Australia Lesson Activities - ESD

The early gold diggers made ‘damper’ out on the Palmer River was because it was cheap, light to carry (relative to its weight) and easy to make. But they still would have needed water as an ingedient. And availability of water has always been – and still is - a huge problem on the Palmer River Goldfield.

For example, after cycling for just over a week we are getting an idea as to how much water we have to dedicate to ourselves each day while cycling through the area n. Our last two cycling days have been difficult as we have been unsure on how long we are going to have a vehicle support; so we have to pack all the water we will need for at least 48 hours. Seeing as we go through about 5 liters a day per person for a 2-day stint, we have to carry 10 liters of water per person. Between the 8 of us we have to carry 80 liters of water in our Bob trailers that’s approximately 80kg of water alone. Due to our remoteness and lack of clean water we must watch what we do with the water, unlike in the home where we have a tap and a kitchen sink that runs the water down the drain.
We attempt to re-use and preserve as much water as we can.

In the early mining days in this area miners came across the same problems though they didn’t have a support vehicle to fall back on like we do. They had to find any available water for drinking - and cooking damper. In the dry season the miners would do anything for fresh water, miners would end up dying out here in the bush simply because they didn’t have any fresh water in the area. This area had to cater for at least 20,000 people to drink, cook and wash. The amount of people was too great for the land to support, people started out attempting to get to Cooktown some made it to the town and others died of dehydration. During this cycle two people have suffered dehydration to a certain extent and the consequences could have been much worse and we were lucky. Back in the exploring days people saw their friends die of dehydration as they had such limited supplies of water and were unprepared for the extremity of the heat during summer months.

Luckily we do have enough water to last us until the Mitchell River and we do have a vehicle that can carry enough water to last us about a week.

Hi. Mum, Dad and the rest of the gang.

Joshua Gray.

I asked Peter here at Pinnacle Springs Station about any positive or negative effects of the railway that used to run past their property on local people and/or the environment.

Peter – “There really aren’t any negative effects on the environment that I know of. Wallabees and other animals can jump over the line quite easily. Perhaps the most affected were the local people.

When they closed the railway in 1994, there was no way to get our cattle out to market during the wet season - the rivers were/still are just too high for trucks to pass through. And up until April – just before the dry season starts – is when the prices are highest. So we’ve been unable to take advantage of the good prices ever since.

The other problem has been getting mail, supplies and groceries. We used to be able to call up Mareeba – 300kms away – and put in an order once a month. They’d drop the goods off by the rail siding at the end of our property on their way through to Mt. Surprise. When they closed the line the authorities came to every town and asked the locals what they wanted. We all said “bring the railway back”. But they spent 8 million dollars on a tourist railmotor instead. So now we have to drive to Mareeba and back to get groceries – a round trip of 600 kms – which is high impossible during the wet season.”

Suggested learning activity: investigate a main line of communication near where you live – like a railway line or a major road – and find out what effects, either positive or negative, it has on local people and/or the environment since its construction/closure.

jason

Pinnacle Springs Station, the property we are staying on at the moment, is almost fully self-sufficient. To be able to say that you are self-sufficient, you must be able to generate your own electricity - i.e. water wheels, geo-thermal, generator, or solar. Generators and solar systems are the most practical and energy efficient sources for people to use in local conditions here.

This property has eight solar energy panels that generate eighty watts per panel. This energy is converted into six 1125 amp / hours. On an average day the panels generate and store up to 170 amps.

On the roof of the home, they also have a small windmill, the charge from which is stored in the same batteries as the solar panels, and which is used in the house for lighting and for standard 240 volt power points. The wind generator is able to produce eight watts per hour when sufficient wind is blowing.

This household limits it’s use of electrical items, and the only items that it uses on a regular basis are a refrigerator, lights, computer, and their television.

Suggested learning activity: make a list of the electrical items you use in your household and think about the type of electrical items that you take for granted e.g. lights, refrigerator, washing machine etc. Now imagine you live at Pinnacle Springs Station and you have limited electricity at your disposal each day. Make a prioritized list of where you might make energy savings.

Feed your children wheat. Joshua

Today was the first day we rode for any length of time on a sealed road. We fair flew along compared to our normal pace on dirt corrugations! It felt so good to be averaging 20 kmph – using very little effort – compared to pushing hard for our normal average of around 12 kmph on unsealed roads.

On the other hand it was quite distressing to see so many dead animals on the road. Barely a kilometre would pass before that sickly sweet stench of decomposing flesh would reach our nostrils and we’d pass a rather pathetic bundle of fur, bone and body parts torn apart by the wheels of one of the many vehicles that use this stretch of highway.

