Teaching Sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

Prior knowledge: Students should already have an understanding of the water cycle. This lesson will explore how living things impact the water cycle in Australia.

15 minutes

Tune In: Koalas on Country

25 minutes

Find Out: Koalas and water

15 minutes

Take Action: Saving biodiversity

5 minutes

Reflection

Tune In: Koala stories

Step 1

Ask your students if they know any words in a First Nations Language. Your students might identify as First Nations and speak a language, they might know some words from doing Acknowledgements of Country, or they may have learned words from media like TV shows or books.

Did you know we also have words we use in English that come from First Nations Languages? Words like kangaroo, wombat and koala are all derived from First Nations names for these species. Can you think of any others?

Kanguru (pronounced ‘kang-uru’), or ganguru (‘gang-uru’) is the Guugu Yimidhirr (pronounced goo-goo yim-i-thirr) name for kangaroo. Guugu Yimidhirr is a language from Dyuubi (pronounced dyoo-bee), also known as the Hopevale region in Far North Queensland. The word wombat reportedly came from the Dharug people, an Aboriginal tribal group from the Sydney region. Their word for wombat is wambad. Dharug (also Dharuk, Darug, Daruk) is the traditional language of the Australian Aboriginal people in the inland areas of greater Sydney.

Depending on where you live, you may also have a number of place names that are derived from Aboriginal words. In Melbourne, 18% of the suburb names come from First Nations Languages (Source)! Can you find any near you?

Step 2

Today we are going to take a closer look at one of these words, ‘koala’.

Using the Visual Explainer (slides 1 - 8), talk with students about the following points:

The origins of the word koala (Dharug Language in the greater Sydney region “gula” or “gualmany” meaning “no drink”).
The connections between First Nations peoples and the koala through the NSW Koala Program Acknowledgement of country, the Artwork of Michael J Connolly (Munda-gutta Kulliwari), and Michael J Donovan.

First Nations stories are an oral history. We have presented two artworks where the artist has presented the story to go alongside the art. We encourage you to explore your local First Nations stories and the koala or water stories that are in your local area.

Can your students identify the common themes between these words and these stories? The key theme is water. Koalas often have an association with water. First Nations people in Australia recognised that koalas, despite not usually drinking water, are an ‘indicator species’ for the health of our water cycle. Today we are going to explore what an indicator species is, and how animals in Australia impact the water cycle.

Find Out: Koalas and water

Step 1

Let’s have a look at the water cycle. Using the image below, refresh your students on the different stages of the water cycle.

On this image, where would koalas fit in? Our koalas are arboreal, which means they mostly live in the trees. They get most of their water from eating the leaves on the trees and depend on healthy trees to survive.

Step 2

Watch this video with your students:

Why Healthy Koala Country Needs Eucalyptus Trees | WWF-Australia - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrCxjOTX-CA

In the video, the ranger says “We don’t see him (the koala) around, looks like we’re in trouble.”

This is what we mean when we say the koala is an ‘indicator species’. Let’s explore this! If our koalas are healthy, it means the trees are healthy. Ask your students, what do trees need to be healthy? They might suggest:

water
air
soil
nutrients/fertiliser.

Well, we know about the water cycle. How do trees get their water? They take in a little bit of water through their leaves, but most of their water comes from underground and is brought up in their roots. Ask your students the following questions:

How does the water get underground? (it rains and soaks into the ground)
What about when the ground is very hard and dry? Can the water then soak into the ground?
Climate change is causing more extreme weather. We are seeing stronger storms more often, hotter summers, and bigger, hotter fires. How do you think these events impact the water cycle?

When the ground is very hard and compacted there is no space in the soil for the water to penetrate. Not only does the water run off the ground, but it also erodes the ground carrying away important nutrients.

Step 3

Watch this video with your students.

How to improve compacted soil | DIY Garden Projects | Gardening Australia - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCOSaFviVfg

You could stop at the 2:40 mark if the video is too long for your students.

So, our gum trees are just like any other plant. Their roots are underground, and they need water in the soil. The soil needs to be ‘aerated’ where we make lots of little holes in the ground where the air and water can get in. We could all grab our pitchforks and wander through the forests every couple of months, stabbing holes in the ground, but that might not be the best solution. Luckily, Australia came prepared.

