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Video 1: The investigation
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Zahara Hilton: Hey guys, I'm glad you dropped by because if you haven't done so already, now's the time
to work out where to place your accusations.
Well, it won't be live 'til the final day but at that stage every second counts.
Sally Haigh: We're at the point where, well, some kids think that we're ready to start eliminating some of
the crime sites based on the clues that we've received so far.
Student: We're pretty sure on the crimesite.
I think we've got it down to basically two.
.
Student: We were given a sheet that had victims, villains and crime sites on it and we had to cross off what
we thought that didn't fit into the descriptions and clues.
Cheryl Donaldson: The children went into groups of three and were each given one of the 10 issues to research and study on one of those worksheets provided.
Sally: Okay, so when each group gets their worksheet, I'd like you to go through and eliminate as many
crimesites, as many victims and as many villains as you can.
Student: What did we think about Hexham Swamp?
Student: Hexham Swamp, no it's out.
Student: We should leave it because it is possible.
Student: Okay, put a question mark next to it.
Sally: Hand up if you've got something to say about either Clarence Broadwater or Hexham Swamp that's going to be helpful.
Student: Well Clarence Broadwater has a lot of birds and fish so I think we could eliminate that.
Sally: On what basis?
Student: Well there are birds and fish and the crime site flora and fauna report says no fish and no birds.
Sally: Okay, all right.
Student: Well I think that there is an exceedingly high chance that it is Porters Creek because every single thing fits into that one wetland.
Sally: All right, so we think we've got it down to four crime sites now so - Porters Creek; hand up if you're happy with Porters Creek as our crimesite.
Good. Hands down.
Okay, put a circle round that one.
Student: We think it's Porters Creek wetland because the rainfall or the climate statistics match up and
it has some of the victims and all the others we've eliminated because of their climate statistics or their animals or something.
Cheryl: We've got lots of things on our wall, lots of bits of paper with lots of crossing out and rough notes from the children.
Student: ... It would say if it had a school or a golf course or a caravan park or anything like that ...
Student: So it's either Porters Creek wetland, Crystal Waters Lagoon, Clarence Broadwater and Hexham Swamp.
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Daniel Bookham: Unexpectedly Councillor Terry Pleaser has joined me.
Councillor Terry Pleaser: It's all over town.
Everybody knows that yet another native species is gone, everybody.
Student: Sometimes what they say is useful but also what's in the background, like once they were on a beach
and that helped because we figured out that the crime site must be near a beach.
Cheryl: The reason we're doing some science experiments with the children is so that they can mainly
learn about the issues that are involved with 'Murder Under the Microscope'.
Some of the science experiments they've done is they've worked in groups and they've been given a task to find
out how the turbidity of the water will affect the temperature so the children have been mixing mud and
water into containers, taking them out into the playground, measuring the temperature, seeing if it's different within the two containers.
These experiments show how the issue they are studying can affect a particular catchment area.
Student: We're trying to see if, yeah, if it will affect the temperature because if it does then ...
Student: ... it might affect the food chain ...
Student: ... it could kill other animals ...
Student: Fish might die if the water gets too hot or they might go somewhere else and that could be a loss of food source for other animals.
Student: So if we're lucky then we might be able to find out which crime site this relates to.
Student: If it was a river or swamp, runoff could run into it and make the water turbid or land use and erosion could happen.
Student: We put x amount of dirt in and then in another we put a bit less dirt in and then one we didn't
put any dirt in, just to well, signal different amounts of turbidity and, yes that was the experiment.
We've since then found out that the turbidity level is 200 NTUs.
I can't remember what NTU stands for but it's a level of turbidity and a healthy turbidity level is only
7 NTUs so that means the water is incredibly, immensely turbid.
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Terry: This thing is very delicate.
Daniel Bookham: Murder is hardly delicate.
Terry: It's the people, mate.
The people are going to be really upset.
Daniel: Are they all nature lovers around here?
Terry: What? Oh no, no.
Well yes, yes, but no.
The victim was to be our local emblem ...
John Sauer: There are hints in these video feeds so you need to watch them, listen to the locations and
that will give you clues about the victim, about the crime scene and about the villain.
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Golfer: Well water we have.
Daniel: From where?
Golfer: Five 50 megalitre underground water tanks.
