Schools join together to help give wildlife new homes as Aura celebrates Wetlands Day

Local school students have lent a hand to help boost the number of wildlife species now calling Aura home as part of World Wetlands Day celebrations.

As part of the community-led celebrations, students from Baringa State Primary School and Unity College helped plant 750 sedges and reeds on Thursday, 28 February, within one of Aura’s specially designed acid frog breeding ponds located in the dedicated Aura Conservation Zone.

Mark Stephens, Senior Environment and Community Development Manager at Stockland, said it was the first time the two local schools had been involved in a combined environmental education and planting day.

“With the area’s abundance and diversity of wildlife steadily increasing, the planting gave students the opportunity to witness close-up the benefits of conservation,’ Mr Stephens said.

“The latest annual fauna count reveals more than 200 species of wildlife, and the return of these biodiversity values demonstrates how sustainable development can work hand-in-hand with the community to achieve outstanding results.

“The results are testament to the Aura Community Stewardship Program, which is co-ordinating 16 community organisations in the local area’s rehabilitation.

“We have been focussing on increasing the numbers of the threatened Wallum Sedge Frog, which is native to this area, but it is also exciting to see that many other species such as birds, butterflies and mammals are now also multiplying.’’

Aura’s World Wetlands Day commenced with talks from wildlife experts at Baringa State Primary School and Unity College.

Frog expert Dr Ed Meyer spoke to students about the area’s acid frogs, followed by Fauna Watch’s Rod Kernot who spoke about some of the new species of wildlife found at Aura in the past year.

Julie McLellan, Chief Executive Officer of Healthy Land and Water, helped facilitate Aura’s World Wetlands Day celebrations as part of the Aura Community Stewardship Program.

Ms McLellan said the rehabilitation work had yielded significant results in a relatively short period of time.

“We are applying a number of different approaches for assisted regeneration, particularly the inclusion of cultural burning practices to create a better habitat for all fauna and promote the big trees,” Ms McLellan said.

For more details on Aura go to www.cityofcolour.com, phone 1300 762 058 or visit the Aura Sales and Information Centre at 1 Lukin Terrace, Bells Creek. You can also keep up with the community’s progress on Facebook at www.facebook.com/auraqld.