I spent the past four days at Fairbridge Farms for the field camp for the ecology unit that I'm helping teach this semester. 
The history of Fairbridge is actually somewhat marred with negativity. Originally these camps were created in the early 1900s in order to take orphan children from the UK and provide "good living" in camps within Canada, South Africa, Australia, etc. In the end, all but this camp were closed due to allegations of improper housing/living (i.e. children being forced to eat food that was old an contained maggots, etc.) or sexual allegations between the camp operators and children. The camp here in WA is the last that still exists but it now operates as an environmental learning centre for the most part. The landscape is pretty amazing though! This picture is of the local Jarrah forest (eucalyptus - Jarrah being the Aboriginal word for this species, which is the most common in both WA and Australia in general, and also the common word used to describe these forests). Here are a few more pictures:
This first picture (left
) is off the colourful Jarrah forest floor. The second (right) is of the river running through the forest. The third (centre) is of a close image of the flowers on the trees lining the river, which are amazing.
I also got to experience some of the Banksia woodlands in this area:
Not the best pictures, but they give an okay example of the amazing things that are around here. Lots of wild orchids, etc.
I also ran into a bulldog ant nest. This is the nest...
This is the guard letting me know I should leave (hopefully you can see the ant in the second picture - the yellowish things at its front are its jaws...not too nice...Aboriginal people used to use them like stitches since the ants don't let go even if their bodies are cut off, so they could put them on wounds and then remove the bodies and the jaws would hold the wounds closed - my professor says one of the only ways to make them release is to cut their bodies off and then use pliers to basically force the jaws open!).
Suffice to say I left...
More updates soon!
The history of Fairbridge is actually somewhat marred with negativity. Originally these camps were created in the early 1900s in order to take orphan children from the UK and provide "good living" in camps within Canada, South Africa, Australia, etc. In the end, all but this camp were closed due to allegations of improper housing/living (i.e. children being forced to eat food that was old an contained maggots, etc.) or sexual allegations between the camp operators and children. The camp here in WA is the last that still exists but it now operates as an environmental learning centre for the most part. The landscape is pretty amazing though! This picture is of the local Jarrah forest (eucalyptus - Jarrah being the Aboriginal word for this species, which is the most common in both WA and Australia in general, and also the common word used to describe these forests). Here are a few more pictures:This first picture (left) is off the colourful Jarrah forest floor. The second (right) is of the river running through the forest. The third (centre) is of a close image of the flowers on the trees lining the river, which are amazing.I also got to experience some of the Banksia woodlands in this area:
Not the best pictures, but they give an okay example of the amazing things that are around here. Lots of wild orchids, etc.
I also ran into a bulldog ant nest. This is the nest...
This is the guard letting me know I should leave (hopefully you can see the ant in the second picture - the yellowish things at its front are its jaws...not too nice...Aboriginal people used to use them like stitches since the ants don't let go even if their bodies are cut off, so they could put them on wounds and then remove the bodies and the jaws would hold the wounds closed - my professor says one of the only ways to make them release is to cut their bodies off and then use pliers to basically force the jaws open!).Suffice to say I left...
More updates soon!
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