Legal lessons roll into Bass Coast

Justice has been taken out of the courtroom and into the classroom, as a busload of Monash University law students recently visited Wonthaggi and the surrounding area.

The Monash Law Clinics ‘Justice Bus’ arrived in town on Wednesday, July 22, before delivering in-person legal education workshops at Bass Coast College’s Dudley and McKenzie campuses on Thursday.

About 190 students were expected to participate across the two campuses, with sessions covering issues like consent, safe driving, partying and the powers of police and protective services officers.

The Bass Coast College Visit was just one part of a five-day tour of Gippsland involving 11 Monash law students, led by Professor Jeff Giddings, a Monash University law professor and experienced advocate for clinical legal education.

Fifth-year law and commerce student Sophia Ao said the group was tailoring its presentations to issues that teachers believed were relevant to their students.

“The idea is just to make legal education really accessible and engaging for the schools and communities that we’re visiting,” she said.

“We’ve talked to the students about consent laws, driving and partying laws, and the safety surrounding those as well.

“There have also been some more academic sessions on topics such as lawmaking and parliament and how all those structures work.”

Each workshop ran for about an hour and used both discussions and activities to get students thinking and participating.

Ms Ao said the program aimed to make conversations around law easier for young people to understand, as law-related information can often be complicated or overly academic.

“The main overarching goal is to just help these students make sense of the law, which can be really complicated and convoluted at the best of times,” she said.

“It’s a way for us to help make sense of the law in ways that are more practical and clearer and hopefully empower these young people with that knowledge going forward.”

The Justice Bus also visited schools in Warragul, Mirboo North and Traralgon during its Gippsland tour, with groups ranging from just four students at one school, to about 75 in Warragul, while the Bass Coast College campuses held some of the larger workshops on the itinerary.

Ms Ao said Gippsland was selected because young people from regional communities in Victoria can often face barriers to legal education when compared to those living in metro areas.

“We understand that access to legal education, and also just community legal access, may not be as good as it is in the city,” she said.

The Justice Bus is an extension of Monash Law Clinic’s Street Law program, which has operated since 2017 and aims to encourage discussions about legal issues and human rights by using interactive activities.

It was originally inspired by the University of Oslo’s long-running Jussbuss initiative, which is a free legal aid clinic run by students that started in 1971.

The Monash program was developed for the same reason: to bring legal education directly to more regional schools and community groups.

The Gippsland journey is the Justice Bus’s first tour of 2026.