Tasmania Island Ark

Bushrangers

Our Bushrangers program provides students in Tasmania’s Midlands with opportunities to connect with nature, engage with palawa culture, and get involved in Greening Australia’s onground environmental restoration work.

Schools and their communities are supported with resources to learn about local biodiversity and culture, and make connections between people, places and environment – as well as hands-on opportunities to participate in planting days.

Since starting in 2014, the Bushrangers program has seen students developing firsthand understanding of the Midlands biodiversity hotspot and gaining practical STEM experience, for example, by assisting with research on the genetic diversity of local seeds and the movements of native and non-native animals across the Midlands.

Nature's classroom

Midlands Arboretum

Greening Australia is working with local schools and community to establish an arboretum style planting or outdoor classroom at Ross, next to the existing Species Hotels, in partnership with the von Bibra family in the Northern Midlands of Tasmania. This will be an educational space full of diverse native Tasmanian plants, which schools can use for science learning objectives, excursions and practical skills in seed collection, plant propagation and wildlife monitoring. It will be a space for walking on Country and learning about the incredible biodiversity and cultural heritage of the Midlands.

Hagley Farm School Agricultural Learning Centre Arboretum

Greening Australia and Hagley Primary School are working together to enhance the Hagley Farm School Agricultural Learning Centre Arboretum and increase the number of teachers and groups utilising the arboretum as a learning resource through purposefully designed science activities. Part of the arboretum’s makeover includes setting up solar-powered camera traps so students can monitor wildlife and establishing frog habitat to support species such as the endangered Green and Gold Bell Frog Litoria raniformis.

Shade houses for native plant propagation

In 2021, Oatlands and Campbell Town District High schools received custom-built shade houses for native plant propagation so students can participate in the complete process of propagating local native plants, from seed collection to germination, potting up and planting. Students will be able to utilise this resource for years to come and teachers will also incorporate it into their science curriculum. This project made possible by Bunnings and JM Roberts Charitable Trust.

Bush foods garden

Greening Australia created a bush foods garden at Campbell Town District High School in 2022, in collaboration with Bunnings. Grade 4 and 5 students helped plant the bush food plants from TazWild Plants and Bunnings and spread the sustainably sourced tree fern mulch. A reading seat, weeping hose, mosaic water bowl and pebbles and pipes for frog habitat provided the finishing touches.

Species Hotels

The Species Hotels are a set of eye-catching sculptures, visible from the highway, added to our restoration planting near Ross by Architecture and Design students from the University of Tasmania to provide interim habitat for birds and small mammals – and pique the curiosity of community and visitors in local biodiversity. Campbell Town High School students have been involved in creating a sculpture trail to showcase the Species Hotels and surrounding restoration plantings.

Building Species Hotels

Connecting Culture and Country

NITA Education with Oatlands primary school children at Lake Dulverton as part of the Tasmania Island Ark program. Students stand under a tall tree, overlooking a light blue river that is reflecting the white, fluffy clouds above it.

Cultural immersion with NITA Education

In September and October 2021, 90 students from three Midlands schools (Bothwell, Oatlands and Campbell Town) participated in cultural immersion days hosted by Nita Education and facilitated by Greening Australia. Students were immersed in the Aboriginal sense of place that included a range of hands-on activities such as twine making, bush food sampling, ochre blowing, walking on Country, investigating artefacts, listening to Dreamtime stories and participating in dances.

Reading and living in the landscape

Enjoy this video capturing key moments from a cultural immersion day on Country for National Science Week 2020. Greening Australia partnered with Tasmanian Aboriginal Peoples, Rosny Mob, University of Tasmania, Department of Education Tasmania, landholders and schools to host the day, designed to help students connect 60,000+ years of palawa science and Western knowledge for sustainable futures. The event and resulting video were made possible thanks to support from the Australian Government and JM Roberts Charitable Trust.

Watch video

Regeneration

Enjoy this video capturing key moments from a cultural immersion day on Country for National Science Week 2020. Greening Australia partnered with Tasmanian Aboriginal Peoples, Rosny Mob, University of Tasmania, Department of Education Tasmania, landholders and schools to host the day, designed to help students connect 60,000+ years of palawa science and Western knowledge for sustainable futures. The event and resulting video were made possible thanks to support from the Australian Government and JM Roberts Charitable Trust.