HE Bermuda gymnastics team heads out to Australia on Tuesday for the 2006 Commonwealth Games injury-free and in confident mood. But in many ways the trip Down Under is a journey into the unknown, despite prior experience late in 2004 when Bermuda attended the Commonwealth Youth Games also in Melbourne.

At the last Commonwealth Games in 2002 in Manchester, England Bermuda came last out of nine countries.

But this time around the competition has nearly doubled in size with some of the smaller nations joining the powerhouses of Australia, New Zealand Canada and England.

A five-person team makes the trip with coach Tina Billington saying she doesn't quite know what to expect of the opposition.

Making the 15-hour journey, which goes via New York and Los Angeles before eventually arriving in Melbourne on Thursday morning, are Kalena Astwood, 17, and Casey Lopes, 17, who both attended the 2002 Commonwealth Games.

Bermuda has already beaten Malaysia and Singapore in the balance beams in their last Australian outing and Billington believes Bermuda will move up the rankings in Melbourne.

This time they will be performing in a new purpose-built venue in front of thousands of people. For the youngsters in the squad ? Kaisey Griffith, 13, Caitlyn Mello, 14, and Hannah King, 14 ? the experience will be new.

Billington said: "They have only been to little meetings."

Thankfully the schedule allows the team some time to run through their routines at the venue ? probably in front of spectators if the last experience was anything to go by.

"In Manchester in 2002 they sold tickets for people who couldn't get tickets for the competition," said Billington.

The team is also up against a new set of rules which penalises faults more heavily.

Despite that there is no thought about playing it safe. "We are trying to do a lot more skills. The girls are working really hard to put them on par with the better teams."

On the floor exercise Griffith will for the first time perform a double back somersault and Mello will perform a straight somersault with three twists. Neither of these skills have ever been performed before in an international competition by a Bermuda gymnast.

But Billington is under no illusion about the scale of the task. She said: "Most countries now operate on a very high level of centralised sports institutes where many athletes are allowed to substitute schooling days with extra training.

"While we are unable to compete against the top athletes, we are setting our own goals and making big progress and improving each year.

"The girls have really stepped up this past year performing multiple front and back somersaults on the four-inch beam. They twist and flip through impressive tumbling passes on the floor.

"All of the athletes do somersault vaults and on asymmetric bars they do complex swings, release moves and difficult dismounts. These higher level skills are a big improvement for the Bermuda gymnasts.

"We are hoping for personal best performances from each of the girls as we debut our new skills."

Casey Lopes will lead the team and her mother Kay will be attending Australia to give her support. Kay was a former gymnast of the Bermuda Gymnastics Association and was part of the first gymnastics team to travel and represent Bermuda.

The biggest headache for the head coach is to decide which four out of the five girls competes on each of the apparatus. The team consists of five qualifying athletes, four will compete on each event and the top three of those scores will count for the team score.

The final preparation for these gymnasts will involve two training sessions a day, with the team competition taking place on Friday, March 17.