Australia
Climate Change: The Reefs and Waterways of Australia
July 21-31, 2009
Itinerary
This 11-day seminar begins in Sydney and ends in Cairns and comprises field trips to the Murray Darling basin in the states of New South Wales and Victoria and the Great Barrier Reef in Far North Queensland. Group domestic flights to the Basin and to the Great Barrier Reef are included in the seminar fee. Click here to see the Summer 2009 Seminar itinerary.
Please note that this seminar is a traveling study tour and involves constant moving from city to city and includes visits and overnight stays in rural locations. It is designed to get the most out of a short visit and is oftentimes physically demanding. It is recommended that you be in good physical condition prior to participating.
Seminar Fee
CIEE Member: $3,425 Non-Member: $3,625
Academic Content (please note this is tentative and subject to change)
Lectures
- Climate Change and Australia’s Water Crisis
- Water Management in Urban Settings
- The Politics of Water Management: the Murray Darling Example
- Aboriginal Involvement in Water Management
- Industry Perspectives on Irrigation
- Preparing the Great Barrier Reef for Climate Change
- Improving Water Quality in the Great Barrier Reef and its Catchment
Co-curricular Site Visits & Field Trips (please note some of these excursions are subject to water flow and weather conditions)
- Sydney city tour
- University of Technology, Sydney (UTS) Institute for Water and Environmental Research Management (IWERM)
- Latrobe University’s Murray Darling Freshwater Research Centre
- Guided marine eco-tours of Barmah Wetlands and Forest and Hattah Lakes, Living Murray iconic sites
- Dharnya Aboriginal Cultural Centre
- Meet with local officials to discuss climate change and water issues from the community perspective
- Great Barrier Reef Marine Park
- Banana and sugar growing sites in Innisfail and Tully, to demonstrate best practice environmental and agricultural management and impact of catchment water on the reef
- Reef HG Aquarium and Museum of Tropical Queensland
- Day-long catamaran excursion to Michaelmas Cay, one of the most important bird-nesting sanctuaries on the Reef, and to the hard coral gardens of the Outer Barrier Reef, for optional snorkeling or scuba diving
Rationale
While oil dominates today’s news, some scholars posit that water will drive future challenges and conflicts. Whether it is rising, depleting, or heating up, the effects are already felt on coastlines and in semi-arid regions around the world. This seminar offers the opportunity to learn about water and climate changes in Australia, after Antarctica the world’s most arid continent. Australians recently were faced with another summer of water restrictions; food prices driven up to unprecedented levels by yet another year of drought, and the prospect of a high proportion of the aging farm population walking off the land if spring rains don’t come. There is also the potential immeasurable loss of some of Australia’s unique biota and ecology.
The focus throughout this seminar will be the ecological, political and social impact of climate change on Australia’s two fragile aquatic environments. The seminar visits the Murray Darling Basin in New South Wales and Victoria: the source of water for much of Australia’s ‘fertile crescent‘; home of internationally important wetlands; but now under threat and the subject of contested government and environmental intervention. Here participants will consider environment, infrastructure, irrigation and fresh water research, within the context of managing this threatened resource. Participants will also visit the iconic Great Barrier Reef in Far North Queensland, where scientists seek to make the Reef as healthy and resilient as possible, through careful management of catchment water, to help enable this unique marine system to withstand the impact of global warming. Accompanying the seminar in both Queensland and the Murray-Darling will be local water researchers who will be able to give in situ lectures on field trips.
Host Institution
The Murray Darling Association
was formed in 1944 as the Murray Valley Development League. It is a non-government organization of over 90 local government municipalities, along with community groups, businesses and individuals with an interest in ensuring that the Murray-Darling Basin continues as a viable and valuable asset for all. The Association represents Local Government along the Murray, Darling and other rivers in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and South Australia as well as communities that rely on water from the Basin. Its mission is to provide a focus for local government and community participation in the major natural resource management issues of the Murray-Darling Basin.
The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) is the principal adviser to the Commonwealth Government on the care and development of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. The Authority undertakes a variety of activities including: research, monitoring and interpreting data; environmental impact assessment; developing and implementing zoning and management plans; providing information, and educational services and marine environmental management advice.
Seminar Leadership
Dr Jan Gothard is senior lecturer in history at Murdoch University in Perth, Western Australia, CIEE Australia Representative and past Resident Director, CIEE Study Centre, Murdoch University. She teaches Australian history, including a new course on environmental history. Her research interests presently focus on migration and disability; her publications include work on female migration, Asia-Australia relations, and the White Australia policy.
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