So, it begs the question: is the road a positive or a negative thing?

The road has been essential for the economic development of the region over the past 100 years. People’s livelihood depends upon it. And it certainly helped us get to where we needed to go today that much faster.

On the flip side the local flora has been affected quite dramatically in the form of animals (wallabies, toads, lizards, possums etc) feeding on the fresh, green grass growing by the side of the road (see environmental studies update). On a cultural note, the road, along with the railway, also bought settlers into Aboriginal territories, disrupting their lifestyle and in many cases driving them from the land.

Suggested learning activities: debate the pros and cons of sealed roads in your area. What are the advantages and disadvantages? How necessary are roads in sustainable development? What could be done to reduce roadkill (fencing/driver awareness campaigns/reduced speed limits/drainage of rainfall run-off away from edge etc…).

jason

When I first started planning this leg of the expedition I had it in my head to rollerblade to Darwin on the sealed roads. This idea was quickly revised on a trip I did to Townsville last October for a speaking gig: the road had no shoulder and would pose a serious risk to a cyclist let along anyone on a pair of skates.

So then I got to thinking about cycling. But having spent so much time and effort pedaling across the Pacific Ocean to Australia it seemed a bit tame to just jump on a push-bike and crank a relatively easy 2600 kms to Darwin. Plus I wouldn’t get to see much of the country confined to a sealed road. So I started planning an off-road route, taking in as many interested parts of the country en route (within reason) and hopefully getting to see the interior of Australia in as pure a form as I could. But in order to do this, with the distances between water stops being so enormous (not to mention the mention the food we’d need to carry with us), it became abundantly clear early on that an off-road route would only be possible with a support vehicle.

Now you may well ask, “Isn’t using a support vehicle powered by diesel (a fossil fuel) cheating for an expedition that is trying to circle the world using only human power”. And in a way you’d be right. But I had to make a judgment call. Would I bike to Darwin on a boring old sealed road, pulling all my food and water in a BOB trailer, but not see much of the country other than fuel stations and mile after mile of tarred bitumen? Or would I compromise by bringing a vehicle along and thereby seeing the real Australia, and being able to share it with classrooms around the world thanks to the satellite uplink equipment we’d be able to take with us (the way you are able to read this update for example)?

It’s a judgment call we all have to make on a daily basis in our individual lives, no matter who we are and where we live in the world: what and how much do we consume and do we really need to consume it in the first place? Living in a sustainable world doesn’t mean you never use a motorcar or use any other fossil fueled machine. But it does mean becoming aware of why you’re using what you’re using and what the minimum is you can get away with actually needing. It’ all about becoming more accountable to the world and future generations, sensitive to the effects of one’s actions both locally and globally. It’s about becoming aware of our own Ecological Footprint.

Suggested learning activities: write a short passage about how you get to school each day (i.e. by car, train, walking, riding a bike). Now imagine taking a different method of getting to school than you are used to and list the following:
- how different you think the experience would be for you.
- how differently you think this alternative method of travel would impact the environment and/or people, either locally and/or globally? List whether these impacts would be positive or negative, listing your reasons.

jason

Education for Sustainable Development – ESD.

Pollution comes in many shapes and forms. The most obvious that normally spring to mind are things like pollution of the sea by oil spills, pollution of the air by carbon dioxide from vehicle exhaust fumes, pollution of the land by over-use of fertilizers etc. But there are other forms of pollution – such as noise – that can be equally as disruptive to the environment.

We saw an example of this today with the animals we saw (see the general update that Josh wrote). Normally we’re quite a noisy group. Someone (usually Josh or Mike) is laughing or speaking loudly while biking along the road. So even though we’d like to see more wildlife, we really haven’t had too many opportunities so far. But today we stood completely still by the side of the road and let the environment come to us. First we had the emus that came investigating on their ‘emu patrol’. Then the cows come to with in a few feet of Todd while he was filming on a video camera and checked out his Cannondale bike (tasted pretty good by the look of it). Why was this so? Clearly the lack of noise we were making.

The ability to be quiet and listen to one’s environment is valuable in many ways other than getting close to animals. Developing a sustainable future for the planet very much depends on monitoring changes in the environment. On a large scale, measuring potential harmful effects of human actions on the environment is necessary in order to make appropriate policy changes at a national or international level. On a local scale, being aware of how the surrounding environment responds either positively, negatively or indifferently to a person’s actions is useful to know in order to reduce their Ecological Footprint.

