GENERAL ARTICLES
Swimming in Sand – Frogs and Sand-Mining at Smiths Lake
By Dr Arthur White
Smiths Lake – a biological Paradise
I first went to Smiths Lake as a uni student in 1974. The University of New South Wales had leased a small field station on the edge of the Myall Lakes National Park, about 350 kilometres north of Sydney. As a student we undertook a series of ecological studies at Smiths Lake, in the lake itself, in the swamps and across the towering high dunes. That first introduction to Smiths Lake was enough to shock my senses – there was so much wildlife, and the landscapes were fascinating. Firstly, there was a serene lake( Fig. 1) that teemed with interesting aquatic animals; behind the field station was an acid swamp that was also alive( especially with frogs at night), and nearby the sand wall that was the Bridge Hill sand dune. This dune was stunning – its size and steepness were impressive, but it was fully forested – how could this be?
Figure 2: Basic accommodation – old army tents. Image A. White.
Back to Smiths Lake
Having been hooked on the beauty and abundance of wildlife at Smiths Lake I returned as often as I could. I started doing trapping studies, and began collating a list of the vertebrate animals of the area. I assumed that my enjoyment of the place would go on forever, and that the area would not be stained by commercial development. Sadly I was wrong.
Myall Lakes National Park
Figure 1: Smiths Lake – a biological paradise. Image A. White.
In 1974 the Smiths Lake field station was quite basic compared to the modern version. As students we slept in old army tents( Fig. 2) that leaked whenever it rained. There was a concrete area where we could sit and eat, and a tiny laboratory where the field microscopes and sampling gear were stored, and a very basic toilet / shower block – and that was it. The tents were so poor that many of the students took to sleeping in the fishermens ' net shed at the end of the property.
Modern day Myall Lakes National Park is rather different from the park that existed in the 1970s. The park began in 1972 when a small area of land between Myall Lake and the ocean was set aside as a national park. This land had been strip-mined for rutile, and the area that was to become a park was revegetated. However, there were plans to extend the park to include land on the western side of Myall Lake and to the north as far as Smiths Lake( Fig. 3).
38 SCIENCE EDUCATIONAL NEWS VOL 66 NO 4