Year 11 Senior Science from Hawkesbury High are becoming Brewongle junkies. After completing a river ecology day earlier in the year they came back for more last Friday.
We travelled to our field site at Turnbull’s Lagoon and dug some dirt, hugged some trees and avoided the nasty bull ants. The students decided the Western Sydney Dry Rainforest was in fairly healthy condition with plenty of habitat elements.
As an aside – did you know that Western Sydney Dry Rainforest has recently been listed as endangered? This vegetation class is on the brink of extinction.
The students had a close look at the Lagoon too. After testing for many abiotic parameters like oxygen, salinity, nitrates, phosphates and ammonia they concluded that the water was good quality but fairly turbid (muddy). After finding a diverse array of macro invertebrates they concluded that the lagoon was also in good condition despite some disturbance from cattle.
The highlight of the day was catching a baby eel and some freshwater shrimp.
These students continue to impress us here a Brewongle with their skills in understanding the bush. They served themselves and and their school well. Top work guys!
Brewongle Environmental Education Centre 
Catching a baby eel is pretty impressive! May need to rename it Burra-Lagoon
Hey Damien – It was only tiny, but its parents must have been lurking around…. I will put your name suggestion to the naming committee.
Wow! Impressive tree size!
I think this old blue gum escaped the axe…