Starting in February from the most easterly point on Fraser Island, and travelling through fringes, deserts and the Red Centre, to finally arrive at the most western point of Australia, it has been one hell of a journey.

And, Bobbie and her trusty sidekick Owen have more than just dusty hair, impressive thighs and toned glutes to prove it. For them, it has been a surreal experience and one of invaluable slowness. 

“We’re finding it hard to comprehend that we’ve just completed The Grand Section journey,” Bobbie says.

“Our final stop was Carnarvon, where we rode straight to the water of the Indian Ocean and dove in fully clothed. It was an incredible feeling to know we had made it so far.”

The 10 month stint came into being after Bobbie received the Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarship, a prestigious academic honour.

To successfully complete such a long and strenuous journey is, of course, no easy feat, with Bobbie noting it was as much about her mentality as it was about her physical fitness.

“It was an incredible mental challenge,” she says.

“The physical factor was something you could overcome easily, but one needed a resilience mentally to keep pushing on through hard terrain, moments of exhaustion, self-doubt and uncertainty.”

For Bobbie the beauty and challenge of the mode of transport, bicycle, was that she had no choice but to get herself though the hard moments.

“There were certainly times when we were close to running out of water in lonely landscapes and points of exhaustion that we absolutely felt like giving up,” she says.

“But through the emotions Owen and I would keep supporting each other to keep going and remind ourselves of the privilege it was for us to be a part of such a research journey.”

The pair’s can-do attitude and openness to experience have seen them excel in their unique research quest which aimed to explore how where we live can impact the way we live. Travelling through an array of landscapes and observing a number of architectural designs, the pair learnt a lot about construction, resources and the complexity of our country.

“In our fast paced, oversaturated, overmaterialised, overconsuming lives we are missing a great deal,” Bobbie says.  

“We are not investing in ourselves, our own people, our own communities, our own landscapes or learning about our own country.

 “Owen and I have come to realise that in the most part, our society is certainly not building responsibly enough, for longevity or considering the future when constructing today.”

While The Grand Section journey itself may be over, Bobbie believes this is just the beginning for the young architects.

“The journey has given us a great deal of opportunities and the confidence to pursue things we think are not only invaluable to our own careers in architecture but also to the profession itself.”

Bobbie and Owen now have their sights set on writing a book which will be a collation of their experiences and learnings, as well as being a resource for fellow architecture students and practitioners.

Along with this, they will be involved in a roving national exhibition anticipated for mid-2018.

Both Bobbie and Owen would like to thank the following people and organisations for their ongoing support throughout The Grand Section journey: