Australia 2010-Sustainable Food, Environment and Social Systems

Hey Moms, Dads and all others who are following our fantastic program abroad,      

Today we actually got to sleep in a little bit and start our day at 9:00 AM.  We began by going to Centennial Park Cycles in Sydney Olympic Park to rent some bikes and give our feet a little break from all the walking we’ve been doing.  During the process we all were given helmets, and if you know me I have a pretty large noggin, which brought up the fact that apparently I have the largest head the Centennial Park Cycles employee had ever seen.  After a good laugh we all started the tour with Jim and Luke leading the way.  The park was absolutely beautiful and the weather turned itself around from the first two days with sunny 70 degree skies.  Biking was very entertaining and we had no accidents, despite everything on the bike being reversed (the back break was on the left instead of the right and to shift up you clicked the top gear shifter rather than the bottom, plus we had to ride on the left hand side).  Biking got us around quite quick and let us see many jaw-dropping sites including the ANZ stadium, the Brick Pit (way cooler than it sounds check out the picture below), and the Badu Mangroves, all of which are good examples of sustainability.      

To say that the park is sustainable is an understatement.  It utilizes pretty much every design and technology you can possibly think of to minimize the misuse of resources. For example, when we were biking through the Badu Mangroves we learned that the mangroves are salt tolerant plants and shrubs that help control erosion and help regulate the river ecosystem by influencing water chemistry and speed. They also provide habitat for fish and seafood species.      

Also while biking we were led up a spiral of rubbish, yes literally trash.  It was a mound roughly 40 feet high covered in grass and it had a bike trail that slowly spiraled up to the top with a wired-closed rock retaining wall lining the side of the trail.  This absolutely blew my mind, one because it is a mound of trash that is pleasing to the eye.  Two, because the rocks acted almost as a gutter for storm water to keep the path clear of runoff, and three, because the park had five of these “rubbish mounds” which made up the southern cross (the formation of stars on the Australian flag).       

While we on top of the mound, Jim and Luke explained basically how Sydney could make a park that would be great to get a bid for the 2000 Olympic games, but also how they planned ahead so they could actually use what they had built after the Olympics had ended.  For example, the stadium was built for about 100,000 people during the Olympics, but it was constructed so that when the games ended it could easily be “shrank” to fit 80,000, which is way more practical for the area. We also discussed the idea of ecoystem goods and services and examples of these services in the mangroves, wetlands, and design of the park.      

What I thought was really cool was that all the seats in the stadium were made of recycled pop bottles.  Also, there are two buildings for the media and press, which both were engineered to easily be able to be reused and are now hotels. Also, the Olympic village, where the athletes lived, was built as condos. We will be sleeping on the Olympic beds when we go to Adelaide.      

A few more ways the park was sustainable was how it uses a ton of glass in its buildings allowing in sunlight for heat and light.  The park also used permeable sidewalks in certain areas to minimize water run-off from the hard-scape surfaces.  The sidewalks let storm water seep through them preventing runoff, then the water flows underneath the sidewalk into the groundwater, which is processed by the local water treatment plant.  After a great day of biking, I was talking to Brendan, who is a former cross-country runner (AKA he is good at judging long distances), and he estimated that we biked at least eight miles.      

When we got back from Sydney Olympic Park, we were given the option to go to the Flames Opal store for an optional visit.  I actually didn’t attend (sorry mom!), but I heard great things and saw a few people come home with some bags (I’m not telling who in case it’s a surprise).  I even heard that there was a single opal at the store for $313,000!  After the flames opal visit we were hit with a bit of reality and had to write our first analytical reflection, which wasn’t too bad considering everything we’ve done so far has been so enjoyable.      

The Brick Pit (used for holding water for treatment)

Sydney Olympic Park's Beautiful winter

Our group biking through Sydney Olympic Park

All in all the day was a “Great success” for all of you Borat lovers and we all hope everything back in the states is well,      

Rudy