
KAMBRYA College was celebrating its success last week after being awarded a new grant to help build an indigenous garden at their school.
The Berwick school was one of 10 Victorian schools to receive the CityLink revegetation grants and will now receive funding to plan, coordinate and deliver an innovative revegetation project with the guidance of Greening Australia, a leader in landscape restoration.
More than 70 primary and secondary schools competed for the grants, having to demonstrate how their projects would address biodiversity issues, how the hands-on work could be implemented into the curriculum and how the projects engaged with the wider community.
Greening Australia chief executive Carl Carthy said the program continued to attract strong applicants.
“This program is so wonderfully unique because there is nothing else like it in any other Victorian school curriculum catering from preps to year 10 students.
“This is hands-on stuff, engaging children from diverse backgrounds with the environment as they create habitats, save rare trees, create wetlands and experience first hand the difference they can make to creating biodiversity,” he said.
With the funds Kambrya College plans to create an indigenous garden that can be maintained and expanded to establish a school horticulture centre.
The centre will eventually be used for cultivating indigenous plants in the local schools and wider community, teaching students the importance of sustainability.