Wild time at Kiola, teaching undergrads about palaeoecology and some hands-on coring.

We arrived on Monday for a warm welcome to Country. While the students got a tour around the lands and waters, we demonstrators got wet in beautiful Murramarang Lagoon, also called Swan Lagoon.

Murramarang Lagoon
Setting up in the swamp.

We had some pretty impressive hosts. A wedge-tailed eagle. Australia’s largest raptor, circled us for most of our set-up. We also had Australian pelicans, Australia’s largest flying bird, paddling nearby. No emus, so we missed the hat trick there.

Wedge-tailed observer

Tuesday was our only full day and it started earlier than planned. We had settled into the lovely cabins on the Kiola campus. About halfpast midnight, we awoke to a shrill, brain-rattling siren screaming down from the 4 meter high ceilings and echoing off the tile floors. After discovering the smoke alarm was seemingly immune to reset by tossed shoe, we went to the nearby lab and found a step ladder and broom. After some prodding, we were able to quieten the alarm.

Just after settling back into our beds, the piercing din resumed. Thankfully, the caretaker answered his phone, gave us the code to the key safe, and told us where to find a proper ladder. Not to mention drove himself the half hour to come help us. With the ladder, we managed to get the alarm down and replace the battery.

Despite the interruption to our sleep, the rest of the day was very productive. The students all had a go with coring in waist-deep water that got deeper as one slowly sunk into the rotten egg mud.

Our coring playground
Three targets for three cores.

In the afternoon I walked the students through some basic time-series analysis in R, using the benevolent Simon Connor’s code. And capped the evening off with a raucous round of trivia!

Scouting out a new site
Not all swamps are created equal.

Retired shoes
They had a good run.