Koori horticulture students landscape children's garden
25 May 2004
Kangan Batman TAFE's Koori students have enhanced the surrounds of Koori child-care centre with a unique discovery garden that provides a cultural learning area for the children.
The horticulture class at the Koori Programs Unit embarked on a series of practical community projects chosen to fulfil the training requirements of several competencies in the horticulture curriculum, while at the same time contributing in a positive way to the welfare of the Koori community in Melbourne.
One such project was the creation of a small Discovery Garden on an un-used site at the Yappera Children's Centre, a pre-school facility for Koori kids in Thornbury.
The Koori Programs Unit was approached in 2003 to propose ideas for the development of an unused, fenced-off area behind the children's centre. As there were already modern play facilities in the main play area the unit proposed building a secluded garden that could function as an outdoor learning area, a place for discovering and naming native animals and plants, for listening to stories, or simply as a 'time-out' area.
Yappera accepted the proposal and agreed to cover all costs, while the Koori unit provided the labour and design expertise. The freedom given to the unit by Yappera meant that they could cover all aspects of the design, planning, sourcing of materials, construction, planting and decoration of the garden.
It meant they were able to integrate many of the horticulture units of competency into the construction program, whilst creating a vibrant and interesting landscape.
The theme "a place of cultural learning and discovery for indigenous kids" guided our selection of materials and the layout of the garden. A bush path of granitic sand winds around the garden, leading the child past concrete models of reptiles and mother and baby wombat to a story place, a circle of tree stumps of various heights surrounded by poles painted in aboriginal motifs.
The kids have added their own handprints to the poles, to establish ownership of the place. From the story place the path steps over a dry water-course, with frogs and wetland plants, on past a miniature grassland of Kangaroo and Poa grasses and timber sculpture, and back to the starting point.
Although the garden occupies a relatively small space (a triangle with 15m sides) the aim was to provide as much stimulation to young minds as possible. It is the intention, with Yappera's support, and consistent with future curriculum, to maintain and further develop the garden over the next few years.
The interest and application shown by the students, especially Michael and Chris Charles, and Noel Egan made the project an enjoyable learning experience. Most importantly, the kids love it!
