their child to be born as an American citizen when abroad, passports, visas, Americans in danger, as well as other things. He mentioned that they pretty much were the “eyes and ears for America”. It represents American interests and assists U.S. citizens in the Australian states of New South Wales and Queensland. He also talked highly about the relationship between the U.S. and Australia, saying that the relationship is so good that the U.S. tries to model their other relations from Australia. He talked about how the U.S. and Australia have the Free Trade Agreement of 2005 which, according to the article from the office of the United States Trade Representative website, stresses that this is significant because 99 % of U.S. manufactured exports to Australia will become duty-free immediately upon entry. This is the most significant immediate reduction of industrial tariffs ever achieved in a U.S. FTA and will provide benefits for Americas manufacturing workers and companies.  This also helps the wine industry specifically because, according to wine to the USA, tariff reductions through the FTA are important in price competitiveness.

At the Reserve Bank of Australia we heard Richard Finlay, senior economist, talk about monetary policy, the global crisis and what the bank does with inflation and interest rates.  Monetary policy, as defined by the Reserve Bank of Australia, involves setting the interest rate on overnight loans in the money market.  The global financial crisis has been less severe on Australia. According to our reading, Australia has been dealing with the crisis by using a sustained effort at promotes regulatory reform. This regulation has been improved by getting transportation, energy, water and infrastructure to establish robust and competitive markets. Australia’s monetary and fiscal policy has shielded businesses and citizens by rebounding Asian economies.  This is not at odds with the banks goal of reducing inflation because Australia still has a strong economy. From Richard Finlay’s presentation he talked about the strength of the Australian economy and how that makes the interest rates higher which pushes down inflation.  The interest rates are different between the U.S. and Australia because of the strength of their economy.

 According to the Reserve bank of Australia there have been some significant changes in Australian exports in the past couple of years. From 2000 to 2007 coal has risen from 16.2% to 26.7%. Education also rose from 2.9% to 5.9%. Tourism has gone down from 7.2% to 5.4%. These are huge differences in a span of 7 years and poses new opportunities and threats to the Australian economy. There are some significant differences between the Australian Central Bank and the U.S. Federal Reserve. Their economy is smaller, the treasury and the Federal Reserve have a closer relationship, Australia’s firm has more economists, Australia has one of the highest retirement funds and it’s easier for the U.S. to run big deficits because that economy is so large.

For the afternoon we got lunch at Martins Place and then headed back to the apartment to take naps before having a grill out with the entire group. After grilling the group went to HOM the largest club in Sydney which was a blast!

Blog #7: Tourism Australia

Today we went to Tourism Australia and heard Rachel Crowley the General Manager of Corporate Communication. The office was in a really pretty building decorated with Christmas trees but once you got to the actual office of Tourism Australia the scene changed.  There were pictures of places in Australia everywhere and all there was a colorful Kangaroo at the entrance. Rachel handout had some interesting figures about tourism including A$92 billion is the amount of spending tourism generates, A$33 billion amount tourism contributes to the economy, and there are .5 million tourism jobs. These figures show how important this sector is to the economy. It accounts for 2.6% of Australia’s GDP. Foreign tourists are extremely important to Australia’s economy in order for it to strive. According to Rachel, international tourism accounts for 38% of all expenditure in Australian tourism. China, the UK, and USA account for the most tourists. This is important because the more people that come into the country the more money is being spent within the country. New Zealand, UK and the United States contribute the most tourists to Australia. Rachel talked about the major destinations of these people including Sydney opera house, the Harbor Bridge, and the Ayers rock. Which, I was pleased to say; I have seen two out of the three and am planning on attending a show at the Opera house.

Some changes have influenced the tourism industry including the appreciation of the Australian dollar, airfare prices, and differences in ways of advertising their country. The Australian dollar has appreciated lately which, as Rachel talked about in her lecture, makes it more expensive for tourists to come and spend money.  Airfare is a huge factor in a tourists decision to go somewhere for holiday. If airfare prices are higher to go to Australia than another country, Australia may not be as attractive to them.  This was created because of Quantas and American Airlines being the only companies that provide services to Australia. Recently, Delta joined the mix, creating a competition which lowered prices which was great for Australia creating a boom in travelers entering the country. Also, Rachel was very excited when mentioning that the Oprah Show came to Australia which was great advertising for the country. They also have a Visiting Opinion Leader Program which brings people who are established bloggers or have opinions that influence a large number of people into the country to experience Australia and tell people about it.  This helps the industry and gets people to want to visit the country. 

This aggregate demand and aggregate supply diagram helps show how Australia’s stronger dollar is likely to affect exports and economic growth particularly in tourism. As the Interest rate increases the Australian dollar increases.  As aggregate demand increases, quantity increases. This affects sectors of the economy including tourism, higher education, mining, and wine which we are currently studying.

After the lecture about tourism which was very interesting considering that is what my final presentation will be on, Jen & I headed to Queen Victoria building for some shopping. We found that many of the shops were extremely expensive but very fashionable. We got to see a new area of the city which was great.

