Water water everywhere....
Date: Wednesday 24th March
6.45pm - 9.00pm
Sharks!
Date: Sunday 28th March
2.00pm
Sustainable Homes: Greywater
Date: TBA
Sustainable Homes: Composting
Toilets
Date: TBA
Aquaponics Workshop
Date: TBA
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Community Environment Centre Project
The Community Environment Centre Project will provide expanded community
facilities at the Natural Resource Centre.
The Barossa Council have provided the vacant land behind the existing
MPNRC building for the Centre to develop into a community sustainability
hub.
The development will include an expansion of the Centre to increase the
quality of services available to the community and incorporates
additional office, workshop and meeting facilities as well as a range of
outdoor demonstration projects.
As part of the stage 1 project implementation, the MPNRC has also teamed
up with Birdwood High School and
the Doorways 2 Construction VET program (supported by the Construction
Industry Training Board). A
group of school students from Birdwood High are currently completing
their Certificate 1 in Building Construction using the NRC site. This
partnership is
a fantastic opportunity to provide a worthwhile community project for
the students as well as providing an avenue to expose the students to a
variety of sustainable building practices.
Activities that have already started include a retrofit of an existing
shed for a community meeting and workshop space.
This retrofit will showcase a number of sustainable building
features ranging from material selection, passive ventilation and low
energy use technologies.
The Australian Government Community Water Grants Water Savings Project
will enable
the entire site to be self-sufficient on rain water harvested from the
roof, saving over 338000 litres of Murray River mains water a year.
Low water use measures will be demonstrated including waterless
urinals and smart flush toilets.
Stage 2 of the Sustainable Native Garden Project will act as part of the
retrofitted buildings passive climate control as well as demonstrating
water wise gardening and showcasing local native plants.
The expansion of the Centre will enable the MPNRC to more fully service
the needs of the community.
The need for community members to learn about environmental issues and
sustainability has never been more pressing.
Not only is increased awareness needed but individuals and
communities need to feel empowered to act and make a positive
difference, thus accessible learning and engagement opportunities are
essential.
The Community Environment Centre Project provides the mechanism in which
the Centre’s vision will take shape, building on what is already in
place and creating a truly unique community space that encourages an
understanding and respect of our natural world and our place in it.
For more information
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contact us
Sustainability School Days
 Unique
learning opportunity for students in
Mount Pleasant.
On
Thursday 17th & Friday 18th September 2009, Mt Pleasant
became a hive of activity as over 1000 primary school students,
teachers, parents, and volunteers came together for the biannual Mount
Pleasant Natural Resource Centre Inc. Sustainability School Days.
The days are organised by the not-for-profit Centre to provide students
with two days of fun, interactive and educational sessions that
encourage sustainable living. Mt Pleasant Natural Resource Centre
Coordinator Faye Mc Goldrick said the focus is on making learning fun
again.
“We need to make the event memorable for the students so we incorporate
a lot of hands on, interactive and art based learning into the program.
Students get back to basics and get their hands dirty painting
murals and building bird baths and making toys out of recycled
materials”.
This free event attracted students from 16 different primary schools:
Birdwood, Gumeracha, Mt Pleasant, Kersbrook, Springhead, Mt Torrens,
Springton, Redeemer, Palmer, Keyneton, Angaston, Cambrai, Mt Pleasant
Kindy, Greenock, St Jakobi, and a number of home school children from
Adelaide.
“We particularly like to involve smaller regional primary schools in our
event as they usually don’t have the budget to organise many of the
types of activities we provide,” Faye said.
“The schools really appreciated participating in this free event
and we have had excellent feedback so far from teachers and students”.
This event has now become so popular that Faye had to turn away schools
who wanted to be involved: “The days booked out really quickly – it was
great to see so many schools wanting to be involved in our local
sustainability event, but we really can’t increase the size of the event
without additional resources”.
Over 60 volunteers came together over the 2 days, including students
from Craigmore High School, to help make the days happen: from making
lunches, to assisting presenters with their workshops, to helping
coordinate, volunteers contributed 100’s of hours of their time. “Our
volunteers did an absolutely amazing job and I was lucky to get to work
with such a diverse and enthusiastic group – we also had a lot of new
volunteers join us specifically for this event,” Faye said.
The event was made possible by the huge input from community volunteers,
and financial support from the Adelaide and Mount Lofty Ranges Natural
Resources Management Board and the South Australian Murray Darling Basin
Natural Resources Management Board.
This is the seventh Sustainability School Days the Centre has run and as
successful as this event is, its future is uncertain. “The organisation
required for an event this size is huge.
It requires large amounts of project management time and it is
getting more expensive to run every year due to increasing costs
associated with marquees and presenters.
The Centre will have to seriously consider if it can afford to
continue delivering such a large event, “Faye said.
“The demand is certainly there and schools have already registered their
interest for the 2011 event.
We have built up a fantastic group of volunteers who are keen to see the
event continue – they only have to be involved in one day to understand
the value of the event to the students, but without increased funding
support we will not be in a position to continue it.
It would be such a shame if this event ended – it is the largest
event of its kind in the state and our region should be very proud that
there is so much community support from volunteers and interest from the
schools on such an important topic.”
If you are interested in seeing this event continue and would like to
get involved and volunteer some of your time, the Centre has a number of
different volunteer positions currently open. Contact Faye on 08 8568
1907 or
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contact us
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