School and Community Natural Resource Awareness
Our Wonderful Wallum.
June 2006.
Tin Can Bay is a small coastal community with a fishing village atmosphere. With the nearby villages, Cooloola Cove and Rainbow Beach, it is undergoing rapid growth and the Seachange effect. The community and it's recently established P-10 school are closely connected, so it was possible to undertake a full day of activities for a broad cross-section of the community, thanks to two Natural Resource Awareness Activity grants.
The two projects Wonderful Wallum and Our Wallum aimed to elevate the profile and status of south east Queensland coastal flora, now broadly referred to as Wallum. Historically, Wallum has been viewed rather negatively by European settlement, with little understanding of its unique qualities. The Wallum Awareness Day was hosted by the Cooloola City Farm Nursery (Tin Can Bay) and Tin Can Bay P-10 School; both projects were designed and sponsored by the local Natural Resource Management group, Cooloola Coastcare Association Inc.
An informative presentation by elder of the Butchulla people, Nai Nai Bird, about the traditional uses of local plants was given to an audience of over one hundred people at the nursery. Following the 
presentation, the audience was treated to a delightful morning tea organised by City Farm volunteers while viewing displays about various coastal NRM issues. The nursery coordinator conducted a tour of the nursery, which collects local native seed and propagates the plants for community landscaping and revegetation projects; as well as hosting a horticultural course for the TCB School YACAH (Young Achievers in Automotive & Horticulture) group.
A compact desk calendar featuring paintings of the Wallum by a local artist were distributed with plant sales and the morning’s activities were filmed by Year 9/10 Film & Media students. After lunch, the YACAH group demonstrated potting on techniques to visiting school students from Gympie East State School.
Meanwhile, Nai Nai continued onto the Tin Can Bay P-10 School for the Our Wallum project, where she spoke to the Gr 3 & 4 students and visitors about the Wallum and the schooling of young aboriginal children before European contact.
Both Nai Nai and the Coastcare Coordinator conducted a tour of the remnant bush area in the school, known as the buffer zone, where many of the plant species can be observed in situ. This was followed by a taste of bushtucker supplied by a local business and organised by the P &C Association, along with plant and calendar sales. Many of the Wallum calendars were taken to Germany by Tin Can Bay students during an exchange programme with sister school at Bremen in June/July 2006.
This project was also filmed, and Goorie Media Service will edit the footage to produce a film as a future community resource. The film students are also working on a short film for the TV show Totally Wild. Judging from both verbal and written feedback the day was a huge success with a lot of people having a heightened respect for Our Wonderful Wallum!
Calendars are available from Cooloola Coastcare Association by contacting admin on the website www.cooloolacoastcare.org.au They are $5 plus postage and all proceeds will go towards future NRM projects.
Maree Prior
Cooloola Coastcare Coordinator
