Hardwicke Bay Community Project

On the 31st of August, half of the group was bussed to Hardwicke Bay to help out in the community. The other half stayed at the campsite and worked on our blogs. Then at lunch time we were bussed to Hardwicke Bay. We met the other half of our group and the people that we were helping out. Among them was Blake (One of the ladies sons) who is going to board at PAC next year. We had lunch with everyone and after lunch we helped tidy up, then the second group went into the other room to talk to Cheryl (one of the volunteers) about the plants. She told us what plants were introduced to Australia, and which ones are native. After the introduction we drove to the little garden area that PAC helped plant and decorate. There was a pile of gravel that we had to cover the path with. We got three wheelbarrows and four shovels and started to load the wheelbarrows with gravel. Pritch and I were dumping the gravel in various places on the path and then one of the men was spreading it out and covering the path. Once the path had been covered we got in the bus with Mr Williams. He drove us all over the place and then we got lost and drove back to the hall to find out where we had to go. When we finally found out where we had to go we were loading parts of pine trees that had been cut down onto a trailer. Then once this had been completed we moved on to the beach to weed the introduced plants. This was difficult, as we had to find the introduced plants then weed them and pull out everything. We continued with this for about 45 minutes then we said thank you and goodbye and all hopped back on the bus and went back to the campsite.

Q1: Why are weeds so bad for the environment? Name 3 weeds you have learned about today.
Weeds are bad for the environment because they get rid of the native plants and animals. Introduced plants in the sand dunes are bad because they weaken the sand dunes.

Q2: What role do humans play in the distribution of weeds?
People from other countries think they are beautiful and colourful and then bring them to other countries ad then they can spread through the wind, rivers and streams and sometimes insects.

Q3: What are some of the common ways that weeds spread?
Some ways that weeds spread are in the wind, when there is a storm and high winds, the wind picks up the seeds and then it moves them to other places. Another way is through rivers and streams, this works the same way as the wind, and another way is people from other countries think they look beautiful so they bring them on boats and then plant them here and then they spread.

Q4: Are weeds the same all over Australia?
The specific type of weeds wouldn’t be the same but the amount would be. When we were at Hardwicke Bay there were sour sobs and they were everywhere. But there would be lots of types of introduced plants and weeds all over Australia.

Q5: Is climate change likely to add to the weed problem? If so, how?


Q6: Why do people volunteer to weed and plant local plants in public reserves and areas?


Q7: What can you do?