Pupils from St Mary’s Primary School in Williamstown last week met delegates attending the National Landcare Conference in Melbourne.
They were taken on field trips in Hobsons Bay to observe local coastal management, wetland restoration and native plant propagation.
Landcare is celebrating its 25th anniversary.
Friends of Williamstown Wetlands president Ian Rae and the St Mary’s pupils gave a presentation about the once highly degraded Jawbone Flora and Fauna Reserve.
The reserve has been transformed into an ecological haven embracing open grasslands, wetlands, a saltmarsh and mangrove conservation area, Wader Beach and Kororoit Creek.
Hobsons Bay ranger Libby Rigby hosted delegates during a walk of – and talk about – The Spit and Sandy Point, located at Greenwich Bay on the Newport coastline. Delegates also visited Newport Lakes, a bushland oasis in the heart of the suburb.
Mary Burbidge, of Friends of Newport Lakes, told the pupils how the park had been revegetated with native plants and now had more than 200 flora species and 85 bird species.
