Students from Werribee visited the Bluegum Reserve in Badger Creek to check out firsthand what they’d learnt in school.
Mt Toolebewong and District Landcare has been revegetating the Bluegum Reserve and surrounding areas in Badger Creek for nearly a decade, with the support of other community groups and volunteers.
Mt Toolebewong and District Landcare president Graeme George said the idea of revegetation is to repair the damage.
“A lot of these areas have been cleared, so we’re putting back the vegetation that was there to restore the ecology to protect the stream banks and provide a bit of biodiversity,” he said.
“We do one or two major plantings a year. Occasionally, we get some spare plants and just pop them in a few spots where there are some gaps.
“Yarra Ranges Council provides a lot of resources for us to use. They provide the plants, a whole lot of tools like trailers, stakes, bags and other things.”
Over the past 10 years, the local landcare group has planted blackwood wattles, silver wattles, hazel pomaderris, dogwoods, coranderrks (Victorian Christmas bushes) and so forth.
“When you have a look at some of the areas we planted a few years ago, you wouldn’t realise now that they were replanted because it looks so natural,” Mr George said.
“And there are a couple of areas where we’ve recently planted. There’s one up the creek, and there’s a whole lot down at the nearest Healesville Sanctuary.
“That was just done for a tree planting day just a few weeks ago with the local landcare group and a lot of volunteers.”
It was on Friday 29 August, when MacKillop Catholic Regional College Year 10 students came out to the Bluegum Reserve.
Mr George showed the students around the reserve and explained the local ecology and the revegetation projects his landcare group had done.
MacKillop Catholic Regional College outdoor field officer Jim Maguire said it’s a good experience for students to get out in the field and to see first-hand what they’d learnt in their geography and geology classes.
“We’ve come out to let the kids get some exposure to a new environment that they don’t always get to experience,” he said.
“They’re doing outdoor education at the moment in Year 10, and we’re linking this into some of their environmental science studies, their geography and geology classes as well.
“Going into VCE (Victorian Certificate of Education), we’re preparing them for that as well.”
