15 Nov 2022
Day 1,
When we first came to the lovely campsite we started setting up our tents which were harder than we expected. Luckily we had Mr Simpson and the project platypus workers helped us. After the struggle of putting up tents, all 4 schools sat in a group and we were given project platypus journals to write all of the information we were learning. Then we set off for our first activity.
We started off talking to Gillad from the University of New South Wales. He told us all of the steps of how to catch a platypus and how to figure out how many are left.
Next was water testing, we had tubes that we filled up with water to see how dirty the water was and what animals could live in it depending on if they are very sensitive or durable. We also did fishing to fish for carp. Carp are bad for the platypus environment because they suck up the mud from the bottom of the water and then spit it out making the water murky.
We then went canoeing to have a look at the platypuses' environment and the river banks that were receding. We then had the chance to jump in the water, when jumping in many noticed that the water was really muddy compared to the beach.
Night 1,
We roasted marshmallows, cooked damper over a fire and met new people from other schools. At around 8:30 it was starting to get dark. We were sitting on the bridge watching the net for ripples. None came for around 10 minutes then all of a sudden we saw ripples. We watched as they caught the platypus and they nearly tipped their boat over. While they were finished with catching the platypus we then saw more ripples further down the river. That night they caught platypuses. We then saw the process of tagging a platypus and how the platypus gets let go.
Day 2,
We woke up early at 6 in the morning and started packing up our tents ready for the day ahead. We then drove to the upper kangaroo valley and water tested a different river and compared the results to the first river. We looked around the river till we set off to tree planting. At tree planting, Alex Zoe, Alice, Eva, Mila, Indy, Micah, Jeremy, and Julian planted around 100 trees or even more! Tree planting was an awarding activity to know that you’re helping platypuses.
Project platypus was one of the best experiences of our lives and we would definitely do it again. See photos below and more in the gallery.
Project Platypus Participants: Zoe, Alice, Eva, Mila, Indy, Micah, Jeremy, Julian, Alex & Mr Simpson
