Urrbrae Wetlands October 2022

The Urrbrae Wetlands was an enjoyable and interesting excursion. We learnt about environmental water collection, natural wetland interactions and monitoring with tests such as salinity, pH, nitrates, phosphates and turbidity levels to capture the health of the system.

Vanessa from Urrbrae Agricultural school lead the day with a tour, indicating the points of water input/output, discussing the natural process of water to travel and be filtered by reeds, root systems and plants throughout the different ponds. She also gave us the task of finding different macro invertebrates from these ponds. By observing each organism on a large screen we identified each organism and used the sensitivity of each species to quantify the pollution index and biodiversity.

The day provided insight into working as an ecologist with hands on testing and analysis, making it both valuable and a fun experience. I am very thankful for Ms De Fazio providing this experience and taking us on this excursion and for Vanessa Greenslade, manager of the Urrbrae Wetlands teaching us about The Unley Council's solution for water management and quality in the area with its environmental benefits.