Our Year 8 Science students also TAPped into our local region as they explored our amazing and dynamic, ever evolving coastal environment at Childers Cove lead by retired Deakin lecturer and environmental scientist, Dr John Sherwood and Parks Victoria Ranger, Emma Drake. John 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 once an old ocean floor. John used hydrochloric acid to produce carbon dioxide gas to establish that the parts of the cliff were made of limestone, a rock made of calcium carbonate and explained that the beach sand was biogenic, meaning that it had a living origin. Emma described her role as a Parks Victoria Ranger with the Shipwreck Coast and Hinterland managing the coastal reserve, monitoring wildlife and the environment, protecting and repairing the park’s assets and educating visitors about our fragile coastline. The focus then shifted to Moyjil, Point Ritchie, where 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, Simon Williams, a Field Officer for 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. Simon outlined the role of SRW in protecting waterways and the importance of rivers to the environment and the vital balance between farmers and consumers 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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