The Williamson Foundation has been trialling a school science program called “Bug Blitz™” in Gippsland. The Royal Society of Victoria and the Williamson Foundation are currently building a partnership which would link an extension of their “Bug Blitz™” into central and northwestern Victoria with the Society's planned "Science along the Track". There is a great deal of synergy between the two programs and the both organisations see this as an opportunity to create a collaborative model which will last well beyond the Burke and Wills Commemoration.

The Bug Blitz™ program aims to interest primary school children in biodiversity by getting them to observe the wild life (from birds to bugs and everything in between) in their area. The Royal Society of Victoria will work with the Bug Blitz™ program, providing information from the Burke and Wills Expedition about the birds, animals and insects observed at the time of the Expedition.

"Science along the Track" lectures may be timed to coincide with the launch of a Bug Blitz™ project, or with an event in which the students put the results of their observations on show.

RSV and Bug Blitz™ personnel have selected a school in Castlemaine as the pilot for their joint activities. Bug Blitz™ will be launched there on the anniversary of the departure of the Burke and Wills Expedition from Melbourne, on 20 August 2010.