I really enjoyed my work experience with Terrain. I've learned a lot about their different fields of work and about Natural Resource Management (NRM) in the Wet Tropics in general.

I am in my first year of study, so was unsure about what area of NRM I wanted to specialise in. The experience has helped me become clearer about which direction I want to go - I can see myself working with water and community engagement as I think that water is a very important resource and I have really enjoyed working with people.

Here is a summary of some of my experiences.

I was mostly out in the field however did undertake some office work which included creating a weed brochure for the Barron Delta Project, and helping with data entry for a water monitoring project.

Image: (left to right) Gaylene (Cairns Regional Council Nursery) and Donny Langtree (Terrain Field Assistant) helping Kathrin with a wetland planting on a farm in the Daintree.

I joined the Tully Farm Tour and a shed meeting with farmers for the Feral Pig Program, as well as visited revegetation sites around Mossman, which had been planted one year ago. I learned about site preparation, planting and maintenance along with the partnerships Terrain staff make with landholders.

I gained knowledge about weeds and pests and how to fight them. I was even accompanying one of the pig management contractors one day checking pig traps.

Together with Steve Bailey (Terrain's Coordinator for the Mossman/Daintree Catchments), I visited sites from a Reef Rescue Project looking at the progress of rehabilitation of a cattle crossing. It was very interesting seeing what can be achieved including filtration of agricultural chemicals and trapping of sediments.

We visited a farm in the Daintree where a wetland is being established and is already attracting wildlife.

I especially enjoyed the Community Engagement work with Sylvia Conway (Terrain and BRICMA's Coordinator for the Barron Catchment) for the Barron Delta Project. I thoroughly enjoyed working with kids in this role. In addition to planting trees with Caravonica State School, I participated in a day with kids where they learned about frogs and butterflies. They learnt why butterflies and frogs are important to the ecosystem and how threatened they are by human influences. The trees planted with the kids at Holloways Beach were food trees for butterflies. Some butterflies were released which the kids had growing from chrysalises.

The water sampling in the Dickson Inlet in Port Douglas was of great interest to me. I learnt about different aspects of water quality for healthy waterways including pH, turbidity, and salinity.

It struck me that all the projects I was involved in had a water quality outcome. I enjoyed the water sampling as it contributed to forming the end results of the many projects on ground and helps to measure project outcomes.

I met many interesting people from different organisations and was very heartily welcomed at Terrain. All Terrain staff were very friendly and explained many things to me. I want to say my special thank you to Kathryn Dryden (Communications) and Kirsten McKimmie (Integrated Feral Pig Management Project Coordinator), who spent a lot of time planning my work experience.

Kathryn Dryden takes the pen...

Kathrin will now have some brochures and a newsletter that she helped compile and design, along with photos to remember her time with us and include in her portfolio. She will also have a reference from Terrain to use in future when job hunting.  Each staff member who spent time with her is contributing their feedback to her activities and performance which should give her a great boost.

When asked what she'd change about the experience, she said, "One month is not enough". No doubt further experience will be made available for her....maybe she can sink her teeth into a water/community engagement project next time...?

A big thanks to Terrain staff Sylvia Conway, Steve Bailey and Kirsten McKimmie for making Kathrin's experience interesting and valuable to both her and Terrain.