Investing the creation of a sustainable future

The new Eco-Sustainability Trade Skills Centre, based at the Currency Creek Campus of Goolwa’s Investigator College, had an unlikely genesis. ‘My wife and I needed a new dishwasher and were trying to find one with a four or five star energy rating,’ Principal Don Grimmett recalls.

The inspiring building design created by South Coast Constructions, takes many factors into account; passive solar design, indoor and outdoor classrooms – and shelter when needed.

At the time, we were making annual trips to the Philippines working with communities who made their living scavenging from massive rubbish dumps.’ Don recalls that they re-used absolutely everything, causing him to question whether a five star dishwasher was really the best he could do for the environment. As it turns out, there was so much more!

Around the time of Don’s dishwasher epiphany, the school had purchased a ten-hectare waterfront property overlooking the junction of Currency Creek and the Murray River. Don harnessed the opportunities offered by the site to explore sustainability with his students, by first establishing an Eco Centre in 2011, followed by an Eco-Sustainability Trade Skills Centre in 2018.

Built by South Coast Constructions, the soaring passive solar laboratories and learning spaces are a far cry from traditional classrooms. The rammed earth buildings are oriented north to capture winter sun for natural heating. Solar panels provide more energy than the site can use, and rainwater is harvested and used throughout. Strategically placed windows capture natural light, cooling breezes and spectacular views. But learning is not limited to the classrooms.

The rammed earth buildings are oriented north to capture winter sun for natural heating. Solar panels provide more energy than the site can use, and rainwater is harvested and used throughout.

Students can choose from a suite of vocational education and training offerings, including Certificates in Horticulture, Conservation and Land Management and Agrifoods.

Secondary school students can choose from a suite of vocational education and training offerings including Certificates in Horticulture, Conservation and Land Management, and Agrifoods. Primary students experience hands-on learning through nature-play, citizen science projects and camping. Community groups and students from surrounding schools also make enthusiastic use of the facilities.

The Hindmarsh Island Landcare Group Community Nursery and Goolwa to Wellington Local Action Planning Association (GWLAP) work closely with students to revegetate the grounds, planting and propagating ten-thousand local species each year. Other active partnerships involve the Botanic Gardens, Natural Resources SA, Murray-Darling Basin, Alexandrina Council, TAFE SA, Flinders University and local businesses. ‘What we do here is limited only by imagination,’ says Don. ‘The community has gathered around and that’s how it blooms. It’s a school initiative but it’s also a community asset and the sky’s the limit.’

Natalie Gilbert, is one of the teachers tasked with testing that limit. On the day I visit she’s dressed in sturdy boots and khaki shorts and is in charge of twenty teenaged students, who are striding purposefully around the grounds ensconced in overalls and protective gear. ‘These kids have done their Tafe Certificate III and know what they’re doing,’ Nat explains. ‘The whole space is managed by students and they’re now working out how to integrate their skills to plan and manage the different areas.’

A student pops by to discuss an area management plan she’s devising on her laptop. ‘These kids are doing maths without knowing it,’ Don whispers to me conspiratorially. ‘If you sat them in the classroom and said, we’re going to calculate area today, their eyes would roll back in their heads.’ Nat agrees, ‘I don’t really feel like a teacher here. It’s very much a supervisor role. I’ll warrant the kids don’t really feel like students either.’ We watch as two boys lope down the hill, whipper snippers flung across square shoulders. Heads high. Sunshine on bright faces.

In the conservation and land management courses, students learn about soils, agriculture and impacts on the environment. ‘It’s very grassroots,’ Nat tells me. ‘They learn all the native plants and feel really proud being able to say to their parents, ‘Oh look at that Platylobium obtusangulum’ (the Common Flat Pea to the rest of us!). They know all the weeds and controls, including cultural and integrated practises that can have the least impact on the environment. I think Don’s achieved his goal of producing lots of students who will have a big impact on sustainability.’

The ten-hectare waterfront property overlooks the junction of Currency Creek and the Murray River.

The Endangered Yarra Pygmy Perch Breeding Program is a partnership with Aquasave, the National Resources Management Board and the Currency Creek Endangered Fish Project in which year ten and eleven agriculture students work to increase genetic diversity and boost numbers in the wild. The students gain skills in aquaculture, water-monitoring, biosecurity, ethics and animal husbandry. ‘We do some things that don’t exactly fit with the curriculum, but we do them because they’re important, and we know the kids are getting amazing learning outcomes,’ says Nat.

John Freebairn is a primary teacher with a strong interest in the environment, who has developed programs for each of the primary school classes. ‘I can’t speak highly enough about his work,’ Nat says. ‘He collaborates with so many amazing experts to integrate a strong environmental ethos into the curriculum from the very start.’ The week I visit, the year sixes will make seed bombs and learn about seeds that must go through the digestive system of an emu before they can germinate.

Nat takes me on a tour of the facilities during which I’m introduced to a tribe of tadpoles, a holidaying turtle, and an angry axolotl. We visit the herbarium, the straw-bale garden, the hothouse and the shed equipped with industry-standard tools that the kids have been operating all morning. Already they’ve fixed a flat tyre unassisted. Then, as we make our way towards the campground, the belt comes off the mower. Before Nat has a chance to intervene, a boy strides up announcing, ‘Me and the boys’ll fix that! Shall I take it off your hands?’ Nat makes a quick safety-assessment, nods and we keep walking.

As the boys get to work, Nat comments that some of the kids are perceived by other teachers as being ‘challenging.’ ‘Sometimes I think we can’t be talking about the same kid, but some kids just aren’t suited to traditional classrooms,’ she explains. ‘This is a challenging course academically, but because it’s so applied they can engage with it. I’ve got kids that will go on and do several degrees and others might go back on the farm or get an apprenticeship. It seems to meet each of their needs.’

This aerial view shows the buildings in relation to the surrounding environment. Photo by Jason Porter.

The children feel empowered and take pride in helping to create the environment in which they both thrive and learn.

The whole space is managed by students and they’re now working out how to integrate their skills to plan and manage the different areas.

We’ve finished the tour and stand by the creek breathing in the scent of fresh cut grass. I tell Nat I’m impressed. She stops and looks at me seriously before turning and crunching through the stubble. After a silence she says, ‘I hope you see the beauty in this. It wasn’t my intention to work in the education system, but after a while I realised I was having a way bigger impact on the environment here than I was working in the environmental field. All my life, that’s all I ever really wanted to do. Make a difference. And I don’t know if I ever did. But I feel like I am now. I feel like these kids can’t help but see the benefits of living sustainably. And they’re fanning out and having influences on all these other people too.’ We stand looking up from the creek towards the students busily going about their work. I can hear a mower in the distance. The belt must be fixed.