The Heart Warm er
NEW HOTEL CREATES A BUZZ IN NIKENBAH
Written by
Kerrie Alexander
B EES will be buzzing with delight after making a new five-star hotel in Hervey Bay their home. Twenty-seven talented students from Carinity Education Glendyne have constructed a magnificent wooden “bee hotel” as part of a project to rejuvenate a 1.1-hectare conservation area back to its natural state. Using repurposed materials from old infrastructure, the students crafted the structure to help care for the land and local wildlife on the school campus at Nikenbah. Supervising teacher and vocational education trainer Justin Burnham said creating features such as the bee hotel, was a way of encouraging biodiversity within the conservation area. “Timber from an old obstacle course on the site has been repurposed for use on the solitary native bee structure,” Mr Burnham said. “We have also reused coppers logs as borders for the walking path into the centre of the conservation area. “Bird and possum boxes have been installed and will have bird and bee watering devices coming shortly, to encourage native flora and fauna to repopulate the area.” Mr Burnham said the land is protected from future development and is home to native animals and dozens of species of native grass, shrubs, vines and trees including paperbark, fig and Blue Gum. The students, as part of their environmental studies, have teamed up with Fraser Coast Regional Council to take part in the exciting Land for Wildlife scheme to look after the remnant vegetation in the school’s conservation area. “The area provides hands-on experience opportunities for our students to participate in flora species identification and revegetation projects, fauna identification and native bee establishment,” he said. “Students have identified wallaby access tracks, lizards, snakes and rodent activity on the site. There also appears to be a fox population coming and going from the site.” Fraser Coast Mayor George Seymour commended the students on their efforts to improve the wildlife corridor which runs from Nikenbah through to Walligan. “This is a fantastic opportunity for our Land for Wildlife program to partner with Glendyne to protect natural areas on private land and give students hands-on experience as they rehabilitate degraded bushland. “They will learn about assisted regeneration techniques and methods and the essential needs of wildlife and the best ways to conserve their habitat.” The Land for Wildlife project is part of a Certificate II in Conservation and Land Management vocational training course offered to Carinity Education Glendyne students.
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