School of Culture, History & Language

Professor Simon Haberle and his team just completed an amazing week with the Working on Country rangers Jarrod, Steele and Cradle Coast NRM intern Fox on King Island (lutruwita/Tasmania). Here’s a special visual glimpse into their experience onsite!

Great first day coring at the RAMSAR wetland Lake Martha Lavinia on King Island...These sediment cores dating to over 15,000 years old will contribute to building a deep time understanding of the role of fire, climate and sea level change in a cultural landscape

Thanks to Working on Country rangers Jarrod, Steele and Cradle Coast NRM intern Fox for the moving Welcome to Country - healing, cleansing, but also imparting an obligation on us as researchers to respect the land and people on whose country we work.

Day 1 of palaeoecology fieldwork in the Lavinia State Reserve, King Island (lutruwita/Tasmania). The island lies at the western edge of the now-submerged Bassian Plain - a glacial land bidge and cultural landscape connecting mainland Australia to lutruwita for over 40,000 years.

Mud-water interface cores taken from Lake Martha Lavinia and Penny’s Lagoon, sampled at 1cm intervals in the field, will provide a detailed picture of environmental transformations occurring on King Island in the last ~1000 years

After a few false starts, Day 1 of palaeoecology fieldwork in Iutruwita (Tasmania) is done and dusted: coring in the Lavinia State Reserve on King Island.

Day 2 of fieldwork in the Lavinia State Reserve, King Island. Coring this morning in Lake Martha Lavinia followed by Simon kayaking out to the centre for a mud-water interface core. Great work by CHL PhD/ECRs Vick Miller, Jalene Nalbant and Annika Herbert, discussing late glacial sediment cores from RAMSAR wetlands, with WoC rangers Jarrod, Fox and Steele

The sun came out for an afternoon coring at Penny’s Lagoon (which was good as the water was a tad chilly)

Before heading west along the lake margin to look at a surface scatter

And we finished up the day looking at the wild and windswept landscape of Cape Wickham, home to the tallest lighthouse in Australia.

Do you have fieldwork photos you'd like to share? Please send them to us at communicate.chl@anu.edu.au for our Fieldwork Showcase so we can help others live your experience!