Geography Field Trip

Studying bushfire impact at Plenty Gorge

To gather real world fieldwork experience and gather primary data for the class’s research report, Alana Smith’s Unit 1 Geography class recently attended a field trip to Plenty Gorge Parklands in Bundoora to study the impacts of the 2019-2020 Black Summer bushfires, during which part of the park burnt.  

Despite a delayed bus, heavy rain and very limited shelter, the class conducted a range of primary data collection techniques such as vegetation transects, canopy cover estimates and annotated field sketches.  

Students were also presented to by two fire experts from Parks Victoria, enabling them to hear firsthand experiences of the fires both at Plenty Gorge and in regional Victoria. 

Upon returning to the classroom students then processed their raw data into more meaningful formats such as graphs to find trends and patterns. Students used all of this as a basis for answering their SAC’s research question about the changes bushfire brings to a park and best fire management techniques.  

In Unit 2 students will again attend fieldwork, next time to the Melbourne Sports and Entertainment Precinct (MCG, Rod Laver, AAMI Park etc.) to study tourism in Melbourne.  

Alana Smith