Back to the beach
Griffith staff and students are working to whip up community interest in caring for the Gold Coast beaches through a series of hands-on programs for people of all ages.
The teams from Centre for Coastal Management and School of Environment will step up their community work next year, following an injection of federal Envirofund dollars, including $10,000 for its CoastEd program to provide 200 dune vegetation education kits for school-aged children, $42,000 for ReefCheck, a community reef monitoring program, $20,000 to extend the BeachCare community beach rehabilitation program, and $6000 for a beach ecology program involving the local community.
Coast Ed project manager Sally Kirkpatrick said more than 2800 students from 48 schools as far away as Charleville in rural Queensland and Ballina in New South Wales took part in Coast Ed each year, supported by funding from Gold Coast City Council, SEQ Catchments and also by Friends of Federation Walk.
She said the students - and teachers - learnt about coastal engineering processes and the importance of Indigenous vegetation in stabilising dunes, preventing erosion and providing habitat for local wildlife.
"Take-up from schools has been encouraging," she said. "Most of our schools are from the greater Brisbane and Gold Coast area, but some more remote schools are now making an annual trip to be involved."
The Coast Ed team has also worked with SEQ Catchments and National Heritage Trust to produce a series of lesson plan kits for teachers.
"The kits are tailored for Years 1-12, in line with Education Queensland curriculum guidelines," Sally said.
"A lot of these can be adapted to suit coastal areas throughout Queensland for students who can't get to the Gold Coast.
"The schools realise the importance of sparking students' interest in science and conservation issues at an early age. The best way to do this is to get them involved in reallife projects outside the classroom.
"It's also great exercise - particularly when it comes to ripping out weeds!"