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By Bridget Cook
As part of the Green Schools Connect program, students and staff worked with the volunteers, including both local and international volunteers from Korea, to remove weeds, dig up soil, fertilise and plant bandicoot friendly plants.
Garfield Primary School has made a variety of habitats around their school such as a butterfly garden and lizard habitat areas.
This project aims to create habitat for local native bandicoot, so they have a corridor to the bush area at the back of their school.
Green Schools Connect is a partnership between Conservation Volunteers Australia and the Vodafone Australia Foundation to help make environment projects on schools a reality.
Conservation Volunteers Australia chief executive officer Colin Jackson said the program was a great way for schools to get involved in the enhancement of their local environment.
“Green Schools Connect provides the hands to get the project done or kick-start a new initiative,” said Mr Jackson. Garfield Primary School science teacher Mareta Singleton said the students felt it was important to provide this safe area for the bandicoots as they were learning about endangered animals.
“The conservation volunteers did a mountain of work clearing big weeds and unwanted non-native plants that don’t belong in our bush,” Ms Singleton said.
“The children are very grateful as it was too difficult for them to complete that task.
“They are now excited about planting more suitable indigenous plants to provide shelter and food for our bandicoots.”