‘Eat Dirt’ a program aimed at connecting students to Country, nature and each other, is demolishing and constructing four new shade houses with the first to be built at Bellingen High.

In preparation, some of the Eat Dirt crew were there to demolish the old shade house that had definitely seen better days.

The students will build the new shade house and assist with the concreting to gain some construction skills and to learn by doing.

The shade house will be used to grow native plants to be used in Landcare projects in the local area, including koala habitat trees which were destroyed during fire and flood events.

Bellingen High student Ollie Sampson said:

“It’s so great to be outdoors and doing something with our hands and it will be even better when we get to plant the trees we are going to grow.”

Teacher Nathan Beal, said:

“Opportunities like this for our students are invaluable for teaching them real world skills. Thanks to Landcare NSW and the NSW Reconstruction Authority for making this possible. These students are gaining confidence and are working really well as a team.”

Funding for this pilot program has been made possible with a grant from the NSW Government’s Bushfire Community Recovery and Resilience Fund and is a partnership project with Gotcha4Life, Surf Life Saving NSW, Bellingen High School and the local community.

To find out more about the project, contact Melanie Tyas, Landcare NSW on mtyas@landcarensw.org.au.