Currimundi Catchment
The study area of my research is the Currimundi Catchment. It is located approximately 15 km south of the University. The area is concentrated around a lake which has an open entrance to the sea, so you could call it an estuary. This week I went kayaking through this area to make some photo’s for my study area. During this trip we went to canals which are not accessible via the road only via the water.
In this area most of the houses are located directly on the water front. They have a gate at the back of the house which allows them to access the lakes, creeks and rivers with boats, kayaks, canoes and other floating objects. We started our trip at 8 in the morning; we kayaked towards the northern arm of the Currimundi Lake. This area was very peaceful and quite because the creek contained a lot of trees which felt in the water and obstructed the access for fast, large boats. We met two boys, who were fishing in this area, and there was a lot of fish, they were jumping out of the water.
During our trip we saw different mangrove species (grey and red) and we also saw a lot of paper bark tree. Those trees are very special; their bark comes of the whole year around and looks a bit like paper. Aboriginals used this ‘paper’ to wrap food in. There were a lot of tree which have fallen into the water because of erosion. In this area the main cause of erosion was natural, but in other areas of this catchment the wash from boats creates erosion.
After the trip into the north arm, we also went into the south arm, this area was much more urbanised because there were a lot of houses build close to the creeks. The distance between the houses and the waterline is in most cases not more than 20 meters, the height of the banks is approximately 1 meter which makes a lot of areas very susceptible for flooding.
This weekend there was also a community party organised by volunteer groups / community groups which are operating in the area. There were some stalls whit gifts and food and there was music. When the sunset had occurred there was a parade of boats/canoes / kayaks which were decorated with lights. The boats were sailing around on the lake with their lights on which was beautiful to see.
Even Santa Claus was present at this party. This will be my last report about my experiences and adventures in Australia. Next week I will be leaving just in time for Christmas. I hope you all enjoyed reading my reports!
Merry Christmas to everybody!