AUSTRALIAN ENVIRONMENTS

Giuseppe Sandro Bellantone (a free teaching resource for

primary educators)

Margaret River Wine Region

Location and Climate:

Margaret River is located in the south west of Western Australia

and enjoys a cool Mediterranean climate

Flora and Fauna The Flora of the area is rich with interesting

plants such as she oak, the cape wattle, golden wreath wattle and the tea tree. Margaret river is filled with native animals to name a few there are the western ring-tailed possum, forest red-tailed black cockatoo and the Margaret river burrowing crayfish

Importance

The main sources of income for the area are tourism and the wineries and a combination of the two. Many tourists go on the day long wine tours going through some of the areas most popular and critically acclaimed wineries

Uluru Climate and Location: Uluru is located in the more

southern part of the northern territory with an almost bipolar climate temperatures range anywhere from -5 degrees to 37 degrees

Flora Uluru and the surrounding Kata Tjuta National

Park are gifted with some amazing Flora a few of which have some rather unique nicknames such as the spinifex aka “spiky donuts or the kalinypa honey gravillea also known as the “sweethop”. We then have mulga trees and the desert oak and various other types of unigue flora.

Fauna Uluru and the area around it are quite simply

packed full of unigue and otherwise interesting animals from the wedge tailed eagle to the dingo to the thorny devil. There is an animal of every shape and size to be found at uluru. Some of these animals are the red kangaroo, the lack cockatoo, mulga snake and the woma python.

Importance The area has deep

culture for the Anangu people who assist in the management in the park. The area is listed is a heritage site and is popular among tourists.

Perth Location and

Climate : Perth is Located in

the southwest of Western Australia and is the capital city of the state. It much like Margaret River has a cool Mediterranean climate

Fauna Its kind of difficult to write

the Fauna of a city given that the predominant species in the area is humans, all 1.74 million of us … Though we aren’t the only creatures around there are plenty of seagulls ready to steal your food and most households have domesticated pets such as a cat a dog or a crazy crab. Though native Fauna does appear such blue tongued lizards, cockatoos and crows.

FLORA Perth is filled with plant life and most of

this is in peoples backyards. Eucalyptus trees, mulberry trees, frangipanis, poppies, hanging vines… Kangaroo paws. There are plenty of plants especially in Kings park.

Importance One thing that Perth has

plenty of is history and culture. Especially in the Fremantle areas with the arts centre, the Fremantle prison and both of the maritime museums old and new. It even has a school dedicated to young and talented artists of all forms. There is also the Perth museum and of course Kings park an huge park smack bang in the centre of Perth it is a picnic destination for families all over the city.

The Great Barrier Reef If you asked any tourist

visiting Australia what is on the top of your must see list this would most likely be it. The great barrier reef it has a sub- tropical climate and is located in the northern part of Queensland and goes down the coast.

Flora The Great barrier

reef is home to an estimated 400 species of coral. Some of these include plate and brain coral. Its hard to go into specifics given that there are so many. The area also has a lot of seaweed.

Fauna The Great Barrier Reef is home to so much marine wildlife

its ridiculous. So here goes… There are 30 known species of whales dolphins and porpoises that occupy the reef. 215 birds occupy the islands contained within the reef. 17 species of sea snakes live in the reef. Six species of turtles use the reef as their breeding ground and just to top it all of 1500 species of fish live in the reef.

Importance The reef is a unique and extremely important eco system that is filled to

the brim with marine life. There truly is no other place like it on earth and that is why it simply must be protected. Tourism is a huge business with it raking in billions of dollars every year. The fact that it is so profitable is the reason its so threatened such a beautiful place and people visiting for two or three days before they go somewhere else think its ok to dump there MacDonald's wrapper in the ocean or to take away a piece of coral as a souvenir. That and all the ships going through the area… We’re at risk of losing one of things that makes this country so special.