By Tyler Wright
Olinda Primary School students will soon be able to utilise fresh fruit and vegetables grown out of new garden beds created out of hardwood salvaged from the June 2021 storm event.
Treasuring Our Trees’ David Ferrier has built five garden beds at the school for children to be able to grow and take home themselves, as part of a project shared with Mount Dandenong Preschool staff and students which was officially opened on Tuesday 11 July.
Mount Dandenong Preschool students – who are now based at the Olinda Primary School site after their site on Mount Dandenong Tourist Road was damaged during the June 2021 storm event – are also able to enjoy a fairy house, makeshift fishing haunt and a yarning circle.
“It’s just so healing, the fact that this is here now, it felt really special,” Mount Dandenong Preschool educator Victoria Clarke said.
“We sit in the yarning circle and it’s so special… the children love it.”
Mr Ferrier said for residents were impacted after seeing truckloads of fallen trees driven off the mountain after the storm event.
“It was breaking everyone’s heart,” Mr Ferrier said.
“I jumped into volunteer work straight after the storm… we’ve got 25 partnerships at the moment… we’re delivering Emerald [Primary School] in about a week, and then Sassafras [Primary School] and Mount Dandenong [Primary School] after that.”
Olinda Primary School students are preparing to grow fruit varieties, including the possibility of grown passionfruit, peas, and tomatoes out of the new garden beds made out of messmate.
Principal Cornelia Sheeran said students are currently focusing on the ocean, with the curriculum then tying into reducing plastics even further.
“This was always a dream to get these built, because we had planter boxes on the asphalt…but they kept on drying out and they were rotting,” she said.
“When we get our chooks at the end of the year, and we get the other garden beds in here, we’ll be able to provide all the vegetables for the families that come to Olinda.”
Mr Ferrier said there are no chemicals in the garden as children and families will be eating the produce out of them.
“The Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden [Foundation], which is part of our program, is now supporting the school,” he said.
“We’ve chosen particularly tough materials and hopefully this is the start of a fruitful relationship.”
In May the state government announced it would provide $200,000 to Treasuring Our Trees in the 2023/2024 budget to ensure the organisation is well-equipped to continue to help local families and members of the community, in what was originally a 2022 state election promise.
“At Olinda Primary School, Treasuring Our Trees has given fallen trees a second life by creating a whimsical play space and educational resource for students and families,” Monbulk MP Daniela De Martino said.
Redgum logs donated through the Level Crossing Removal Project’s Cranbourne line upgrade were also used to build the yarning circle.
Mr Ferrier said it feels “incredible” to see the creations come to life and finally be used, with the children using the ‘secret garden’ as a fun and restorative place.
“We want the greater community to see the impact this work is making and how important it is to educate the kids and everyone else about recycling, to stop throwing these materials through wood chippers and support us and let us build 100 school projects.”