Blog #6: Australia Economic History University of Sydney

After a wonderful night at the Tiffany, we took the train to the University of Sydney where we would have our lecture about Australia’s Economy by Evan Jones.  Throughout the lecture Jones talked about Australia’s primary production, exports, trading partners, and origin of immigrants changing from 1788 to now. Around 1788, Evan Jones highlights that there wasn’t much going on in terms of production besides sealing and whaling until 1820’s when wool took off as an export for the economy. Shortly after in the 1850’s gold had rapid growth in terms of exports. Now, Australia has stayed with being a major export of its natural resources including coal, iron, gold, and natural gas. Australia’s trade partners back in the 1780’s included the United States, Japan in the 1960’s and more recently China. This change in exports and trade partners has happened because of different countries needs, especially when their country does not offer resources like Australia and the change from Australia being a convict colony to a world leader in export of coal and main place for immigrants from Europe and Asia.

        As the Article by Andrew Wells talked about imperialism, which is essentially the policy of extending a nation authority by territorial acquisition over other nations, he mentioned how this affected Australia.  He says that the imperial state weakened its direct political control and the colonial states because enmeshed in furthering capitalist development, commodity production. This supports the facts mentioned above about how their economy was first not selling many commodities then got into gold and coal mining. Today Australia’s primary trade and finance partners include China, Japan, Korea, India, and the United States. Also, in the packet Jones gave us there are more statistics about the United States investment relationship being about A$514,305,000 in 2009.

        Jones also did a great job providing an overview of Australia’s macroeconomic performance since WWII. In the 1950’s Australia boomed with agriculture expansion and manufacturing development such as autos and petrochemicals. The 1960’s began a massive resource boom exported to mostly Japan. This boom was followed by a general economic crisis in the mid 1970’s.  In the 1990’s there is another resource boom mostly to China.  These events changed Australia’s GDP, unemployment, inflation and external balance greatly. Currently, Australia’s GDP and inflation has rose 3% in the past year. The external balance on current accounts in Australia has been negative which means that the imports have been greater than the exports. This is something that Australia needs to keep in mind and a close eye on because that puts a lot of money in other countries hands rather than in their economy. Being on the University of Sydney campus was amazing! The old buildings gave a prestigious feel and made the area a gorgeous site. Then the girls & I decided to go get tee shirts from the University.

 All of us got food to go grill in the back area of the Meriton & I finally got a picture with a kangaroo from the other day when my camera died. :)

Kangaroo feeding to save the day!

After a long day of sitting in a bus and learning about coal mining in Australia Reynold presented us with a surprise. After turning into a mental institution we all thought " Are you serious". BUT Trish met us with her kids and brought us bread to feed the field of Kangaroos that live in the nearby conservation. They were adorable! The small ones were my favorite because if they tried to be aggressive I figured I could put up a fight, but the large males were terrifying. There was one with this weird ear and a missing eye which was sketchy. There were mothers with joey's in their pouches which were so cute! This ended up being a great ending to a not so wonderful day by the coal mines.

Kalli's video of us feeding the Kangaroos!

Blog #5: Macquarie Generation Power Station & Port Waratah Coal Services

After leaving the Hunter Valley YHA, Nigel brought us to a viewing area of a mining station called Mine 1. He had previously worked in the mining industry and gave some valuable insight on the process of mining.  He explained how the coal is located, dug up, brought down to the station and transferred along a conveyor belt  to each station where it is washed and packed up to be brought to places like Macquarie Generation Power Station and  Port Waratah Coal Services. The Power Station showed us the process of turning the coal into electricity ( picture below). These two services in the coal industry matter greatly to Australia’s economy. Port Waratah is the world’s largest coal handling productions. According to Brian, the speaker at Waratah, the company exports the coal to places like Japan (57%), China, South Korea, and Taiwan. They have a total capacity of 113 million tons per annum (Mtpa), which is handled by Kooragang and Carrington coal terminals. The coal industry helps Australia by providing jobs between the coal services and generation power stations and it also helps the global economy because other  there are other countries that  do not have these resources for energy. There is such a high demand for this resource that on the day that we went for a tour of Waratah's facility there were 42 ships waiting in the harbor to be filled with coal even though they were not scheduled to be filled for up to 2 weeks.

This whole industry is very interesting because Australia is one of the country’s most adversely affected by global climate change. However, it is the world’s largest exporter of coal. The article by Louise Hall talked about the issue and how “climate change campaigners say the real impact of the new fossil-fuel burning power stations has been hidden by a government desperate to avoid the power blackouts predicted within this decade”. This view of the government covering things up was also supported by Nigel at the first mining view point. The readings also showed the government’s response to such accusations arguing that “only coal or gas-fired generators could meet the state’s growing demand for electricity”. This is a valid point but does not excuse the practices that do not meet standards to help Australia’s climate. This is a tough issue facing Australia and it would be interesting to learn more about what kinds of things these companies should or could be doing to help create less of a negative impact on the climate from the mining group in their final presentation.

