By Gabriella Payne
The transformation of a derelict corner of Kooweerup Secondary College is nearly complete, with a dedicated team of sustainability students adding the finishing touches to their brand new frog pond and wetland area on Monday 24 May.
It’s been a long time coming, but the project is slowly nearing the finish line, as staff, students and the Westernport Swamp Landcare group came together to weed, mulch and plant a range of indigenous grasses and shrubs on Monday morning – creating their own little ecosystem, tucked away in a forgotten corner of the school.
One of the driving forces behind the project, James Page, the school’s sustainability coordinator, said that it was an exciting day and he was very proud of the work that the students had done to get this project off the ground.
“We’ve been so lucky to get such a lovely, loyal group of kids working on this project,” Mr Page said.
“They’re a real motivated bunch and are all a part of the environmental sustainability group, so they know what it’s all about.
These guys are the future,” he said.
The frog pond project, designed to help endangered species like the growling grass frog, was originally designed in collaboration with some of the young students back in 2017.
Some of those students who are now in year 11, have slowly seen this vision become a reality over the last few months and were thrilled to get their hands dirty on Monday.
Abby Farmer, one of the sustainability captains and a year 11 student at the school, said that although it had been a drawn out process, it had been an incredibly rewarding experience for everyone.
“Well originally, we thought it was going to be a very slow process, and that maybe it wasn’t going to happen – but it did, and we’re all very happy about it,” Abby said.
“We all drew the plans together, so now seeing it all come to life, it looks even better than we could have imagined!”
Abby and her fellow students agreed that sustainability was incredibly important and that having a program like this had been “really beneficial” for all the kids at the school.
A year 9 student, Kye Rouse said that it had been amazing to watch the derelict area slowly transform, and see the difference they had helped make.
“It’s great to see this area that we’ve seen all of our schooling lives that was just hideous, littered and overgrown with blackberries everywhere – and now it’s becoming something that we can be proud of,” Kye said.
Abby said that on behalf of all the students, she wanted to make a special thank you to Mr Page and John Boekel from the Westernport Swamp Landcare group, who were vital in driving the project and obtaining the funding necessary to make this all possible.
“I just want to say thanks to Mr Page,” Abby said.
“He’s been super great here, he’s been doing this for ages and he got the plans and the money.
And thanks to John for supplying us with all the plants and the frogs and everything to make this dream come to life, because if we didn’t have them, this probably wouldn’t have happened.”
