A new educational campaign is hoping to answer all of Launcestonians and the wider community's questions about the social history of the kanamaluka/Tamar estuary, its water quality and who looks after it.
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The campaign launched on Tuesday by the Tamar Estuary and Esk Rivers (TEER) program hopes to help people better understand the rich and diverse aquatic ecosystem in their own backyard.
It will include a series of videos and fact sheets, featuring government representatives, people in the industry, scientists and history experts, to inform the community on the waterway.
The topics covered will include its social history, natural processes, water quality, environmental improvements, flood protection and who is tasked with looking after it.
TEER program manager Jo Fearman said although the series largely focused on the kanamaluka/Tamar, the TEER system covers 10,000 square kilometres of the state.
"The Tamar estuary is where these systems meet and it's important that our community understands the rich and diverse aquatic ecosystem in our own backyard", Dr Fearman said.
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Each week a new video will be released, with accompanying fact sheets. So far two videos have been uploaded, one is an introduction and the second explores the estuary's social history.
In the social history video Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery manager of knowledge and content Christine Hanson said the estuary had determined the shape of the modern city of Launceston.
She said it had also been used before roads were built in the 1920s/1930s to connect towns and farms along the estuary.
"The Aboriginal people who still live along the Tamar and still have that close connection to it have lived here for very many thousands of years, the archaeological evidence is really clear that this has always been a really popular spot for habitation," she said.
Dr Hanson said she hoped one topic the program would explore would be the tidal nature of the estuary to bring it into people's consciousness.
"I think we are people of the estuary. We're not entirely freshwater people, or 100 per cent saltwater people. We live in that place where freshwater and saltwater meet, and that's really magical."
The weekly videos and fact sheets can be found at nrmnorth.org.au/water/education.
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Isobel Cootes
Sports reporter at The Canberra Times. A Novocastrian with a passion for football (or soccer as they call it in the capital) via The Examiner and The Port Lincoln Times.
Sports reporter at The Canberra Times. A Novocastrian with a passion for football (or soccer as they call it in the capital) via The Examiner and The Port Lincoln Times.
