Moonbah

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The Moonbah Experience: More Than Just a Program – A Way of Living

At Moonbah, something extraordinary happens every single day. It’s more than a place, more than a program – it’s a living, breathing community where growth takes root and transformation flourishes. In the stillness of the alpine bush, beneath the wide skies, students discover more than just skills – they discover themselves.

Our days are filled with learning – the kind that doesn’t always fit inside four walls.

Here, learning is hands-on, hearts open. The outdoors isn’t just our classroom – it’s our guide, our test, our teacher. It teaches patience, resilience, adaptability. It strips away distractions and invites presence.

We believe in community living – in the strength of shared experience, the power of giving back, the kindness in learning to live alongside others with compassion and responsibility. At Moonbah, everyone contributes. Everyone is seen. Everyone matters. Our staff live this with our students, helping them navigate conflict, responsibility and the ever-important art of being human.

Life skills at Moonbah aren’t an added extra – they are integrated into all the learning. Cleaning, washing, time management, communication, self-care. Students leave not only with a sense of achievement, but with the tools to thrive in the real world. They learn to take ownership of their actions and to recognise the value of effort, teamwork and reflection.

And then there’s the magic: the laughter around the dining room, the bonds formed during a shared challenge, the quiet moments of insight during incidental learning, the pride in completing something hard. These are the moments that stay with you. These are the moments that shape lives.

Moonbah is more than a program. It’s a reset. A reckoning. A rewilding. Its where young people learn that they are capable, valued and deeply connected to something bigger than themselves.

At Moonbah, we don’t just teach students how to succeed. We teach them how to live.

Cross Country

On Tuesday, all Moonbah students participated in the Cross Country event, completing a 3km course around the Frolf Course. Their finishing times will be compared with those of students in their age group in Sydney to determine the final results. Congratulations to the top five runners in the boys’ and girls’ races at Moonbah, listed below.

It was fantastic to see students pushing themselves to complete the run to the best of their ability. Many demonstrated significant improvements in their cardiovascular fitness, a testament to their dedication to the morning training sessions held Monday to Friday over the past 8 weeks.

Thank you to the students who contributed to the organisation and smooth running of the event. Their efforts in setting up, placing flags to outline the course and assisting with timekeeping and results recording were invaluable.

Other Learning Activities

The students in Miribi have been working on constructing a raised bed using reclaimed materials. They collected old pallets from around the campus and created a pallet buster to disassemble them without breaking the wood. Working as a team they planned and constructed the garden bed. In our final lesson of High Country Helpers, we will fill the beds with soil and plant some vegetables and herbs for the next group of Moonbah students to enjoy!

Students in Gunuma and Malub had another rewarding learning visit to the Snowy Hydro Discovery Centre. They accepted the challenge to effectively turn their model water turbines and visualised their understanding of the seven power stations, 16 dams, 80 km of aqueducts and 145km of tunnels, as they looked at the large diorama of the Snowy Mountains region. They also expanded their knowledge of the lives of the 100,000 people who worked on the scheme between 1949 and 1974, of whom 65% were migrants from over 30 countries.

Eddy Atkins
Head of High Country Campus
eatkins@redlands.nsw.edu.au