Suggested learning activities: list 5 x human actions that affect the environment negatively either on a global or local scale. Suggest how each effect might be monitored and thereby modified, reduced or removed completely.

jason

21 August, 2001
Southwest of Mt. Isa

In our tour of the bush yesterday, David Nardoo of the Kalkadoon Aborigine Tribe taught us all about the foods that native people would have found in the harsh climate of western Queensland to survive. “Bush tucker,” they call it out here. He showed us a native banana tree, various berry bushes, lemongrass and even soapweed, which could make soap just by adding a little water. Then he took us to eucalyptus trees filled with bees and honey and had us eat the grubs he pulled out of the bottom of a turpentine tree. Before the tour we saw nothing but an unwelcoming, dry spinifex desert that could barely sustain a kangaroo rat. Afterward, it seemed like a world of abundance.

The aborigines did all their living off the land. They competed directly with birds and other animals for the food that was available. Fortunately, being omnivores, they had many different foods available to them besides those offered by plants and insects. They could also hunt emus and kangaroos and snakes. Still, their population would have been limited by the food and water resources available over the course of the year, both of which are in incredibly short supply in the winter season. Those same limits would only allow for a very small number of animals to hunt.

Today, across most of the globe, it seems as if we have very few limits to population growth. Humankind has conquered many diseases. This has allowed the average lifespan to increase. Older people are living longer and healthier lives. Infant mortality has been lowered. Technological innovations in food production have also allowed us to cultivate more food than we actually need and distribute it across the world. Today, you can live in a desert that has no food resources whatsoever and still have easy access to ice cream, pie or breakfast cereal.

Still, there are some that say that there is a limit to our human population growth. These people suggest agricultural land is losing its fertility and that we couldn’t possibly continue to feed the world’s population as it grows past 6 billion. They might suggest, too, that as environmental degradation increases with the human population growth, it will take its toll on human and animal populations, affecting the health and numbers of both. Some thought we would be facing widespread problems with food shortages and disease already. Others say we are facing such problems right now.

Still, there are some who believe that technology will save the day, that we will find new and better ways to produce food over time and that food shortages will never be anything to fear.

Suggested Learning Activity:

Write about your thoughts on this issue. Do you think technology will save the day? Should we be concerned at all? Can the earth handle many more people or are there too many here already?

2001 August 22, Wednesday. North Urandangi Road.

Without the Great Artesian Basin, much of inland Australia would be
uninhabitable. It has largely been taken for granted and exploited
since early European exploration penetrated the harsh interior of the
continent. For over a hundred years, huge amounts of water have been
pumped from the ground in the outback for stock and human use, and the
time is approaching when we should be thinking about working for the
preservation of this vital resource, before we are forced to.

There are about 4700 bores throughout the basin, 850 of which are
uncontrolled. 5 700 mega litres flow from bores each year, creating not
so much a problem with water drying out entirely, as with reduced
underground pressure. However in places, severe overuse has caused some
bores and mound springs to stop flowing altogether.

Initiatory effort is being made already to protect water supply for
future generations. Where in the early days of desert settlement, water
flow could be altered by a few turns of the bore head with a shifting
spanner; now supplies are regulated by a series of gauges and rows of
pumps, and are monitored by modern modems and computers.
Drainage channels, built across open land like moats, are being phased
out in favour of closed pipelines, as the resources to do so become
available. It is estimated that around ninety-five per cent of open
channel water is lost through a combination of evaporation, seepage,
and breakouts. On the other hand, local wildlife, which have come to depend
upon the sub ecosystem created by the channel supply, must relocate to
original sources, putting sudden and unsustainable pressure on those
reserves. "Cap and Pipe " programs have been instigated throughout the basin area
with differing levels of success. They aim to cap uncontrolled bores
and replace some of the 34 000 kilometres of exposed bore drains with piped
systems. The exposed channels of the old system can present dangers in
the form of disease spread through manure and decomposing carcasses,
and the spreading of weeds through seed transference. The tanks and troughs replacing the basins need to be checked regularly; water loss through blockages and seepage can be disastrous.

Consequently, each bore sunk in an isolated area becomes a huge community responsibility, and neighbours living many miles apart must work together to safeguard the water supply they rely upon so completely. An inordinate amount of organisation and work is required to bring the projects to success. Studies, site inspections, history and groundwater reports, geophysical logging, geological assessments, estimates of required work and resources, funding, and gaining support at public meetings are all required for each and every alteration to the
irrigation networks. Unforgiving environments, isolation, and logistics are all obstacles to the success of outback irrigation schemes. The high cost of permits for tapping the supply can be too much for many private landowners, who often run their properties on an overdraft, and are unable to produce that kind of money with the high input needed to keep their property running. The difference a reliable water source makes to cattle condition is profound, and is immediately recognisable both physically and in their behaviour.

