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Lectures to reveal life in the swamp

Posted: 8 April 2011

Centennial Parklands will be hosting two fascinating lectures for the community in April that is sure to inspire and inform about the little known aspects of life in a swamp.

‘Plants of the Lachlan Swamp’, on Wednesday 27 April 2011, will be presented by guest speaker, Dr Dan Penny from the University of Sydney. Dr Penny is a Senior Research Fellow in the School of Geosciences, who specialises in long-term environmental and cultural change in the Southeast Asian region and held six consecutive Fellowships at various Universities in Australia and the UK.

’Dr Dan Penny will reveal the plant species that existed in the Lachlan Swamp up to 5,000 years ago, and reveal the results from a construction of the site flora using plant fossils preserved in the soil from the area,’ said Danyelle Droga, Director Visitor Experience of the Centennial Park and Moore Park Trust.

Lachlan Swamp in the Centennial Park is considered to have significant environmental, Indigenous and cultural significance, representing a remaining fragment of a freshwater ecosystem that was once more widely distributed.

Bats‘Bat Chat’, on Thursday 28 April 2011, will be presented by Dr Kerryn Parry, a renowned Australian bat researcher from the University of Sydney's School of Biological Sciences. Dr Kerryn will release the findings of her team’s recent research into the flying fox colony in Centennial Park.

The research will assist with tracking the Lachlan Swamp flying foxes and help in understanding the species and behavioural patterns better. Students will investigate diet, foraging behaviour, level of stress, numbers and fly-out behaviour. They may also examine the age of animals present and their condition, species and overall similarity and differences that the Park’s population might exhibit compared to other Sydney camps.

Event details

Lecture #1: A reconstruction of the Lachlan Swamp site flora using plant fossils (pollen, spore)
Date:   Wednesday 27 April 2011
Time:  6.00pm – 7.00pm
Venue: Centennial Parklands Learning Centre, off Dickens Drive, Centennial Park

Lecture #2: Bat Chat
Date:   Thursday 28 April 2011
Time:  6.00pm – 7.00pm
Venue: Centennial Parklands Learning Centre, off Dickens Drive, Centennial Park

Further information

There is no cost to attend the lectures but numbers are strictly limited. Bookings are essential.

For more information contact the Parklands Office on (02) 9339 6699 or email info@centennialparklands.com.au