Animals and Permaculture
Zoos Vic Youth Conservation Program
I would like to send my biggest congratulations to both Abby and Eve, who have been accepted into this year's Zoos Vic Youth Conservation Program. They will spend 11 days working on this program across Melbourne Zoo, Healesville Sanctuary and other facilities.
Duncan Sadler
Animals Expo
🐑 🌱 On Thursday 26 February, the Animals and Permaculture Expo ran from 5pm to 6:30pm, organised and staffed by about 40 students. Over 200 members of the TC community showed up to support the running of the Animals and Permaculture programs.
The week prior, over 11 classes dedicated their time to preparing the classrooms, the paddocks, the gardens, and most importantly, the animals, for the Expo. 🌿🐓 We had everything prepared for Tuesday, when it was supposed to occur, however a thunderstorm forced us to postpone ⛈️. Despite this setback, the amazing students of Animals and Permaculture didn’t back down, and we had a wonderful Thursday night, without any rain 🌤️.
On the Thursday, the Permaculture and Animals students ran tours through the garden, the paddocks, and the classrooms, made delicious Devonshire Teas 🍰☕, displayed our animals and safe handling techniques, and ran live feedings 🐟. The icing on the already amazing cake was the sausage sizzle run by TC friends and family 🌭. This event was so fun to be a part of! Many thanks to all the amazing students, head keepers and teachers for making this possible, and thank you to all the members of the TC community for attending! 🎉🎉
Theo F - FLE2, Head Keeper of Assorted Native Fish & Student Learning Area Leader of Permaculture
Turtle Camp
Twenty Working with Animals students were chosen to attend this year's Turtles Camp 🐢 last week. They spent the week working with Turtles Australia protecting endangered Broad-shelled Turtles that live near the Murray River 🌊. We stayed all week in tents at the beautiful Lakeside Caravan Park. Students were self-reliant, preparing all their own meals on a very tight budget.⛺🍳
They would go out into the Gunbower National Park and look for turtle nests 🐢🥚. This is a very important job, as each nest is dug up by the local fox population 🦊 within hours of the eggs being laid. Students would peg wire netting down over the nest to keep the eggs safe. We also had the opportunity to open up last year's protected nests, releasing 70 baby turtles that had hatched in that time. The baby turtles are taken straight to a safe piece of water near their nest location 🐢💧.
Students also went to Torrumberry Weir to see the local rangers empty the fish trap 🎣. The trap catches all the fish that swim up the fish ladder from the downstream Murray River. This allowed them to see some very large Golden Perch, Silver Perch and Carp 🐟 before they are either euthanised or released back into the river.
We got to see the local Catchment Management Authority empty their huge nets and bait traps. They had caught some small-bodied endangered fish 🐟 that had previously been released into the waterways (the Purple Spotted Gudgeon). Students were then taken on a tour of a Greening Australia revegetation site 🌱, where they learned about the Indigenous uses of local plants. We spent quite a bit of time on dairy farms 🐄, as this is what 99.9% of the local grasslands have been converted to. This allowed the students to meet lots of beautiful cows and farmers as well.
The students were wonderful, blowing everyone they met away with their manners, maturity and interest in the local wildlife 🌏. Thanks to Rebecca Lambourne and Duncan Sadler for organising another amazing opportunity for our students 🙌.
Victorian Herpetological Society Expo
On Saturday 28 March a handful of TC students went to the Victorian Herpetological Society Expo 🐍🦎🐸 held at Caulfield Racecourse. Students talked to many different stallholders and gained some valuable knowledge 🧠.
Throughout the day we purchased 🦎geckos, lizards , frogs 🐸, and even another snake 🐍 (all pictured below), which will be lovely additions to our program! Some students even decided to buy their own animals, making the experience even more exciting and memorable ✨.
Overall, the expo was a great opportunity to both learn and have lots of fun 🎉.
Ange S, FLE2