Jul 27 2009
Are you near any of these National Parks?
By Kate Hennessy
Does the very mention of ‘National Park’ provoke uncomfortable memories of bumpy roads, pebbly campsites, sore limbs and prickly native shrubbery? Or do you proudly sport an All Parks Pass on your dusty rear window?
Either way, who could resist a cuppa with an expert from the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), while learning more about your local environment?
Several such talks, tours and walks will be held as part of National Science Week in areas such as Port Macquarie, Dubbo, Coffs Harbour, Jamberoo, Munmorah and Gundabooka. The events cover everything from Climate Change on the North Coast (Port Macquarie), the Goonoo Forest Fox Baiting Study (Dubbo) to the Blue Mountains Dingos (Blackheath).
Not to mention an intriguingly titled event in Merimbula called ‘Nadgee Lake – What’s the real story?’
But where’s Gundabooka you ask? Why, it’s near Bourke in NSW, “a wonderful community established in 1861 on the banks of the Darling River”.
Discover the real outback of Australia in Bourke
Gundabooka National Park features rugged cliffs, gorges and hills, formed from rust-coloured rocks more than 385 million years old. The area is of great significance to the Ngemba people with a long history of ceremonial gatherings and rock art.
At the ‘Fencing Them Out’ talk at Gundabooka on August 16 you can learn from NPWS Rangers about the goat-fencing project at Gundabooka National Park. The rangers are working with scientists from DECC’s Pest Management Unit to research methods that will help protect important Aboriginal art-sites.
Mitch Tulau from the Department of Environment & Climate Change will be hosting the Wetlands on the North Coast Floodplains event on August 19.
“Apart from what is there at the moment, what I have done is to ‘reconstruct’ the nature of North Coast floodplain wetlands using historical and other evidence, map the extent of those wetland and then tell the story of what happened to them.”
At the Science Helps Hoppers event at Jamberoo on August 22, you can learn about scientific techniques used to save threatened species such as the brush-tailed rock-wallaby and the potoroo.
You never know. The fate of the diminutive potoroo may concern you so much, you end up joining Gilbert’s Potoroo Action Group, which barracks on behalf of the the species they claim is “Australia’s most endangered mammal”.
The sweet lil Potoroo
Munmorah State Conservation Area near Gosford has an amazing variety of flowers and panoramic views along the coast, not to mention geological features that date back to the Pleistocene era. At the ‘Munmorah’s Heaths and Geology’ event on August 15 you can take a guided walk around the conservation area and watch as the coastal heaths burst into life.
Lambertia formosa. Image: Cas Liber
Check out if you’re nearby any of these areas to get involved!
Coffs Harbour
Climate Change on the North Coast
Port Macquarie
Wetlands on North Coast Floodplains
Werrikimbe Rainforest Communities and Climate Change
Landscapes of the Hastings Valley… from Ice Age to European Settlement
Merimbula
Nadgee Lake – what’s the real story?
Jamberoo
Science Helps Hoppers
Bourke (NSW)
Fencing them out!
Munmorah
Munmorah’s Heaths and Geology
Dubbo
Goonoo Forest Fox Baiting Study
Blackheath
The potoroo does look charming, doesn’t it? It has the graceful good looks of Sean Connery’s James Bond, with the quick wit of John Lennon in a 1964 press conference. It’s more charismatic in every way than its cousin the koala, which is surly, uninspiring, and outrageously stupid. From Tim Flannery’s 1994 book The Future Eaters:
“The koala’s two cerebral hemispheres are like a pair of shrivelled walnut halves on top of the brain stem, in contact neither with each other nor the bones of the skull. It is the only animal on Earth with such a strangely reduced brain.”