Step 4

Watch this video with your students:

Bandicoot Tracking - Behind the News - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOfOvxizfrA

How neat is that? Instead of having people with pitchforks to aerate the soil and help our trees grow to support our koalas, Australia has small digging marsupials who do the job. Let’s go back to our water cycle and see how this works:

Image source: Valentine, L. E., Bretz, M., Ruthrof, K. X., Fisher, R., J. Hardy, E. S., & Fleming, P. A. (2017). Scratching beneath the surface: Bandicoot bioturbation contributes to ecosystem processes. *Austral Ecology*, 42(3), 265-276.

When these little guys dig in the soil, they make small pits that not only capture water but also organic matter like dead leaves and grass, as well as seeds. It’s almost like they are planting seeds in a little pile of compost and watering them!

The soil they dig out of the hole also buries more organic matter, helping put it into the soil and making it break down faster. Researchers conducted a study on Churchill Island in Victoria, Australia, and found that one Eastern Barred Bandicoot can make 41 digs in an hour.

Numeracy Extension: Let’s multiply that out! If a bandicoot can dig 41 times an hour and they are active for around 12 hours a night (dawn to dusk), how many times do they dig in one night? In one dig, a bandicoot removes (on average) 2.7 grams of soil. How much soil do they move every night? (around 13 kilograms!) How much can they move in one year? (nearly 4.8 tonnes!)

Wow! Let’s follow our chain so far:

for healthy koalas, we need healthy trees
for healthy trees, we need a healthy water cycle
for a healthy water cycle, we need healthy soil
for healthy soil, we need healthy digging animals.

Step 5

Australia has 29 digging mammals, including:

wombats
potaroos
bandicoots
bilbies
echidnas
and bettongs.

Well - we had 29 digging mammals. 6 have gone extinct in the last 200 years. And of the remaining 23, 3 are critically endangered, and 9 are endangered or threatened. Ask your students: What do you think happens when we lose these ‘ecosystem engineers’? They might come up with points like:

the ground is drier and harder
the trees and other plants can’t get the water they need
all the animals that rely on plants will struggle

Let’s go back to our water cycle:

If the water can’t soak into the ground and runs off into the rivers and oceans instead, what happens to the plants?

If there aren’t any plants holding the soil together, what happens to the soil when it rains? (erosion)

When there are not enough plants, we get ‘desertification’ and the quality of the habitat and the living things it can support decreases. Living things like plants and animals slow down the water cycle and help keep the water where they need it. Without lots of plants and animals, the water cycle moves too fast, and living things can’t use the water.

So, back to our koalas, our indicator species. We know if our koalas are healthy, it means we have good biodiversity supporting them and that the habitat and water cycle are healthy. So, how are they doing? In 2022 their conservation status was changed from vulnerable to endangered for koalas in Queensland, New South Wales, and the ACT.

Take Action: Saving biodiversity

Step 1

Watch this clip with your students.

Join us as we work to Regenerate Australia | WWF-Australia - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhlqrR1G6h0&list=PLtVYm_50W1qeKfHIcNOePuHv3tCmyD-4Y&index=2

Discuss with your students what WWF-Australia is doing to improve koalas' survival from what they saw in the clip. They might mention:

planting trees with drones
cultural burning practices
wildlife hospitals
sharing the message “Australian wildlife needs Australian wildlife” to promote biodiversity.

Step 2

So, what can we do as a school to help koalas? Discuss with your students some ways they can improve biodiversity and help support Australia’s koalas. You might like to:

Wear It Wild! This is WWF-Australia’s NEW annual Earth Hour fundraising event, held each year to help schools celebrate, support and learn about the environment. Students and teachers across Australia are encouraged to Wear it Wild by wearing wildlife-inspired fancy dress to school in exchange for a gold coin donation to raise funds to protect Australia’s precious landscapes and unique wildlife, like koalas.
Register for Earth Hour Schools Day. Sign up to participate in Earth Hour as a school here.
Explore the biodiversity of your schoolyard.
Take some small actions at school or home to protect wildlife.

Reflection

Complete the following questions as an exit ticket with your students.

Before, I used to think…
Now I think…

Koalas and Water

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Summary

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