Kinjarling Coast Photo Competition 2022

The Kinjarling (Albany) Coast is like no other, boasting stunning natural beauty and unique features, rich biodiversity as well as an outstanding renewable energy potential.

The Great Southern Science Council hosted a free-to-enter photography competition that seeked to inspire the exploration and celebration of our exceptional coastal environment and all it has to offer. 

The photo competition had three categories:

1.      Wooyan Gaba (Blue Ocean) and the hinterland - documenting the diversity of marine ecosystems including flora and fauna above and below the water

2.    Sustainability / Under threat - examples of sustainable and renewable resource development and or and an exploration of the impact of human activities on the environment, for example climate change and ocean plastics

3.    Youth - an open category that provides an opportunity for younger participants (under 16 years) to showcase their photographic skills and creativity

The competition received 37 entries which can be seen in the Gallery.

Prizes were presented at the City of Albany Library on Friday 23 September with winning entries being on display at the library between 24 September and 14 October 2022.

Winners for the 3 competition categories

Ocean plastics..... Coming to a beach near you!! The hunt for plastic pollution on our beaches

Flyer for the plastic hunt.

On two occasions, some intrepid plastic warriors plundered nuggets of plastic from the sands of Muttonbird Beach.  The first event, before Christmas 2021 was a wet affair and resulted in only a few pieces of plastic from two holes.  After Christmas, on a nice warm day, we managed three holes, two at the top of the beach and one at the top of the wash zone.  Most plastic was found at the top of the wash zone, which was not expected as this area erodes away during winter.  This means it has less time to accumulate plastic. While we did find plastic, it was in very small concentrations, much lower than reports from elsewhere around the world.  In order to keep the levels low, as a community we need to keep up beach stewardship of the coast and participate in as many plastic reduction schemes as possible. 

Searching for plastic in the upper beach area adjacent to Muttonbird Beach lower carpark.

Great to see school age children getting involved.

Medical waste is becoming even more common on beaches during the pandemic.

While not plastic cigarette butts are persistent and dangerous to wildlife.

Migratory Shore Birds at Denmark

Shorebird Forum, Denmark

“The Great Southern Science Council partnered with the Denmark Bird Group in late October to present an art–science collaboration centred on the miracle of the two million migrating shorebirds that fly thousands of kms to Australia each year, and formed part of the Overwintering Project and the Brave New Works Festival.

Over 50 people attended the event, which was held at the Denmark Artshouse. Vivienne Robertson, the Artistic Director of Denmark Arts, welcomed attendees and provided an introduction to the event. Brad Kneebone from the Denmark Bird Group displayed a comprehensive map of the East Asian and Australian Flyway and narrated the moving story of migratory birds making the gruelling journey from Siberia to Australia and return.

A short film followed, titled Invisible Connections, with music and visuals by Anthony Albrecht and Simone Slattery.

A light hearted video was then shown about the famous Godwit E7 which flew from Alaska to NZ non-stop in 8 days. The final video was of a virtual choir consisting of singers from all of the countries and towns the birds cross over or visit on their journey to Australia. A preview of the Overwintering Project and Exhibition to be held in February 2022 was also provided. The GSSC banner was lucky enough to attend the meeting and you can see it just behind the speaker in the above image from the day. Many thanks to Inspiring Western Australia for enabling events such as this.”

Whimbrels

National Science Youth Forum - Discovering your passion in science while making lifelong friends along the way -

The Great Southern Science Council partners with the Rotary Club of Albany Port WA (Inc) to send a local student to the annual National Youth Science Forum in January each year. In 2020 it was held in Brisbane, Queensland.

This is a great opportunity and one that we encourage all Year 12 students interested in science to investigate. Ask your science teacher about the program or go here – National Youth Science Forum.

This year, Fraser Wood from Albany Senior High School was selected, an achievement in itself, and he shares his experiences below.  

Anyway - in Fraser's own words.………..

 My experience at National Youth Science Forum, in a sentence, would have to be: Discovering your passion in science while making lifelong friends along the way.

Coming back from NYSF 2020 has really motivated me to put 110% effort into my year 12 studies. It also has confirmed what I want to do after school. For years people have asked me what I want to do and I’ve always replied with “I have no idea” or something along those lines.

NYSF has given me a broader knowledge of what you can pursue in science and has shown me what I really want to do, which is biomedical science.

My first expectations of NYSF was that it would consist of the stereotypical nerd but what I found was that everyone was in fact the opposite of the stereotype.  If you were sporty and interested in chemistry there were people there just like you or if you were a musician and intrigued in biology you weren’t the only one.

The National Youth Science Forum included lab visits to different Institutes of the University of Queensland, and for us, a visit to Bayer CropScience® in Brisbane.

We also had lectures from experts in their field of science including a video call from Dr. Elanor Bell from the Australian Antarctic Division. There was an expo from the NYSF’s partners plus social activities such as the NYSF Olympics.

Dr Elanor Bell lecture

All-in-all, my time at NYSF would have to be some of the best 10 days of my life and I could not stress enough how much it has benefited me and all my peers that attended.