Each year, hundreds of distance education students from throughout Australia converge on a range of CQUniversity's campuses throughout regional Queensland.

Not only do the residential schools they attend offer hands-on activities and face-to-face networking, many visitors also take the time to enjoy tourism highlights surrounding the campus.

John Bingham at the Great Western Hotel in the Beef Capital of Rockhampton

One of these recent 'edu-tourists' was Taswegian John Bingham who attended a residential school at Rockhampton Campus, as part of his degree in Electrical Engineering.

John and his wife Mari made the most of their trip to the tropics, fitting in a range of attractions including the local art gallery and Great Western Hotel rodeo, the riverfront, the heritage village, the crocodile farm, Capricorn caves and Kershaw Gardens. They even managed to get to the Capricorn Coast and Gladstone.

John overlooks the Fitzroy River and city centre

John says the trip north was costly but he enjoyed the tourist highlights and appreciated the chance to spend time with other like-minded students "to relate to on a professional, educational and mental level".

"The benefits outweighed the costs in that regard," he says.

John started out as an electrician specialising on industrial and electronics projects. He took a job full time at Simplot as a PLC programmer (factory environment) to focus more on electronics and to work more closely with the electrical engineering team.

Now in his second year of the degree, John hopes to graduate after another six years of part-time study in between his work and family commitments.

John works on robotic processing gear which turns potatoes into fries, at the Simplot Australia Ulverstone factory. 
John's wife Mari enjoys cruising on Gladstone harbour