Excursion sheds light on Reef

Jordan Cox, Year 5, Atherton State School

WHAT do stormwater detention basins, Mabi Forest along the Barron River and management of Barney Springs all have in common?

They all help improve water quality in our rivers and the Great Barrier Reef.

They were also part of the immersion excursion for the Tablelands Schools Science and Environmental Sustainability Enrichment Program students.

The excursion provided background information to help us plan our sustainability projects, which we will be working on over the next year.

We arrived at Tinaroo Environmental Education Centre ready for an exciting day ahead and started with a motivating speech from Phil Laycock about the importance of healthy catchments for reef health.

With Rod Marti, Barron Catchment co-ordinator as our guide, we then took a bus trip to Barney Springs, where we talked about the history of the amazing, crystal clear creek.

We observed the pumps that farmers use to collect water on the way back to the bus. After arriving at my favourite spot, the Griffin Road detention basins, we had a litterless morning tea before learning how significant the bowl-shaped ponds were for Tolga and the Great Barrier Reef.

They have trapped thousands of tonnes of sediment, which would have washed across roads, into waterways and down to the Great Barrier Reef.

At our third stop (Bonadios) we had a delicious, plastic-free lunch, under the shade of the Mabi rainforest trees beside the Barron River. We saw lots of wildlife living in the rainforest, including three possums, a snake and a goanna. Mabi Forest is an endangered type of rainforest, only found on the Atherton Tableland.

Back at the lunch area we packed up and went to the Tinaroo Falls dam wall.

At Tinaroo we had a quick look around and discussed the impacts of Tinaroo Dam on the Great Barrier Reef.

Back at TEEC we listened to speeches from some of the 2017 students.

There were some great projects and we are all excited about starting our own.

I found this day really enjoyable and I can’t wait for the year ahead.