Education at sea

Under the watchful gaze of the CBD’s towering cityscape, the 109-year-old Alma Doepel tall ship sits quietly in its moorings alongside the Docklands Ocean Education Centre. It’s a peaceful pocket of the city fringe, where resident seagulls have set up shop on a sunlit roof and the hectic pace of metro life begins and ends at the 112 tram stop.

This small oceanic oasis in the heart of the city is home to a significant partnership project which is drawing on expert skills and knowledge to gently encourage the ocean to share some of its secrets.

In need of significant restoration, the Alma Doepel arrived in Melbourne in 2009 and sparked the partnership project, originally conceived by Tall Ships Victoria (TSV) and headed up by Dr Peter Harris. When restoration work got under way, Dr Harris and his team set about creating a program to use tall ships in marine science and research, education, edu-tourism and marine construction and training.

Last year the project stepped up a phase with the creation of the Docklands Ocean Education Centre. Dr Harris says a core aim of the centre is to foster community interest in science, science education and science careers among senior secondary and tertiary students.

"Through the expertise of all our partners in this project, we hope to build greater knowledge of marine and environmental issues," he says.

"The Doepel, once it's fully restored, will form a key part of that education process as we integrate issues related to science and the environment and encourage students and the greater community to engage with the centre."

Back on dry land, the centre's education space in Shed 2 is taking shape with an aquarium, teaching facility and an interactive water table which will be completed in the coming weeks. University of Melbourne zoologist Associate Professor Robert Day and botanist Dr Jan Carey have worked together with TSV over the past 12 months to create the learning space.

Associate Professor Day hopes the space will be fully operational when the first school term rolls around next year.

"We've had a few school groups through already, but by next year the water table will be up and running, and we hope to have a more structured schedule of school visits," he says.

“We originally thought we were going to pump water up from below the wharf and run it through an aquarium upstairs, but that brought with it some challenges – we discovered that there were issues of water quality, and that when it rains most of the top of that Victorian basin is actually fresh water – so our marine technician John Ahern instead created a recirculating aquarium. This same kind of thinking will also help us design the water table where students can interact with sea life.”

Many Victorian school groups travel to Queenscliff's Discovery Centre to learn about marine life. The new Docklands site offers a metropolitan alternative for schools unable to make the trip to the coast. The challenge now is to create a curriculum around the education program, which is where another expert, Chris Lougheed, Education Officer at Tall Ships Victoria comes into the picture.

While many partnership projects connect three or even four organisations with a common goal, the Docklands Ocean Education Centre is throwing a wider net and is also supported by Places Victoria, Parks Victoria, Victorian National Parks Association, City of Melbourne and the Reefwatch Program, among others. 

And when you factor in the thousands of volunteers who work on the Doepel restoration project, that's a lot of expertise and passion all working toward the same goal.

Dr Carey, who has worked on a number of significant marine biology research projects, says the Sea Education Association based in the US has also expressed interest in the centre.

A tall ship enthusiast herself, Dr Carey has been on a number of voyages over the years and says the experience is one to remember.

“That’s what tall ships do – they attract people,” she says.

“It’s the romance of the sea. I’ve sailed on five or six and I think they’re absolutely wonderful, I couldn’t think of a better way to spend your time. And in the future when Alma is up and running again, to combine sailing, which is so much fun, with learning about the sea and the life in it, will be just brilliant.”

www.tallshipsvictoria.org

www.almadoepel.com.au