One for every two holes plus a bit to spare.
Daniel: Gee.
Golfer: Plus all the grey water.
Daniel: Good.
Golfer: Plus all the water we can siphon from the wetlands.
.
Golfer: It's a joke.
Daniel: Yeah, no, I know.
It was good.
Golfer: Yeah.
Daniel: I'm going to get that later.
Student: Well on the interviews it says there's a golf course near it and stuff and, well, we looked on
Google Earth to try and find those things and there wasn't near the Crystal Waters and then they released
the map just today which just like confirms it.
Student: Are your victims still on the list? What was your victim?
Student: Mine was Barramundi and we've crossed that off because through the clues we've found out that
it's endangered and the Barramundi isn't threatened; and also that it's local and the Barramundi is imported into New South Wales.
Student: Mine's the black Bittern.
A lot of people in the class think it could be it.
Student: We think it's the Black Bittern because it is a group bird and we thought it was one of either two birds.
It was either the White-Breasted Sea Eagle or the Black Bittern.
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Celeste Fitzwallia: Don't play young and innocent with me.
I saw you talking to the caretaker.
We took every step we could - doctors, extended sick leave, rearranged rosters ...
Daniel: ... I think this is a ...
Celeste: So let those bureaucratic wolves gnaw on that.
Daniel: Yoghurt.
Celeste: What?
Daniel: A simple misunderstanding.
Celeste: What?
Daniel: I'm investigating the wetland as well and ...
Celeste: Pull the other one.
Daniel: No, no, really I ...
Celeste: You think we're all stupid.
The wetland has never looked better.
John: In this particular case, obviously with what's going on in the Australian environment I've got a clue,
I've got an idea about what the villain may be.
Student: We think the villain is fertiliser because on the map it shows that the river of the lagoon runs
through the golf course and a camping ground and the schools and so it could be getting some type of like fertiliser or something like that.
Student: Well land clearing is a seriously possible option.
I don't think it would be rubbish or dredging or sewerage I think was the other one because in one of the
conversations they said the crime site had never looked better so it couldn't be something that made it look worse.
Student: On the golf course like you might use herbicides and things on that and then that runs down
the creek into the lagoons and that causes high phosphates and nitrates in the water which makes it toxic.
Student: We thought that it was Crystal Waters Lagoon but we weren't sure about Clarence Broadwater.
We crossed off all the victims except the Black Bittern so that's what we think it is and we think for the
villain that it's either water usage or land clearing.
I don't think we can narrow it down any more.
Sally: I'm panicking a little bit that we haven't quite got enough information yet for to make our accusation
but I feel sure that we will, you know, be able to get to that point by the deadline.
Student: We've seen a video of Daniel Bookham interviewing a councillor and there are quite a few clues in that.
Student: Yeah, and then there's another interview with him and Joshua someone who's a like a developer of the crimesite.
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Developer: It's going to look absolutely sensational.
Daniel: Yeah, it sounds great.
Developer: And here, an Acacia grove with three different avenues of Lomandra which links to a Grevillea garden which then flows onto the pool.
Daniel: And the pool itself?
Developer: Yeah, I'm going for Sacred Lotus, some Cana, some Taro, some Kamangi, and then some really lush plants.
It's just going to drip rainforest.
Student: This guy, when he started talking about the native rainforest he was going to plant ...
John: Yeah, which wasn't native.
Student: He starts dialing it back to the lab so that means it's really important.
Because he talks about, like, the plant is on steroids, so it could be a clue that maybe something is on steroids.
John: Ah, plants on steroids.
Developer: ... No, tropical, it's like my first gig ...
Student: So it must be fertiliser.
Student: See? On steroids.
John: 'The free-floating fern just' - free-floating fern! Ah!
Student: You got something? See ...
John: Can somebody please, anybody need a job to do at the moment?
Student: Yeah.
John: Can you look up Salvinia please?
Find out what type of plant it is.
Student: Sir, it says that it's aquatic weed that chokes up waterways.
John: What type of plant is it?
Student: A weed.
Student: It's a weed.
Student: We think we've found out who our actual victim, villains and crime site is.
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Zahara: Guys, Danno's turned in a blinder.
Check him out, and get that accusation in.
Well, up to you of course but I think it's pretty clear now.
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