Year 11 Biology Field Trip

For all the parents who were told by their Year 11 students that the biology excursion was just ‘good’, this is for you. To start the two-day excursion, we headed up to a boardwalk through the Maroochy Wetlands. Apart from the endless battle against mosquitos and the boiling sun, the experience was quite interesting. We learnt about many different mangroves and became very attentive when hundreds of red crabs swarmed the riverbank. We tested the water levels for dissolved oxygen, salinity and more, with $8000 equipment provided by Maroochy Water Watch, which we were sure to guard with our lives! After this we left for Mary Cairncross Reserve, which provided a refreshing change from the sweltering sun. The trees and paddy-melons were beautiful. On day two we made four stops, testing the water with the expensive equipment at each location. We went from creeks in Nambour, to Wappa Dam and then back to Maroochy River. Wappa Dam was huge and the smaller creeks in Nambour were beautiful. Overall, the day made us much more aware of the effect humans have on our waterways. The more we travelled, the more we learned and the more we appreciated the wildlife and outstanding environment that we are blessed with on the Sunshine Coast!

Georgia Woods, Year 11 Student