With government support and collective effort, two hundred thousand mega litres should be able to be saved each year, as is aimed to be. Working toward the sustainability of this precious resource is so important, as it can mean life or death to the communities reliant upon it.

bel

Think of all the things you use water for each day. Imagine living away
from a clean water source - how long would you last? Think about the
reasons why open channels might have been used originally, instead of
pipelines. Why might settlers have begun such an inefficient method of
transferring the bore water across their land? What resources would
they have had available to them, both materially, and in knowledge of that
kind of engineering? Try to imagine attempting to bring water to an
inhospitable land with these resources. What does this tell you about
the tenacity and fortitude of the first settlers?

Bush fires are an essential part of nature, as the process facilitates plant reproduction and growth. But the occurrence of bush fires has a lasting effect on several aspects of the desert ecosystem. Before European settlement, Aboriginal people burned the land deliberately, particularly in the Spinifex grasslands. Their yearly burning practices prevented a build up of native grasses and vegetation, which would limit destructive fires. But more than anything else, this practice would create rich and varied habitats for native species of animals and the range of prey to the Aboriginal people was greatly increased.

At least 40,000 years ago, fire was a major environmental tool in the evolution of Australian plants. Lightning started wildfires as the plant growth built up after each Wet season. When the Aboriginal people arrived, they began to use fire stick farming to attract a variety of game animals. They did this by burning small patches of vegetation in different stages of regeneration; the first affected were the new green shoots of spinifex, then the longer lived grasses, and finally a community of grasses dominated by spinifex. In 1872, Ernest Giles, the first European into the Gibson Desert recorded “the natives were about, burning, burning, ever burning; one would think they were of the fabled salamander race, and lived on fire instead of water.”

Animals take advantage of the tasty and nutritious plants that germinate after the burning. Fire Beetles cover the blackened earth while Crimson Chats dive after them. Fork tailed kites and hawks circle after the fire has passed, feeding on fleeing animals.

Many other animals which used to thrive in Spinifex grasslands managed by fire have vanished. When Europeans settled in inland Australia, the patch-burning technique of the Aborigines was altered. They were forced into missions and towns, their patch burnings abandoned. The considerable change in these burning techniques contributed to the demise of native animal species.

The Rufous Hare Wallaby became critically endangered. It was once widespread and abundant. Its habitat is now limited to small islands off western Australia and a small region of the Tanami desert. The collapse of this population 50 years ago coincided with the movement of Aborigines into settlements. Today, as Aborigines move back onto their native homelands, their ancient burning techniques once again in practice encourage a mosaic of animal habitats and vegetation patterns.

Suggested activities: How is fire utilised where you live? What are its uses in agriculture and grassland management? How does burning impact our environment, considering air pollution and destruction of property caused by wildfires?

April

When those members of the team from overseas arrived into Cairns
International Airport the week before the trip started, representatives
from the Australian quarantine service checked their bike tires for
traces of mud and asked some members whether they'd visited a farm
recently. Why? To try and prevent the spread of Foot and Mouth disease
into the country.

Being somewhat isolated from the rest of the world by water; Australia
is perfectly suited, at least geographically, to prevent diseases (like
Foot and Mouth).from entering the country. On the flip side, because of
the enormous tracts of unfenced land and uncontrolled movements of
feral animals - such as pigs - that would quickly spread the disease
under-hoof, trying to bring a rogue disease under control in Australia
would be very difficult.

Another factor in the equation is the dependency of rural communities
on the global market. In the beef industry for example, an infectious
disease that renders the meat unsaleable on the international market
would result in a huge price drop, putting many farmers out of
business. As it is, Australia has an extremely clean record as a disease-free
country, and this in part explains the high prices being paid for Australian beef at the time of writing.

We passed this sign today (see photo). It is designed to being people's
attention to the presence of Tuberculosis and Brucellosis in the area.
Although less infectious than Foot and Mouth, these diseases, if not
controlled by quarantining of infected cattle, could spell disaster in
the local and national cattle farming industry.

Suggested learning activities: find out about any diseases that farmers
in your local area have to take preventative measures against. What
impact would there be on the farmer, the local and national economy
should the disease/s get out of control.

jason