An immersive experience at Nature Festival with NGT

The word “immersive” often gets used to describe something deeply absorbing, particularly a technologically generated experience that is very life-like. Well, at NGT we like to encourage people to get away from the artificially generated world and immerse themselves in the real, natural world. With that in mind we were thrilled to recently guide 18 enthusiastic supporters around three of our ecological restoration sites on our River and Wetland Restoration Tour, part of the 2024 SA Nature Festival.

Our first stop was the River Torrens/Karrawirra Pari in Lockleys, a site where in 2023 NGT re-introduced the southern purple-spotted gudgeon, a threatened fish species that had been missing from the river for over 100 years. Senior Ecologist Sylvia Zukowski had set monitoring nets overnight and guests had the opportunity to help haul and check them for fish. There were barely enough waders to go around, with eight keen people taking to the water. The catch didn’t disappoint, with one very large eel tailed catfish (Tandanus tandanus), a couple of congolli (Pseudaphritis urvilli), an eastern snake-necked turtle (Chelodina longicollis), several small bodied fish including flat-headed gudgeon (Philypnodon grandiceps) and some yabbies and freshwater shrimp. Although no southern purple-spotted gudgeon were caught, Sylvia had a couple on hand in a mobile aquarium. Stop one certainly set a high bar for the rest of the day!

Stop number two was the Aldinga Washpool where we were welcomed to country by Kaurna, Ngarrindjeri man Drew Kilner. Drew explained the cultural significance of the area and the link to Tjilbruke, an important creation ancestor for the Kaurna people. Ben then guided guests around the wetland, explaining the historical research and restoration planning that NGT have been involved with since 2021. It was by now a beautiful spring day and the Washpool, about half full and with plenty of waterbirds in attendance, was looking pretty nice.

The last stop was School Swamp, Mount Compass, where a boardwalk enables visitors to get up close to this excellent example of the critically endangered Fleurieu Peninsula Swamp ecological community. Ben and Lachie explained NGT’s work in restoring a number of these swamps in the Mount Compass area.

A big thank you to all those who attended and for your intelligent questions. We hope to catch you at another NGT event some time soon.