Blog #4: Tyrrell's & Tempus Two Vineyards

Today we set off to taste some wine and learn about the wine industry in Australia. We loaded the bus with Jono and started our journey to Tyrrell’s vineyard. When we arrived at the vineyard we all noticed the wonderful sights consisting of the mountains and the rows of vines. When looking at the building and after talking to Scott it was clear that the focus on Tyrrell’s was not about tourism but a love for premium wine. We started out the tour learning about the process about the wine. We started next to large machines that separate the grape solids from the juice. After seeing some of the different machinery used, we headed to the cellar where the wine is put into large barrels and stored until mature. Scott mentioned some fun facts including champagne is the only white wine that is made from red grapes. Also, the Australian Government wine facts article says that in 2008 Australia Domestic wine sales of 426.4 million liters with a whole sale value of A$2 Billion. However, 41% of wine sales contribute taxes. Soon after Scotts tour of the facility, the wine tasting began. We all lined up on the counter and got to try two kinds of wine at a time that were from the same vine but had slight differences like age, or kind of wood stored in. This was very interesting because it showed how the wine makers don’t just separate the wine and let it sit to see what happens. Instead they are sort of bakers who know what kinds of recipe change different things about the wine.  This wine tasting was a blast because after many glasses of wine everyone was feeling really good and we all bonded because of it. Especially since I arrived later than the rest of the group it was nice to have an opportunity to get to know the other members of our class on a different kind of level.

Upon arrival to Tempus Two there was a clear difference in appearance and focus in comparison to Tempus Two. The building was more modern and was not only home to the wine tasting and tour area but also had a Thai restaurant and a store to buy other foods including cheese and ice cream. There was more of a focus on the experience of wine tasting for example people can come to this place and spend a good amount of time because they can have food and do a tasting. Tempus Two seemed much more interested in tourism and keeping tourists entertained for a while. Our class took advantage of the fact that there was more to do at Tempus Two and ate a wonderful Thai meal which consisted of white rice and chicken/pork nuts and vegetables with a sauce before going to our wine tasting.  The wine tasting was different than Tyrrell’s because we were separated from everyone else which was more formal.

Both Tyrrell’s and Tempus Two have taken advantage of some technology that has helped them benefit from globalization. Both take advantage of new machines that make the processes for separating the solids from the liquids on the grapes. This helps them better compete with other companies. However, Tyrrell’s does still value old labor for example Scott mentioned that they have people hand pick the grapes, which could be a potential downside for them to compete due to higher prices from labor costs. Tempus Two is very much an experience and they want to make what the consumer wants. Therefore they focus on creating wines that are not as creative as Tyrrell’s. Both companies take advantage of internet by having websites that have information about the wines, tours and the history of the company. These practices will help these companies in the future with changes in climate and taste because they both value the customer tastes. However, as mentioned earlier, Tempus Two focuses on the basic wines that the customers want. Tyrrell’s prides themselves on a more upscale wine for collectors. These different approaches can help or hinder each company depending on the demand for either. As far a climate change is concerned Tyrrell’s and Tempus Two are well positioned because they have vineyards in multiple areas of Australia to help with that problem if one area has a bad year they can use another areas grapes.

Blog #3: New Years Celebration

FINALLY made it to Australia! without luggage but at least I am here & the weather is beautiful! Met my roommates Liz, Kalli, Jen & Jen H. who are all awesome & allowing me to borrow their clothing. I walked down town with Jen & another girl from a different group who was also late in arriving to Sydney. Then we headed down towards Rushcutters Bay to watch the fireworks for New Years. The area was filled with families, teens, students, and old people who were all excited to celebrate the New Year. The fireworks were amazing! They had fireworks going off in four different areas of the harbor & also off the tops of some of the sky scrapers surrounding the Harbor Bridge.

The New Years Celebration is an important event for Australia in many ways. According to the Sydney media article there were almost 1000 people worked at this event last year. Also, it is a worldwide televised event which helps get word out there about Australia and potentially influence people to come on holiday. The article mentions that the average person stay 16 nights in Sydney over the New Year period. Also, people flock in from all over the world to come and see this show. According to the articles about the event last year, this event generates more than $156 million in direct economic impact for Sydney. Some things that I would like to know about this event are; How many celebrities attend this event? What country sends the most tourists for the event? What are the main things that the tourists do during their stay at the New Year period?

Sydney New Years Fireworks!

The next morning I got up and went to Manly Beach with a bunch of the girls. We took the ferry across the harbor which was awesome because I missed the harbor ferry the group had taken on one of the first days. I got to see the Sydney Opera House and the Harbor Bridge from the water, which was gorgeous. It finally hit me on the ferry ride that I was finally in Sydney! I had my first class & met with my tourism group for our final presentation later in the trip. The rest of the day consisted of dinner and getting to know the other people in the class.