Our Year 7 Geography students recently visited Brisbane Waters National Park to see the 200+ year old Bulgardry Aboriginal engraving site and to explore the Girrakool Loop Track. Our Year 7 students have been studying landscapes and landforms in their Geography classrooms, and it was wonderful to see the students out in the eucalypt bushland observing, sketching and recording information about the sandstone ridges waterfalls and indigenous use of this landscape. The students saw amazing waterfalls and evidence of large boulders that had been broken off the ridge due to weathering and erosion. Throughout the excursion, we spotted an array of native plants such as the Hakea with its woody fruits the Banksia with its thick bark, and the Grass Tree with its tall flower spike. Students learnt about the natural adaptions these plants had to the Australian environment and how indigenous communities saw the bush as a pharmacy and a grocery store, as well as a place of spiritual inspiration.
