I went into this subject basically blind as there were no reviews when I did it. As stated, you're taken on a 6 day trip where you spend 4 (i think?) days at the Otway ranges (in Gellibrand), then 2 days in Torquay. Breakfasts are standard, lunches are horrendous, but the dinners are great; always in pubs with very filling food. Accomodation is also fine. At the gellibrand site, you'll spend a lot of time travelling to different geologic sites in the bus; sometimes upwards of 3-4 hours just sitting in the bus, whereas at the Torquay site there is a lot less travelling. The fieldwork (40%) isn't too difficult, all the tutors are very willing to help and provide feedback on your work while you're on site, so make sure you ask lots of tutors any questions you have, as they are ultimately the people who will be marking your work. A score of 80% or above on the fieldwork is very doable if you spend time on it. The essay was a mixed bag, some markers were generous whilst others were incredibly harsh. The mean mark for the essay was ~75%, which means getting a H1 isn't completely impossible, you just need to get >80% on the fieldwork. Also, make sure you bring lots of sunscreen; I saw quite a few sunburns, and bring extra water with you when visiting different sites, as they only provide 1 500mL bottle for the entire day at lunch, and you'll be sweating a lot due to the heat and the fact that you're standing in broad daylight. The entire experience is really good, since everyone is friendly and willing to talk.

Just looked at the previous reviewer’s comments, I wish I were to say the same thing, but I would say otherwise and isn’t an easy, low-effort WAM booster if you are looking for one. The 6-day field trip in itself was okay, the accomodation was okay too (the Otway site had very spotty internet though) and the coordinator and head tutor (Malcolm and Vera) were helpful in answering our questions during the trip (though I can’t say the same about the other tutors). Maybe because I had dietary requirements, but the food (especially the Torquay one) was not good; I got food poisoning for all the dishes in the restaurant at Torquay, and a couple of times, it seems like they didn’t know what to give me so they gave a salad, which is definitely not worth the $600 I had to pay for the trip overall (definitely was expecting better food). In terms of the assessments, the field exercises were alright, but I was marked down quite significantly on small things, and even got contradictory feedback from what the tutors said during the trip and the comments I got on my marked field exercises (like the tutors on the trip said I didn’t need a key for the drawings and labelling was enough, but then got marked down significantly for not including a key in the field exercises). The feedback (although haven’t gotten the results yet) for the essay, at least for me, was abysmal; there were 86 comments, half of them being on small/trivial grammar mistakes, and quite condescending comments like “you could have better used your word count with….” or “this does not make sense (without giving an explanation as to why)”, saying a sentence is too wordy even though the sentence was like 20-30 words long, and asking me to rephrase even though I literally can’t anymore because it’s final. Although there was some constructive feedback, it seemed as though they were expecting me as a non-geology student to suddenly be experts at the essay topic I’ve done; I have worked really hard on the essay as a non-geology student (only did this one geology subject), and to see such comments really took a toll on my esteem. Additionally, we were given contradictory information about the essay as well, such as them saying that the reference list is part of the word count, when the booklet said it wasn’t; when I asked about it, the tutors/ lecturers just replied with, “if it says that, then it is not counted”, and one of the coordinators saying that there was a 10% leeway whereas the other said otherwise, which to me seems that they were not very aware of what our assessments are. The booklet itself contained very little information as to what level they are expecting us to achieve, which made the writing process even more difficult. Overall, the subject wasn’t very organised, and I personally wouldn’t recommend this subject as a breadth or science elective, unless you have a great interest in geology or are a geology student.

100% recommend this subject to everyone, either as a breadth or an elective. You go on a 6-day trip around both coastal and inland regions across southwestern Victoria and see some of the country's most beautiful parts. The trips mainly end at 3pm-4pm which gives you loads of spare time for the evening and into the night. In terms of accommodation and food -- accommodation was better at Torquay and food was better at Gellibrand. But both were lovely places all in all. With assessment, there is a fieldwork exercise and a final essay. The exercise is admittedly not too easy if you don't have a geology background, but you do ultimately get passed around it as there is always an opportunity after the trip to exchange ideas and notes with your friendship groups (it was in fact encouraged by our tutors to do this). And finally, there is a 2000-word research essay. The questions are generally quite straightforward and are related to the places you have been and seen. Stephen and Anne-Marie are the lovely head tutors/lecturers for this subject and are extremely passionate about what they do. Andrew, Ash and Glenn were also additional tutors who came with us on the trip, and they are also very sweet tutors! They were extremely helpful and always here to assist us in breaking down some of the more complex geological concepts for us (they also visited every second evening to our cabins to allow us to ask any questions or problems we had, which was a great opportunity to fix up or refine some of the stuff on our fieldwork exercises). A brilliant and laidback subject. 5/5 stars. Again, 100% recommend it.