About the Intertidal Rocky Shores Project

Rocky Shores in Victoria represent some of the most biologically diverse environments in Australia and yet they are poorly studied in relation to changes associated with human impact, seasonal and environmental changes.

Alex Giannuzzi, Senior Education Officer
and students from Damascus College,
Ballarat at Barwon Heads

Many of the animals and plants that are found in the area studies are endemic to south eastern Australia. Our first study site at Barwon Heads has been declared a Marine Sanctuary for educational purposes.

The Department of Primary Industries (DPI) currently provides opportunities for schools to engage in real science through the extensive range of programs offered through the Marine Discovery Centre, Queenscliff. One such programs involves students in conducting surveys of rocky shore plant and animal communities. This program has been operating for over ten years and in this time enormous amounts of data have been collected.

A downfall of this program has been that data collected by individual schools is used only by that school, with no opportunity to contribute this to a database which can be drawn upon for comparison or to look at long term change.

The challenge for both the DPI and schools is to be able to collate this volume of data and use data collected in a meaningful way.

Through support from the Science in Schools Project of the Victorian Department of Education and Training, this site has been set up to provide opportunities for learning and contributing to a better understanding of Rocky Shore habitats.