Smashing rocks at Merri Creek

The children were fascinated by the idea of what is hidden inside the everyday objects that we found at Merri Creek this week.

Two children spent close to an hour spraying water on a boulder and trying to break it. They were certainly very focussed and persistent! Here is a snapshot from their discussion.

“We’re going to smash it to get the crystals”
“We’re wetting the rock to weaken it”
“Yeah, so we can break it… It (the water) goes inside the rock, then it tries to get out and it pushes a bit of rock out so then we can break it and get to the bit that has the gold. That’s the best bit about smashing the rock. And the fair way is whoever breaks the rock gets the gold. You’ve got to break your own rock to get your own gold”
(smashing away with sticks)
“Oooh! White stuff! Treasure!”
“It’s actually silver”



“How did they roll it? I’m going to take a photo” referring to the ‘rolled path’ cement sculpture.

Other children were interested in the inside of an old, rotting tree stump near the edge of the bank.


"We're trying to figure out what's inside this tree, we've figured out that there's sticky stuff but we want to see inside what's in the middle of the tree."
"Water will make it easier to dig.""This doesn't smell like anything, I don't think it should smell like anything but I'm wondering what it is." (Fragment of wood broken from tree stump)
"Usually when you look in a living tree it's got green stuff but not this one." 

They were also preoccupied with the health of the trees and plants in the area. This has been a recurring interest every week we have visited.

"These branches are dying I think, because the branches look like old."


"See this tree here is living color, and this one is different, so it's old I think."



One small group examined a cluster of trees and pointed out that several of them had signs of insect infestation. They were very excited about the prospect of discovering woodworm, which they suggested based on the holes in the bark of several trees, and after much searching, we managed to catch a glimpse of the insect.



We found signs of insect life everywhere; one old tree had a treasure trove of evidence under the bark:


"I know what's what. The long things are the slime and the round things are the poos."
"It's got lots of nibbly bits...the tree's sick."
We were lucky enough to find a few tiny little spiders, some egg sacks, and a strange growth in the branches of a tree.

"It feels like silk"
"It looks like poop. If you scrape it off it kind of looks like bark."

Thank you to Julie, Jeanie, Diana, Carolyn, Claire and Sarah who came along with us.