By choosing our topic, we were able to investigate an issue that we were passionate about and hopefully have an impact on the way the future of the area is improved and protected. We thoroughly enjoyed our fieldwork trips and being able to collect data for our own research task and be in control of how we approach each section.
Unfortunately, our topic is very subjective to the seasons, and we were not able to gain a full understanding as to affect all year round, however it has taught us more about understanding limitations when undertaking projects like this one. We also fell victim of a little bit of poor time management when it came to finishing the task off, which is something we can take away as a learning factor and definitely improve on as we grow and learn.
We both were able to undertake primary fieldwork and work together to analyse secondary data, which help us achieve our conclusions regarding the topic and our questions and aims.
Although we did all the right methods of collecting our samples, our results were hindered by our testing kits and our individual skills within using them, which in turn prevented us from providing our research with valuable data. If we were to redo our primary research, we would test the kits prior to using them to ensure we are fully capable of utilising the tools and ensure the kit is actually going to be able to provide us with the right results.
For our focus question under aim 3, we were trying to understand the extent to which the council were aware of regarding pollution within Gleniffer and if they had any plans surrounding the issue. We tried emailing them with our questions and collected data, however, assuming they are either too busy or do not wish to be held accountable for such issues yet, did not reply. To combat the issue of not being answered, which results in a lack of data for our research, we could perhaps go and visit the council physically and in person or try calling them to make them further aware of our message and questions, which would enhance our chances of gaining a valuable reply.
Other than these few fixes we would make, we believe our research was conducted ethically, and productively as we achieved some desired or unusual results which supported our investigation, whilst remaining as ethical and reliable as possible helping preserve the area and our survey responders' opinions.
Whilst taking into account our survey responder's opinions about what could be done to help the environment of Gleniffer and the Never Never River, we still believe tourists play an important role in providing our community and especially our local businesses with positive economy boosts. However, strictly talking on the environments defence, the ultimate damage to the area is human interaction and general laziness when it comes to the care and protection of the area, so the best way to ultimately protect the area is to ban visiting it all together or banned without a permit. This would upset a great deal of people especially locals who call it home, so smaller actions and campaigns that go towards protecting the environment would be more sustainable for the community to accept. These could involve restricting access to certain areas, creating more signage that teaches people about the area and possible risks that may affect it, providing bins that are regularly cleaned and collected and spreading more digital awareness about the outcomes of people's pollution in the area and to the flora and fauna.
To conclude our investigation, we have questioned ourselves "is pollution affecting the environment of Gleniffer?" and through the use of 3 aims and 9 focus questions, been able to conduct research surrounding our topic and to an extent provide our analysis and answers to such a question.
Yes. Pollution is affecting the environment of Gleniffer and is an issue that needs to be further and more professionally researched and handled because if left as it is, it may result in severe damage and loss of biodiversity with the area which is so sacred to the local community, Bellingen and the Gumbaynggirr Country that it lies on.
We learnt as a group the many different opinions that people have on the topic of pollution and tourists affecting Gleniffer, what tourists and bloggers perceive Gleniffer to be like even surrounding the contamination alerts and we learnt first-hand how much pollution can be found from simply walking around the area, which helped us come to our results and answers. We also learnt how much worse the actual reality of the situation was compared to our original perceived ideas, which we think not only will help us be more environmentally conscious, but has helped us complete this website, which will hopefully in turn help viewers, tourists and locals who may come across our website be more environmentally sensitive themselves.
After this assessment, we have both learnt numerous new skills, such as website creation, firsthand primary data collection, and leant transferable skills.
We are thankful to
-Amber Hill, our devoted teacher for helping us throughout our task
-Michelle Elliot, for letting us go on an excursion for primary data collection
-Bellingen High School
-Bellingen High School Science Department, letting us borrow equipment
-Richard Field, driving to Gleniffer
-Chia McGrath, data collection
-Ava McLellan, data collection
-Ellie Field, data collection
-Lua Regis, data collection
-Iris Miller, data collection