This my first time in Australia, and especially in Melbourne. I was in Melbourne because  I got a fellowship for following APJC Program with the other participants from Indonesia. Melbourne is awesome city. When i arrived here, the weather was very cold. We arrived on Saturday morning, from Jakarta, and stayed on Quest Finlay Apartment, on Lygoon Street.

In front of our Apartment, i saw many restaurants in a row. The restaurants sell off many kinds of food, such as; Pizza, Spagheti, and many more. Obviously, the people usually call this place the “Little Italy”.

On Saturday night, i walked around Lygoon Street. I saw many people here to celebrate saturday night while drinking wine with their partners.  It’s a good view for me. In my place at Gorontalo Province, Indonesia, i never saw events like this.

Not far from restaurant, i walked in the park. This is a green open space. I sat there with my friend from Aceh, Makmur Dimila. We discussed and compared about Saturday night in Melbourne and our places. Of course, it’s very different. And i think, i like my first time spending Saturday night in Melbourne.

Two days of the second week of journalism training in Asia Pacific Journalism Centre office, at Amess Street, Victoria, Australia, the fellows tutored how to use mobile phone to produce news.

by Makmur Dimila

Renee Barnes, a senior lecturer in journalism at University of the Sunshine Coast shows and guides the participants how to create stories then share them with ‘only by a phone’, assisted by Tito Ambiyo an Indonesian journalist who working in Aussie.

Participants learned how to create and publish stories with tools such as Audioboom, Soundclouds, Wavepad, KineMaster. All of those tools weren’t familiar to them before.

In the first day of this digital journalism training, the fellows should create a video with KineMaster tool. They were divided in to some group, two persons for a group. Then their exercise must be uploaded to APJC Youtube account.

Agusta Bunai from West Papua and I created a video about how to adjust with the cold weather in Melbourne as it is close to winter. She recorded my demonstrations about how to be comfortable in dressing.

On the second day, Renee assisted by Lisa Gye a senior lecture in Media and Communications at Swinburne University, shows the participants how to do blog well. I do like it.[]

Being one of the 17 journalist from Indonesia and Asia Pacific in the APJC program is truly an experience for me. I find all the sessions during this five-week-program is very useful for me to enhance my capacity as a journalist, especially in financial and business media.

It’s been two weeks now, still a half way to go before completing this program, yet I have gathered a lot of information and insights about journalism, economic issues, digital media, women empowerment, and leadership. Thanks to all the instructors who delivered all the material in a simple way so that we can absorb everything easily.

I’m looking forward for the fieldtrip next week in Canberra, Albury and Wodonga, where I will meet a wide range of people from different background. It’s very exciting to meet farmers in the outback of Australia, I hope I can learn more about the modern farming. I’d like to know how they manage the land: about water management system, choosing the most suitable crops, fertilizer, post-harvest techniques, packaging, also marketing.

As a financial reporter, I want to take as much advantages as possible from the “Inclusive Business and Economic Reporting Workshop” hosted by Nigel. The first session last week gave me new knowledge and insights about the power of numbers. I believe the second session will be as great as the first one.

However, having this fellowship in Melbourne is another excitement for me. It’s my first time staying overseas for quite a long time, living with new friends from all over Indonesia as well as Pacific Islands. We learn from each other.

Rita Bill / Melbourne Central

I had a great time at Melbourne with APJC. The lecturers were all fantastic, and I met some new journalists, reporters, presenters with many different excellent background and experiences.
We’re not only learning and sharing new journalism experiences with this fast world but we’re also helping each other to come up with solutions on how to solve an issue whether within our news room or just being a journalist and also being a female journalist with a lot of cultural barriers.
This is a blessing for me to learn about mobile journalism because I’m now more expose to the world to get my stories and being able to create my own audience and building up my network.
This training encourage me to go back to Vanuatu and create my own audience and being able to pass more information to rural population through mobile journalism. I’m so happy, now I’ve created our local newsletter blog

Lae media officers on a field trip to Yambo on a motor powered speed

Having to kick start my career as a broadcast journalist with the National Broadcasting Corporation of Papua New Guinea in Lae, Morobe Province was great.

What is more exciting is, Morobe is the biggest province with 9 districts and 33 local level government areas making it one of the fast-developing, growing and industrious province.

If you ask me, what it feels like when I started, I would simply sum it up in three words; challenging, busy and changing everday.

Working in a province like Morobe has really set the pace to develop my skills and experiences thus set a strong foundation in my career. Having travelled far and wide is like travelling the country, however what makes Morobe unique is its so rich in almost everything you wish to find.

Media friends during the health consultative workshop in Lae

Morobe is set at a location which makes it a the central nerve of business, travel and other socio-economic activities that come with it. For now I can say, the lessons learnt are worth it and the experiences taught at invaluable.

It’s a previlege to have been an understudy with a wealth of experienced and well-learned media figures in the province and the country.

Daily commercial flight (Airlines PNG) at Nadzab Airport, Lae