Little Helper's School Projects

Fraser Island Diary

10 December 2014

We went to Fraser island on our trip around Australia. Fraser island, is a sandy island which holds some epic four wheal driving and some mind blowing lakes. 

The ferry took us to Fraser Island and it was a slow journey, but we made it.  We got off the ferry and drove up the beach for an hour.  We found a good camp at Dundaburra (a camping area on Fraser island).

On the beach near Dundaburra

The following day we had planned a small walk to a sand-blow. We walked 100 meters up the track to the dingo fence surrounding camp. We sadly turned away because a sign said 'WALK CLOSED!!!' We drove to the beach after that and Lachlan and I played in the sand and mum and dad sat on the picnic rug. Soon we were driving down the beach to Waddy Point and Champagne pools. Mum screamed "Stop Stop" but it was too late. Clatter clatter clatter, the back window had shattered!! We drove to the beach and checked that every body was ok. Out went my teddies, Snowy, Tassie, Dasher, Warren and everybody else.

Our new rear window

We put a garbage bag where the back window used to be. We had planned to drive to Champagne pools that day anyway, so with back window shattered we drove to Champagne pools. Water splashed me until I fell over at 'Splashpain' pools.

Splashpain Pools!

Next day we did the rainforest drive at Happy Valley. We saw Knife-blade sandblow, it's a BIG sandblow. 

Wungul Sandblow

Next day dawned bright and sunny so we walked to Wungul sandblow. We made tyre tracks as deep as a foot!! No dingos sighted, we walked back to camp. We met up with some old friends, Kailani and Illukia. We pretended to be dingos, awwwoooo.

Time to go to Central Station. On our way, we went for a dip at Eli creek. We stoped at the Ranger Station to see Kailani and Illukia again. We played for a long time until it was time to go.

We pulled in to Eurong and had lunch. We pulled into Central Station and had dinner. "We are going to go lake Mackenzie tomorrow " Mum said to us. 

Lake Mackenzie was so clear!

So we went and had lunch at Lake Mackenzie. The water was crystal clear so we went for a swim. After lake Mackenzie we drove to Basin Lake. On the way, we hit a soft spot. Down we went, but luckily two tour buses pulled up behind us. Two hours later we were back at camp. Phew, a big day DONE!! Next day we were going to drive back to the mainland via Wabby lake. The lake was amazing and so was the sandblow next to lake Wabby. 

Going back onto the mainland is going to be sad, but we have some surprises install! Driving to Ma ma and Pa  is going to be GREAT!!!!!!!! Those biscuits waiting in Ma Ma's box are going to be gone soon!!

The Dinosaur Trail

Plesiosaurs      Nov 2nd 2014

Plesiosaurs are long necked sea dinosaurs and they are as big as a ute!

They roamed the sea until....they meet a Kronasaurus and then the plesiosaur would disappear then!!

With the Kronosaurus bones

The plesiosaur's food was fish and belemnites and they used rocks to grind up food as well.

Plesiosaurs had scaly skin.

Go and have a look at Banjo and Matilda. Matilda was a vegetarian and Banjo was a meat eater. It'll give you an idea what dinosaur bones look like!!

Banjo looked like a scary animal!

Kronasaurus Korner had some plesiosaur bones.

The plesiosaur bones look a lot like rock.

The bones are found in the thousands at Richmond, so go on a bone hunt at the public forsaking area.

The scientific names  for the plesiosaurs are Elasmosaurs and Crimoliasurus maccoyi.

I loved the footprints at Larks Quarry

Season Wheel

26 August 2014

The Little Helper's project was to develop a season wheel for our home.  We have learnt that the Aboriginal people based their seasons on various calendar plants and based their hunting and gathering on these indicators.  Some areas had five seasons, others six or even seven depending on the subtleties observed.

The Little Helper developed a season wheel based on his activities each season.

These are the seasons that I use.  I work them out by the games I play.

The Little Helper and his project

The Mornington Wilderness Sanctuary Eco-Fire Project

8 June 2014

The Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC) is the largest private owner of land for conservation in Australia, protecting endangered wildlife across more than three million hectares.  The AWC implements the largest non-government fire management program in Australia (EcoFire in the Kimberley).  AWC Newsletter Spring 2013

Eco fire project aims to limit the spread of extensive, and hot fires in the Kimberley. 

The reason they plan fires, is to stop too many fires spreading and killing all the plants, especially spinnafix dying out because it takes 3 years to grow and set seed.

It has been going for 8 years over 4 million hectares. The land is owned by 13 different groups, the groups are pastoralists, Aboriginal land owners and the AWC. 

 Research indicates that the program is working well, fires are smaller and the population of small animals and birds has increased lots.

I think it is cool because you will have cute little animals all over the Kimberley.

Tom Price Iron Ore Mine Tour

25 May 2014

On a very hot day we went in a big bus to tour the Tom Price Iron Ore Mine. You had to wear safety glasses. You did not have to wear safety glasses in the bus. In the bus we saw 830E dump trucks working like mad! The speed limit was 40 km per hour. If you want to drive an 830E you would drive for 8 to 10 hours a day.

830E Dump Truck - The E stands for electric.  They have a big generator driving two electric motors.

The iron ore is dug up from under ground in an old sea bed. It was made between 2-3 billon years ago through the Stromatolites. The iron ore was all in Mount Tom Price! NOW MT TOM PRICE IS GONE!!!!!!!!!

The Pit at what is left of Mount Tom Price

They blast the iron ore out of the ground. They have big buckets that get the bits of iron ore and tip all of the ore out into the back of the 830E. The 830E hauls the rock and iron ore out of the hole and into the crusher!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A retired bucket at the lookout

The crusher will smash the iron ore into different sizes, and will sort it into heaps.  A loader will then pour all the ore in to trains and the trains will go to Dampier. In Dampier the ore is loaded into big ships and the ships will go to China.

We saw a train heading to Dampier

It had 234 cars full of iron ore.

Interesting statistics:

·         The mine uses 2 million litres of diesel each week!!!!!!
·         Each truck uses 20 litres per km laden
·         Each truck carries 240 tonnes of ore in a load
·         The train has 234 cars each with 110 tons of ore in each car.
·         The value of ore in each train load is around $3 million!!

This is me at Port Hedland -  it is another big port that exports Iron Ore

Here is me with some of the loading machinery in the background.