Badger Creek Primary School

Project Profile

Issues

After replanting the Badger Creek Road wildlife corridor following a destructive mini tornado in 2002, the Badger Creek Primary school community became a member of the Mt Toolebewong Landcare Group and was immediately inspired to form a voluntary junior landcare group. Since 2008, landcare has been built into the school curriculum with a junior landcare session held once a term for every class. The students have acted as positive role models for their peers in the local community and contributed to community awareness of caring for the land.

Project Detail

Badger Creek Primary School has been nominated for a National Landcare Award for its contribution to the environment and local community as a voluntary junior landcare group.

After replanting the Badger Creek Road wildlife corridor following a destructive mini tornado in 2002, the school became a member of the Mt Toolebewong Landcare Group and was immediately inspired to form a voluntary junior landcare group. Since 2008, landcare has been built into the school curriculum with a junior landcare session held once a term for every class. The students have acted as positive role models for their peers in the local community and contributed to community awareness of caring for the land.

Since 2003, junior landcarers have made significant improvements to the school grounds through the establishment of a bird bank garden, frog garden, community greenhouse, scentbark reserve, herb garden, vegetable patch, compost corner and the creation of two wildlife corners.

The school has formed valuable partnerships with many local and state organisations during the landcare journey. Students are very active in the local community by contributing junior landcare displays for the two community festivals on Mt Toolebewong, providing articles for the quarterly Mt Toolebewong Landcare Group newsletter, Shire of Yarra Ranges Education & Sustainability Unit and Healesville Sanctuary Education Department publications as well as working with the community on environmental projects. In total, students have planted five thousand native plants in the local area.

The school has reached a number of important milestones over the past seven years.  In 2005, Badger Creek Primary hosted an Environment Day with students from Toolangi and Chum Creek Primary Schools. Sessions included Waste Wise, Water Wise and Earth Wise activities and involved assistance and presentations from the Shire of Yarra Ranges, Mt Toolebewong Festival Fund Committee, Healesville Sanctuary, Maroondah Garden Centre, and the Mt Toolebewong Landcare Group.

In 2006, the school was awarded the Shire of Yarra Ranges ‘Young Environmental Achievers Award’. Badger Creek Primary also won the regional section of the Victorian Schools Garden Award where the school received two Achievement Awards. In 2008, the school achieved Land for Wildlife Accreditation and developed a whole school plan for the control of weeds. Species which were invasive were removed and replaced with suitable indigenous species, and a quarterly survey is now conducted to monitor progress.

The junior landcare group provides a positive role model for other students and schools and has contributed to the learning and development of Badger Creek Primary students and the environmental sustainability of the local community.

The Badger Creek Primary School project is one of 88 finalists in the National Landcare Awards to be announced in Canberra on 24 June 2010.  Commencing in 1991, the Awards celebrate the achievements of individuals and groups that make a valuable contribution to the land and coast where they live and work.

Photography

Badger Creek Primary School