By Mikayla van Loon
After 15 years of being overgrown, Birmingham Primary School reopened its extensive frog ponds area last week.
The seven ponds connected by running streams were designed by the students of the school in 2004 to represent each year level but over the years the space became neglected and unusable.
Principal Trish Enzinger said it was great to watch the gardens being brought back to life by the community building team who put quite a lot of effort into reinvigorating the gardens.
“It is our intention that this space be used as an outdoor classroom, as a place for students to sit in quiet observation noticing creatures who it is home to and hopefully, in the future, somewhere that local kindergarten students can come and enjoy too,” she said.
Ms Enzinger said learning about the Indigenous plants and how to care for the environment is very much in line with the school’s global and sustainability studies, something the ponds will only assist in teaching.
As part of the reopening celebrations, students were able to learn about the history of the ponds from former staff member Trevor Gibbs, hear from Parks Victoria about the local environment and be introduced to some reptile friends thanks to the Lilydale High School reptile program.
Birmingham’s student leaders said they hoped this regeneration of the frog ponds area could be their contribution to mother nature.
Community building team project lead for the school Saskia Granger said the reinvigoration took around 10 months to complete, with parents helping to slowly chip away restoring the area.
“We weren’t aware of how many ponds were in here, it was that thick. We didn’t know the paths were in here. It took us weeks to find the streams. We didn’t even realise there were streams connecting to each other,” she said.
“So it was as overgrown as you can imagine and it had lost its natural balance. So the ponds had all overgrown, the rushes were all too thick and we just had to slowly bring it back.”
Ms Granger said all the wildlife present in the frog ponds area as all come of its own accord, nothing has been introduced.
“We’ve tried to balance the food sources so the birds will have a natural food source and don’t have to go anywhere else to get it,” she said.
Respecting nature and the need to care for nature on a small scale and a larger scale goes hand in hand Ms Granger said.
“Our kids understand that our planet needs us more than ever. So generationally to have them on board looking after our own pocket, looking at a smaller picture that can contribute to a bigger picture.”
With donations from various local nurseries in Mount Evelyn and the supply of gardening tools, as well as the countless hours of work the community building team put in and the contribution from staff, Ms Engzinger said she was extremely grateful for the community’s efforts.
“We are so proud of what we’ve achieved or not what we’ve achieved but what our parents and staff have achieved. I think it is an absolute credit to us, to you and to our school and we are so lucky to have that,” Ms Enzinger said.
“This will be such a great legacy for our school and we just couldn’t have done it without your support and your driving force Saskia and also all the support from the parents in the community building team.”
