lachlan-dick

[Music plays and images of award participants flash by on screen. Text appears: BHP Billiton Science and Engineering Awards 2017]

[Image changes to show Lachlan Dick standing on a hill and taking in the view]

[Image changes to show Lachlan seated and smiling at the camera]

Lachlan Dick: Hi, my name is Lachlan Dick, I’m in Year 12, I attended Hellyer College and my experiment is called Salinity Solutions.

[Image changes to show Lachlan kneeling and inspecting a plant]

My project is all about remediating salt affected soils. Salinity is a huge problem in Tasmania and the world at whole, it costs agriculture, worldwide, billions of dollars a year and wastes large amounts of land that we could use for, potentially, feeding the world.

[Image changes to show an aerial shot of a house and surround paddocks]

I discovered that if you add calcium chloride to soils affected by sodium chloride, the calcium competes with the sodium and as a result, the plants can flourish because the CO2 plus ions are a nutrient and the sodium ions are a toxin.

[Image changes back to show Lachlan and seated and talking to the camera and then moves to show samples Lachlan has prepared for his project]

One of the biggest challenges I faced was actually getting enough soil to do this experiment on an accurate scale,

[Image changes to show Lachlan filling a wheelbarrow with soil and then moves to show Lachlan using a pH Meter in a mound of soil]

I mean, I had to move over a tonne of dirt by hand and I had to do it all within one day to make this a valid and fair experiment so all the potatoes began their growth at the same time.

[Image changes to show Lachlan walking around his property]

I live on a property approximately ten minutes south of Wynyard on the northwest coast of Tasmania. On the property I help run a Hereford cattle stud.

[Image changes to show a group of cows and then moves to show Lachlan seated and talking to the camera]

The wonderful thing about growing up on the farm is the wide open spaces, it really is a wonderful place to learn and play and wake up each morning and just see the great scenery.

[Image changes to show Lachlan walking around his property and then changes back to show him seated and talking to the camera]

One thing I love doing in my spare time is learning about all the geological sites around where I live, and I also love to gold pan and down at the beach at Doctors Rocks,

[Image changes to show Lachlan kneeling and inspecting rocky sand around a rock formation on the beach]

and I just love learning about all the wonderful geological sites that we have here in Tasmania, such as Fossil Bluff.

[Image has changed back to show Lachlan seated and talking to the camera and then changes back to show Lachlan walking around his property]

I’ve always loved science. Ever since I got the Readers Digest Guide to Geology when I was nine years old, I pretty much loved science from then on and knew that that was the direction that I wanted to go in. The thing I love most about science is the fact that science has the potential to improve the lives of everyone, I mean, we’re seeing new technologies come into the home, we’re seeing people live longer, we’re seeing so many benefits from science,

[Image changes back to show Lachlan seated and talking to the camera]

and that’s what I love most about science, seeing it benefit everyone in everyday life.

[Music plays and text appears: BHP Billiton Science and Engineering Awards 2017]

[Sponsors logos appear on screen]