By JESSE GRAHAM
BUDDING green-thumbs from Healesville Primary School took to Queens Park earlier this month, plants in hands, to improve the world around them as part of a yearly program.
The planting, organised by Healesville Environment Watch Incorporated (HEWI), saw Grade 3 students team up with workers from Cummins Filtration to plant 2000 plants in the park on Friday 19 June.
Indigenous plants, provided through the Yarra Ranges Council, were planted along the Wirrup Yaluk creek in the park, where platypuses have been spotted recently.
The Cummins Filtration staff, who have worked with HEWI and the school on the project for the last four years, acted as buddies for the students as they made their way through the planting.
HEWI secretary Maureen Bond said that this year’s planting marked 15 years of work as part of the council’s Grace Burn Project and 17,000 indigenous plants planted through the project.
The project has seen plantings take place at three Healesville waterways, in order to protect and improve the natural environment.
To end the day, Melbourne Water provided a barbecue lunch for all.
In an email to the Mail, Ms Bond said the students would return next year for an invertebrate discovery activity with Waterwatch volunteers from HEWI and Landscare.
“This helps them to understand how their planting protects all the creatures living in those waterways,” Ms Bond wrote.
