History Tour 1

Friday 8th May 2009

We sat in the bus early in the morning as Moff got set to take us for a history tour of the area.

We didn't get far before we had our first stop, which was about 5 metres outside the campus, trying to name a pine tree Moff pointed out. It turned out to be a Nor Folk Island Pine. The Nor Folk Island Pine was built near ports to be used as ships masts as it is a very strong wood. It is also used for eucalyptus oil and is fire and drought resistant.

This was not the only tree we learnt about on the tour, we also learnt about such trees as follows;

She Oak: This tree has very hard bark, which helps it to be fire and drought resistant, and is the only food source of the Yellow-Tailed Black Cockatoo.

Aleppo Pine: Has a Europe look about it and was planted in place of native Australian trees as these were believed to be a bad omen. It was also planted to make the Australian landscape more green.

Mallee Gum: One of this trees major features, probably its main feature in fact is its trunk. It is located underground which means if a fire comes through it is protected because all its roots and everything is underground, so it will simply grow back.

We also learned about many minerals and where they were mined, as well as how many local towns were used for mining many years ago.

Limestone: Is Calcium Carbonate (CaCO3) and is used in building many houses and local buildings around the countryside. It is also used in cement and used to purify iron. it was also shipped to Adelaide and used to build buildings such as the town hall and post office.

Stenhouse Bay: Used to be a mining sight that mined for Gypsum. The reason it stopped was because it was to dangerous to mine on a cliff face. Gypsum is used to make chalk and plasterboard.

Inneston: Was the earliest mining town and also mined gypsum.

Overall, it was an info rich history tour, on which I learnt a whole range of interesting facts.