Museums Australia WA announces Touring Exhibition: Wetlands - the Vital Link

Museums Australia WA today announced our Year of Biodiversity Project, a Touring Exhibition "Wetlands - the Vital Link"

Jane King, Executive Officer, made the announcement today at the City of Wanneroo's "Wetlands Awareness Day" at Historic Cockman House on the banks of the Yellagonga Wetlands.

2010 has been named International Year of Biodiversity by the United Nations to focus our awareness on the importance of maintaining and conserving our biodiversity. It is a shocking fact that over the last 200 years Australia has suffered the largest decline in biodiversity of any continent.

In this Year of Biodiversity we are asked to commit to activities at a local level which will contribute to halting the rate of biodiversity loss. This is really about “thinking globally and acting locally”.

(Image:Di Shaw,CoW, Nick Trandos, CoW Freeman & Jane King, MAWA)

Biodiversity is the variety of all species on earth. It is the different plants, animals and micro-organisms, and the ecosystems of which they are a part and of course it includes us humans. Biodiversity is essential for our existence because it provides things that are fundamental to our survival such as clean air, fresh water and food and materials such as timber and fibre

At Museums Australia we were looking for a project that demonstrated to the community that our regional museums were more than just social history museums – that there were many different stories to be told about our heritage. So we were keen to undertake a project that would promote the International Year of Biodiversity and in particular one of the key messages that the UN is promoting - 'Humans are part of nature's rich diversity and have the power to protect or destroy it.'

This touring exhibition is provisionally titled “Wetlands: the vital link.” Wetlands are the vital link between land and water. They mark that blurry space that is neither land nor water. They include swamps, marshes, bogs, fens, and peatlands, billabongs, lakes, lagoons, salt-marshes, mudflats, mangroves, and even coral reefs. They are a critical part of our natural environment and help to reduce the impacts of floods, filter pollutants and improve water quality. Wetlands provide a habitat for a vast range of animals and plants, many that are found nowhere else, and they provide nurseries for fish and other freshwater and marine life.

Many wetlands are areas of great natural beauty and have spiritual and cultural importance to Aboriginal people. But from a European perspective swamps were seen as useless and even dangerous – providing much resource material for writers of horror and ghost stories!

There are a number of internationally significant Wetlands in Western Australia: these include 80mile beach, Lakes Argyle and Kununurrra and the Ord River flood plane in the Kimberley, and in the South-West of WA which is World Biodiversity Hotspot, there are 5 RAMSAR wetlands including: the Lake Muir, the Vasse-Wonnerup system, and perhaps the most significant: the Peel Yalgorup system in Mandurah, which encompasses Lake Clifton, which is one of the few places in the world where living thrombolites occur in inland water.

There are many wetlands scattered throughout the metropolitan area, and of course the City of Perth itself was built on wetlands, much of which has been reclaimed; Lake St was so named as it was the safe path trodden through the Lake that was once where Northbridge is today. The Swan and Canning rivers encompass large esturine wetlands, much of which has been reclaimed and filled in for building and recreational uses. Where Buswood resort stands, used to be referred to as Burswood Island, as it was made up of a series of islands within the marshy peninsular.

The Yellagonga Regional Park, includes the wetlands of Lakes Joondalup, and Goollelal, & Walluburnup and Beenyup Swamps. Lake Joondalup is the largest freshwater lake in the Perth Metropolitan Area. It is a major breeding area for waterbirds in the South-west of the state. Also in Wanneroo is Lake Wargardu in Yanchep National Park.

In the Aboriginal Dreaming, the Waugal (rainbow serpent) went north from the Swan River underneath Kings Park, and on its journey shaped Lake Monger, Lake Karrinyup Lake Joondalup and Lake Wargardu.

Many wetlands in the metropolitan area supported market gardens, poultry farms and horse pastures. Many of you would remember the market gardens that lined the Swan River in South Perth. These are all parts of an amazing story about our Wetlands and our relationship to them. We hope our Touring exhibition will tell all sides of the story: the scientific information, the stories of those who have worked to save these places, stories of fun and enjoyment of picnics and boating parties from last century, the market gardens and farms that were important to our economic survival, the aboriginal stories …and the myths and superstitions ….

The exhibition project is a collaborative one. Our partners include five museum collections and their curatorial staff including the City of Wanneroo, our other partners are:

Staff of the WA Museum are working on the education program material;

Dept of Environment’s Interpretation Unit who are undertaking the exhibition design;

and Curtin University Cultural Heritage unit staff and postgraduate students who are completing the Research and development of content.

The exhibition will encourage the addition of local content and stories at each site, particularly the addition of local objects, documents and artworks, and examples of native vegetation.

We would like to thank all these partners for committing to this fantastic project and we look forward to the exhibition launch later this year.