An army of garbage gatherers set out from Armadale Primary on Friday to clean up their little patch of paradise.
Science teacher Rebecca McManus and Year 5 teacher Sarah Claus organised a troupe of students and the school’s ‘Green Team’ to clean up Settler’s Common and Neerigen Brook as part of the Clean Up Australia Day movement.
“They were so pumped to do it,” Ms Claus said. “We had a talk before going out about what was rubbish and what was recyclable. And they all seemed to have a lot of background knowledge about how harmful rubbish – especially plastic – can be for the environment.”
The gaggle of excited Year 5 students found all sorts of trashy treasures while scavenging, including a tv, a paint can, a tyre, quite a few socks, some coins, and a Coca-Cola bottle with bull ants in it.
Together they filled up half a dozen bags of rubbish.
According to Izabellah, the chance to get out in nature and pick up some rubbish along the way was infinitely more appealing than maths.
“But it’s also a good thing that we’re cleaning up around the creek because then turtles and other animals don’t die by getting tangled up in this stuff,” Karlee said.
“It feels good to know that we could be saving them from being killed,” Sophie said.
“If you see those owls up there, they’ve been sitting there for days and it’s just wonderful to see them,” Monty said. “It’s good to be cleaning up their home.”
Monty explained that the class Clean Up Australia Day session has inspired him to share a message with others: “I want to tell them not to throw rubbish on the ground, because without plants and nature, we wouldn’t be alive”.
Photographs – Richard Polden.
