9 July 2024
The Ararat Rural School Cluster (representing students from Willaura, Maroona, Moyston, Pomonal, and Buangor Primary Schools) recently participated in a unique hands-on learning experience at Rhynie Pastoral, the farm of local farmers Jack and Celia Tucker.
This trip was the second in a series of field trips organized by the two Landcare facilitators working with the five schools in the cluster. Our topic for the day was "Healthy Soil and Native Biodiversity on Farms".
The Tucker family welcomed nearly 100 students to their farm, which is not only a hub of agricultural production but also a sanctuary for native animals, named Shepherd's Hut Sanctuary. Their farm blends conservation with farming, nurturing the health of the soil, landscape, animals, and people to ensure long-term sustainability.
The day began with the students gathering at the edge of the Sanctuary, located on a hill in the heart of the farm and protected by a "floppy top" predator-proof fence. Armed with clipboards, paper and coloured pencils, they were asked to ‘draw a farm’ with no further prompts. This exercise aimed to capture the students' initial perceptions of farming before they delved into the day's learning activities. As expected, tractors, sheep, cows and crops were the most depicted items in the drawings.
Jack Tucker then introduced the students to the concept of combining profitable farming with conservation efforts. He explained how the predator-proof fence is protecting native animals like bandicoots and bettongs from cats and foxes. Thanks to the fence, the Sanctuary has seen a huge resurgence of these native species, whose digging behaviour is leading to lighter, healthier less compacted soil. In fact, there are now so many native mammals the Tucker's were faced with a new question – who is going to eat all these little native mammals and to keep their numbers in balance?? And with that, Jack was thrilled to tell the students about their recent introduction of quolls into the sanctuary, a native predator that is extinct on the mainland!
Now that they had learned a bit about this unique farm, dedicated to balancing production with habitat preservation, it was time to go out and explore. The students participated in a scavenger hunt to explore above-ground biodiversity and signs of soil health. Guided by their teachers and armed with bingo cards, they discovered various elements supporting biodiversity, such as rock piles, tile grids for reptiles, and tree hollows. Some of the most popular finds included an echidna, a dead snake, dead rabbits, and various bones, with every group completing their bingo cards. A few lucky groups even spotted bandicoots active during the day!
lAfter lunch, the focus shifted to below-ground exploration. Students, in teams, dug up small soil samples from different areas to compare soil characteristics and signs of biological activity. They looked at areas under trees, in open paddocks, near dams and near signs of mammal diggings, to see how the soil characteristics differed. They were excited to find onion grass bulbs, since Jack told them they are a favourite snack of the swamp rats (and a bulb or two may have been taste tested to see what all the fuss was about!).
Finally, the day concluded with a reflective drawing activity. The students were asked to draw a farm again, this time thinking about what kind of farm they would most like to live on. The transformation in their drawings was remarkable, and while tractors and sheep still made it into the top 10 most depicted things, this time the leader board was shared by native mammals! The second-round drawings were dominated by beautiful depictions of farms making space for both production and native species. There were several things that only appeared in the second-round farms, including depictions of riparian fences, underground bug diversity and burrows, and native animals like lizards, quolls, bandicoots and sugar gliders.
After counting the times that sheep appeared in the before and after drawings, we found a 46 percent reduction in the appearance of sheep in the students' drawings, making room for all the native animals they included. But we reckon the students went a bit overboard in their destocking rates, as Jack showed us the sheep can still live harmoniously in the sanctuary with the native animals.
We were all thrilled with the success of the day and can’t wait to get together again for the next Landcare cluster day! The Ararat Rural Cluster's biodiversity education program continues to provide invaluable learning opportunities, fostering a deep appreciation for local habitats and sustainable farming practices among young students.
Elia Pirtle
Landcare Facilitator and Communications Officer