After Parks Victoria Ranger, Megan Hammond, acknowledged the traditional owners, our Year 8 science students were welcomed into an amazing and dynamic, ever evolving coastal environment at Murnane’s Bay, Childers Cove to learn about our region’s geology. Retired Deakin lecturer and environmental scientist, Dr John Sherwood, challenged the students to become geologists and to use their senses to study the differences in rocks and sediment to investigate the fossil rich layers of the Port Campbell limestone that was an old sea floor, originally stretching inland as far as Hamilton. John explained that the beach sand was biogenic, meaning that had a living origin and used hydrochloric acid to produce carbon dioxide gas to determine that the parts of the cliff were made of limestone, a rock made of calcium carbonate. Megan described the role of a Ranger; managing the coastal reserve, monitoring wildlife and the environment, protecting and repairing the park’s assets and educating visitors in what was an ever changing, fragile coastline. Travelling to Moyjil, Point Ritchie, John explained that indigenous people had camped at the mouth of the Hopkins River on old sand dunes as evidenced by middens and emphasized that it was one of Australia’s most precious sites due to an incredible dynamic of culture and natural history with it’s sequences of environmental, climatic, sea level and seismic changes, shifting coastline, volcano activity and cultural connection to country. At the Hopkins River mouth, Glenelg Hopkins Catchment Management Authority (GHCMA) Waterways Officer, Jarred Obst, described his role in protecting estuaries, where the river meets the sea, by managing the health and ecology of regional waterways for fish and vegetation. He discussed the sometimes controversial decision making process when beach berms, sand deposited from wave action on one of the highest energy coastlines in Australia, closes river mouths with artificial openings now occurring rarely, only when they are safe, appropriate and absolutely ecologically necessary. Concluding at the Hopkins Falls, Bryce Morden, the Manager of Groundwaters and Rivers, Southern Rural Water (SRW) told our young scientists that the falls were created when basalt lava flowed and the liquid rocks cooled and it is a midway point between two ecosystems that can be bridged when the falls are flooded or when eels migrate up and down the river. Bryce outlined the role of SRW in protecting waterways and the importance of rivers to the environment and the vital balance between using or taking and saving water in our region. Thank you to all our wonderful hosts – what a great day! Comments are closed.
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April 2024
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