8 August 2008

Victoria University's Iramoo will be involved a special planting day at Albion North Primary School on Wednesday 14 August, from 10am to 3pm.

Media are welcome to attend

According to Iramoo's Mel Doherty, this is an expansion of the popular 'Seedlings for Schools' program.

Mel said: "I have been working with Albion North Primary School over the past couple of months to develop and design an indigenous grassland garden that incorporates threatened species, Koorie plants, habitat plants, and is pretty, water-wise, low maintenance and safe for children."

"The school's student council helped with design ideas for the garden, such as having lizard lounges - piles of rocks; and lizard lollies - fruiting groundcovers; and a special patch for rare and threatened grassland plants."

"The whole school, a class at a time, will be helping to plant 720 seedlings in a 210 square metre garden at the front of the school, on busy Furlong Road. The school is purchasing the seedlings from Iramoo, including 33 different species of trees, shrubs, groundcovers, climbers, grasses and wildflowers.

"This garden partnership also includes Brimbank City Council, which is helping with equipment and planting demonstrations, and VU education students on pre-service teacher placements at Iramoo."

"Albion North Primary School is also entering competitions to gain some recognition for the school's efforts."

"The garden can be used as an outdoor classroom and we aim to embed various aspects of the garden into the school curriculum. We will be engaging students to maintain and monitor the garden over the long term, and possibly collect seeds to conserve threatened species."

The planting of the Indigenous garden, is part of the AuSSI Vic project for which Mel is training as a facilitator.

She said: "The Australian Sustainable Schools Initiative is now being rolled out to all schools in Victoria, and will go nationally."

"Iramoo will be well placed to assist schools on their journey to becoming an accredited Resource Smart School - supported by Sustainability Victoria, the Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE); the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development (DEECD); and the Centre for Education and Research in Environmental Strategies (CERES), across biodiversity, water, waste and energy."

"AuSSI Vic has been shaped by several policy statements, and provides a set of principles, processes and practices for schools to achieve both educational and environmental outcomes with regards to sustainability."
 

Mel Doherty is available for interview Ph: (03) 9919 2815

Media Contacts:
Ms Christine White, Media Manager,
Marketing & Communications Department, Victoria University
Ph: (03) 9919 4322; mobile: 0434 602 884

Andy Gash, Snr. Media Officer,
Marketing & Communications Department, Victoria University
Ph: (03) 9919 4950; mobile: 0411 255 900