Home > Events > 2008

Field Trips

Delegates are invited to participate in one of two field trips on Friday 3 October.  Please indicate on the Registration Form your preferred field trip. All field trips will leave from the MPAC at 8:30am.

What to bring on the Field Trips

  • Hat and sunscreen
  • Wet weather gear (coat, jumper)
  • Comfortable walking shoes
  • A sense of humour!

Field Trips

Field Trip 1: Wetlands of the Swan Coastal Plain

Tour Hosts: Jenny Davis, Pierre Horwitz and Bea Sommer
Full day Tour: Returning to Perth Airport by 5pm and Perth Railway Terminal by 6pm. Please bring your luggage.
Transport, meals and waders provided.

This trip will visit wetlands, including the Ramsar-listed Thomson’s Lake, that are the best representatives of the diverse range of wetlands present on the Swan Coastal Plain. The trip will cover wetlands from south of Perth to those as far north as Yanchep National Park. Some of the wetlands are the sites of biomonitoring programs (lead by Jenny Davis and Pierre Horwitz) that have been undertaken to assess the impacts of groundwater extraction from the Jandakot and Gnangara groundwater mounds.

Field Trip 2: Mines Tour - Cancelled

Field Trip 3: Peel Harvey Region Tour

Tour Host: Tom Rose
Half-day Tour: Returing to MPAC by 1:30pm.
Featuring a sumptuous morning tea at a local venue.

The Peel-Harvey region has undergone massive changes since World War II. The estuary became massively eutrophic between 19650s and 1990s. The Dawesville Channel was constructed and opened in 1994 to improve flushing and reduce the growth of toxic blue-greens and macrolagae which had flourished from inputs of excessive nutrients. Since the 1990s the region has participated in anumber of catchment improvemnent programs and experienced increased urban urban debvelopment. This tour will give you a visual sense of where a range of issues that affect the regions ecology and its fresh and estuarine waters. The tour will visit acid sulphate affected areas, see unique estuarine vegetation complexes, view a braided and meandering coastal sandy river and the Dawesville Channel as well as appreciate local estuarine riparian habitats. It finishes at Lake Clifton, a unique coastal lake where living stromatolites and thrombolites are flourishing.