Brookfield Conservation Park with Conservation Volunteers Australia

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Parent Category: South Australia

Category: Adelaide

Created: Tuesday, 16 July 2013 06:58

Brookfield is located 130 kilometres North East from Adelaide in the Riverland region of South Australia. Originally a sheep station, the property was purchased in 1971 by the Chicago Zoological Society. In 1978 it was gifted to the South Australian Government and proclaimed as a Conservation Park. Brookfield has a small section open to the public but is mostly restricted to scientific research. The research is primarily on, but not limited to, the Southern Hairy Nosed Wombat.

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I took part in a 'Wombat Weekend' with CVA. This trip is an excellent introductory experience.

To understand a little of the reason for this project read:

What's happening to the Southern Hairy Nosed Wombats?

Our purpose in joining is part of a Citizen Science initiative, assisting professionals in the collection of data to further their research. Citizen Science is becoming an integral part of research assisting to reduce the time and cost of data collection necessary for project advancement.

It starts with the group meeting at the Adelaide office of CVA at 8am on a Saturday morning before driving the 1 ½ hours to Brookfield. We had a group of 10 which is a full bus, the minimum group is 4. The group is made up of a range of people with various scientific backgrounds from current students to professionals, and myself a scientific layperson.

Once there, you have an orientation with the scientific team regarding the work required. This time around it was a vegetation survey to ascertain how much wombat food (Stipa nitida) and the average size and health of the grass, the number of invasive weeds (Onion Weed - Asphodelus fistulosus, Ward's Weed - Carrichtera annua), and the density of plant coverage.

In the study that we were assisting, there were 10 wombat burrows to record data on. The group is divided into teams and given a direction to explore. Our team was East. Each team is provided with a GPS (to record location of data sets) a compass (to determine their direction and orientation), A 1 metre 10x10 square grid (to record plant density), 10 location stakes, and data sheets.

The group drive to one of the sites, ascertain their start point according to their direction, place the grid on the ground. We had a team of 4, so we broke into two groups – 1 to record data, the other to pace out 50 metre lengths due East for recording sites to a distance of 500 metres, allowing for 11 data sets. The data recording team have the GPS, grid and data sheets, and move between each of the markers laying the grid down and counting the plants within that grid.

This probably doesn't sound particularly interesting, but if you have any level of curiosity, this is a fascinating exercise. The variability of plant density and environment is amazing. Some areas are barren while others densely populated. It is also interesting how many burrow sites you come across as you walk out the 500 metres. We came across 3 different burrow sites along one 500 metre length.

Over the course of the first afternoon we completed 5 sites and another 4 the next day.

The evening meal was prepared by everyone and we all ate together around the table, sharing stories and getting to know each other, which continued throughout the evening.

This was an excellent and rewarding experience, assisting in the collection of data, meeting new people, and learning about the local environment and Wombats.

So, if you are like me and environmentally minded, want to help out on some excellent projects, check out CVA. There are single day activities that are free through to multi-night programs with some cost.