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WHEN FOOD BECOMES ART
In the second term of 2018, Council rolled out the ‘Reduce Food
Waste through Art Project’ at Blair Athol North School, St Pius X
Catholic School and Ocean View College. Renowned local artists
Bob Daly and Kalyna Micenko were selected from an exceptional
field of artists to promote the importance of reducing food waste
messages in a creative, innovative, engaging and highly
visible manner.
This project utilised art projects to raise awareness on the
importance of food waste reduction and correct food and
green organics (FOGO) bin usage. The teachers and students
were encouraged to set up composting at home and at school.
Colourful artworks including bin stickers and compost bins (bin
monsters) were created and showcased at art exhibitions held at
the schools.
Artworks will now move to the Civic Centre and libraries to
ensure that there are wider community benefits from this project
and more people can enjoy what has been created. Details of
these exhibitions will be listed on our website and Facebook.
SEMAPHORE FORESHORE
IRRIGATION UPGRADE
In order to increase water efficiency and speed up the recovery
of the grass after large events, we are upgrading the watering
system along Semaphore Foreshore. The upgrade will involve
sections of the grass on the foreshore from Coppin Street to
the Palais being fenced off in large sections. The shared path and
playground will be open throughout the works.
The new irrigation system will have better distribution uniformity,
which means the irrigation will evenly water and only use the
required amount of water to sustain the site. This will lead to
better efficiencies and lower ongoing maintenance costs for this
popular public space. Work will be complete by the end
of September.
PLENTY OF PLANTINGS
Wet weather has not deterred our community from getting
involved in tree planting around the City. For Arbor Day in
June, more than 160 community members worked together to
increase the number of native plants along a 280m stretch of
riverbank near Beefacres Reserve on Pittwater Drive,Windsor
Gardens, planting native species including pigface, wattle, saltbush,
daisy and grasses. Over 3,500 plants were lovingly planted in an
area which had experienced tree loss due to higher water flow in
the Torrens during 2016. There was also a tree trail to follow, to
help families learn about the trees native to the area, plus hands
on activities for children.
Another popular part of the event was a workshop by ABC
Gardening presenter Sophie Thompson, who demonstrated how
to build a native bee B’n’B, so that residents can watch these
interesting creatures at home, as well as improve the overall
numbers of native bees in the area. Native bees help with the
pollination of fruit and vegetables, and a bee B’n’B can attract
blue-banded bees, masked bees, leafcutter bees and resin bees.
Encouraging the 60 residents who attended the workshops to
build their own B’n’B at home will improve the conservation
prospects for native flora and fauna.
National Tree Day events were then held on Friday 27 and
Sunday 29 July.The Friday event was at Almond Tree Flat Reserve
in Largs Bay, during which the entire Year Two group and a
Year 7 Environment Studies class joined in to plant more than
600 natives on the reserve. The more than 100 students were
assisted with the planting by the Prospect Rotary Club who also
provided a BBQ lunch for the busy green thumbs. The Sunday
event was held at Whitehollow Reserve in Taperoo. This is the
fourth consecutive year that Tree Day plantings have occurred on
this site. 1400 native tubestock were successfully planted on this
site by the keen community members who turned out despite it
being a rainy day.
We all have an important part to play in ensuring our natural
environment is protected and improved and we are always
looking for exciting new ways to get the community involved in
looking after and protecting our natural environment and helping
us create a greener, more liveable City.
Julia with Phoebe and Arlo