Talking rubbish: Douglas youngsters have a plan

l PORT DOUGLAS

THUS far, I’m pleased to say, Gazza’s Goss has never been referred to as a load of old rubbish. This week, however, even I have to confess that at least half of the story falls into this category.

The way that we dispose of rubbish has certainly changed over the last 40 years, the aim of which is generally to be more friendly to our environment now and in the future.

Many would agree that on a global level, we humans are still falling way short of where we need to be, most likely due to world leaders, rather than the average person on the street.

It was therefore refreshing to see youngsters in the Douglas Shire having a fun day learning a little more about the importance of correct waste disposal, together with an insight as to how our future decision-makers may influence the look of our communities.

This all came about with a visit from a recycling truck and a town planning workshop, which were both big hits during Douglas Libraries School Holiday Program this Easter.

Seventeen children attended the session on Tuesday, April 11, at Mossman Library. The children learnt about the types of rubbish that gets recycled and some very cool features of the recycling truck, including the cameras collecting data about what’s going into our bins.

The children had a great time sitting inside the recycling truck and seeing how it works, finding the session informative and a lot of fun.

After the truck visit, the children learned the basics of town planning, designing their own towns, having great discussions about what should go where in a town and why, while considering a range of planning issues such as and storm tide overlays and requirements for residential areas.

Just to add to this, a few days later on Thursday, April 13, a ‘Construction Kaos’ session was held at the library, which attracted an amazing 38 people. Various stations were set up in the library for families to construct buildings, towers, farms and a range of structures. They enjoyed creating food in the kitchen, constructing farms and buildings with Duplo and Lego, building houses with Mag Formers, laying train tracks for Thomas and his friends, making jigsaws and constructing a marble run.

By the end of the session, there were some remarkable engineering feats and everybody had loads of fun.

Sometimes the best way to describe these types of events is by simply showing you some pictures, so please enjoy.

I need to go and put the bins out, so for now it’s Gazza signing out.

Send your stories to gazza@cairnslocalnews.com.au