Great stuff, thanks for the link Gary, hearing about this sort of thing is heart warming.
Not sure how it compares now... but I was extremely lucky to have been part of the ACT secondary college system, for me that was 84/85. The college based system for yrs 11 & 12 was just fantastic and unique in Australia. As a result there were some awesome courses offered including Oceanography, Geology and Astronomy and these were completely separate subjects to Physics or Chemistry and you could do either 1 year of 2yrs and your assessment went directly to your final TES (Tertiary Entrance Score) just like Physics and Chemistry etc. To go to school for two years and do Astronomy and have it count directly toward my University entrance score was a dream...and I moved all the way form Newcastle to Canberra just to be able to do this
. Of course I did the full 2yrs Major course and for the record and needless to say
, I finished with a contributing score of 100 toward my final TES
.
We had a C8 and 4" Tasco at the college but we also had access to the 9" Oddie telescope at Mt Stromlo each week and we shared this access with other secondary colleges in the ACT.
While I didn't go on to be a professional astronomer, they were a very happy astronomy intensive two years for me and part of what we did even became a story featured in
US Sky & Telescope
Mike