To: Friends and Family of Australia Program Participants From: Eric & Tracey Our final week in Sydney began today, and the students' priority now is completing their small-group Web projects by the Thursday presentation deadline. The students broke themselves into four groups, each with its own theme - Australian eco-tourism and the environment; the Blue Mountains of New South Wales; advertising in Australia; and Australian musical genres - and we're looking forward to the results, which will later be posted to our Web site. Meanwhile,, University of New South Wales Professor Philip Bell is finishing his series of lectures on Australia's culture and media. For students interested in public relations, there will be an optional afternoon session with a major PR firm in Sydney. Last week, the program visited Taronga Zoo and the Sydney Aquarium, and the students also experienced opera and the dazzling night views of the harbour from the landmark Sydney Opera House. Then over the weekend, many of them travelled by train to the Blue Mountains for bushwalking (hiking) and abseiling (rock climbing with ropes). They'll show you the pictures. A bit of information on our upcoming schedule: We fly from Sydney to Uluru (Ayers Rock) on Saturday, 21 July, and take a bus to Alice Springs on Monday, 23 July. They will have only limited e-mail and telephone access in those locations. On Wednesday, 25 July, we head for the Daintree Rainforest in northeastern Queensland, for two nights in a remote rainforest lodge (tents) where the electricity goes off at midnight. Then on Friday, 27 July, we hit "civilisation" in the tourist, adventure tourism and resort city of Cairns on the coast near the Great Barrier Reef. UNESCO lists both the tropical rainforests of Queensland and the Great Barrier Reef as world heritage sites.