Day 3 (By Vanessa Lam, AM6)

Places of interest: Herdsman Lake Regional Park, Hills Forest National Park
This trip to Perth had indeed been a memorable one. What I enjoyed most was the Herdsman Lake Regional Wildlife Park visit, where the W.A Gould League was situated. There, I learned about many different sorts of animals and plants and even got to touch a long- necked tortoise! After that, we had a walk through the forest and learnt about paper-bark trees. I found out that the trees’ bark was used to wrap foodstuff like the Aboriginals, the olden Australians did in the past. We also had a bird-watching activity and saw many different species of birds, including the well known and rare black swans. All of us were mesmerized by its beauty. After that, we had an activity – catching water organisms! My group caught 4 small fishes and a backswimmer. We were elated. Then, we had lunch at a nice restaurant and then proceeded to our next destination- Hills Forest National Park! It was a nice and warm day to go for a walk in the forest. Before trekking, we had a sneak peek of some animals – an echidna, a snake and 2 baby joeys. When we had a walk in the forest, we learnt how important dried leaves were as they helped in purifying the water. We also learnt that all the trees in the forest take up about 250,000 liters of water. The trip was fun and exciting! If I could go again, I will definitely go!