Fancy some excellent professional learning in term 3? Come and join us for a hands on look into the new History Syllabus – utilising our unique 1878 classroom and school site on Thursday 28th of July @ Brewongle EEC.
– Sackville Reach Public School: A Site Study
This course aims to build teacher competencies in historical inquiry utilising the unique heritage listed resource Sackville Reach Public School
Early this week we had a moving and special day. We journeyed with Aboriginal students and staff from Arthur Phillip HS, Blacktown Girls HS, St Clair HS and St Mary’s Senior to several rock art sites in the NW Sydney region.
We offer thanks to the Darug Community and Elder Aunty Edna Watson for giving their permission to enter and view these sites. Our guide for the day was Erin Wilkins – Darug woman and Aboriginal Educator with Brewongle EEC and Muru Mittigar.
Erin Wilkins and students discovering kangaroo and shield engraving.
I can think of no better way to celebrate NAIDOC week in schools than to share some of this incredible heritage of the Sydney region with local students. It was profound event for us and we hope the students too. The sites we visited in Canoelands and Maroota are examples of the rich thousand year old sites that are all around us here in the Sydney basin.
To me, a non-Aboriginal man – I was incredibly grateful to visit these sites and witness the power and a little of the way things were in this land for millenia past. Feelings of sadness and shame bubbled up for the destruction of culture and people that occurred in our tainted colonial past.
If you did not have the chance to watch ‘The Secret River’ on ABC TV recently – I would highly recommend this as a confronting and insightful historical fiction of early settlement and Darug Aboriginal cultures on the Hawkesbury River. It is based on a book by Kate Grenville which is a must read also.
I think these sites are as significant to the world as Stonehenge or the Pyramids, but it is a sad reflection on our country that they are mostly forgotten and lost to all but a few of the community. Maybe it is for the best – they are less prone to vandalism and tourism the way they are. They will gradually erode and fade away.
The Darug culture will not – thanks to custodians like Erin and the Darug community who are educating us all of these traditions. We hope students who took part in our program take pride in their culture and value themselves as custodians of culture into the future.
Listen to Uncle Wes Marne tell a story of the Rainbow Serpent at the Canoelands cave site.
And Aunty Edna Watson discuss the Devil’s Rock site at Maroota
Brewongle descended on Cattai National Park this week with the enthusiastic and talented year 7 & 8 students of Norwest Christian College. Geography was the aim of the day and the students spent their time discovering various Geographical field techniques. Cattai National Park is situated on the meandering Hawkesbury River near Pitt Town and has a rich history of Aboriginal and European occupation. The Cattai clan of the Darug people may have lived here for 20,000 years or longer – managing the landscape for its rich resources. The current historic Cattai Farm was originally built by First Fleet surgeon Thomas Arndell and has a rich history of use by his descendents. Visit a great resource of Darug language and culture on the Dharug Dalang website: http://www.dharug.dalang.com.au/Dharug/filedownload/FrontPage.html
Students were greeted by two chubby Kookaburras and numerous Eastern Grey Kangaroos stuck their noses in throughout the day. The piercing blue skies were a perfect backdrop to sit on the wharf and measure various water quality parameters and habitat qualities. Most groups agreed that the water quality was fairly good based on the paramters measured. These included temperature, turbidity, salinity, pH, oxygen and nutrient levels.
Cattai wharf water quality testing
Students also discovered how to use our Go Pro cameras to make short films about the old Arndell House homestead. These videos were very well done! The old water tanks were measured with clinometers and the acidity of the soil in the old vege patch was assessed with our soil kits. We hope that the ‘Race Around the Park’ activity improved your navigation skills and that the garlic bread cooked in our solar ovens filled grumbly stomachs!
Using clinometers to measure heightThe rickety water towersGo pro movie filmingArndell House
It was an avalanche of excited little people here today. 70+ year 2 students descended on Brewongle to discover the secrets of birds, water bugs and schooling in 1878. We were impressed with their enthusiasm, stories and ability to avoid falling in our ponds! How many tadpoles did you catch?
Dip netting for water bugs
It was amazing to discover that we could be quiet while searching for birds and some groups saw honeyeaters, fantails and finches. Great work bird hunters! Many students commented on how much they enjoyed looking for birds and the excitment in the air when we spotted one was palpable…. I hope the students continue to observe birds at school and at home
Bird searchingWhat did you see?
The scariness of the principal in the 1878 classroom was unexpected as were the harsh rules of those days! Students discovered the challenges of writing with ink in copperplate script while trying to avoid the nasty gaze of our well dressed teacher, Robyn. Don’t break the rules or you may receive the cane! Not really though!!!
This furry lumbering giant is one of Australia’s extinct range of Megafauna. It is the largest known marsupial at up to 3.8 metres in length and 1.7m high. It used its large front teeth to brouse on shrubs and provide its name! (di= two, proto= first and odon = teeth). We think it disappeared from the Australian continent around 25,000 years ago (which is pretty recent in the grand scheme of things!).
Why did they disappear? check out the following websites to discover more about these and other extinct megafauna
Parramatta West Public School spent the last two days helping us solve a local mystery about some bones we came across in our travels. Thanks to their scientific skills and large brains we now have solid evidence that we are in possession of a Diprotodon foot bone and some teeth!
The large foot of a Diprotodon optatum
As well as discovering about our unique megafauna students experienced a taste of the tough schooling ways of the early 1900’s in our old classroom, used their literacy skills to decipher an old diary and found out all about the Darug toolkit (how does a boomerang actually come back? and how is a hunting boomerang different to a returning boomerang?)
Brewongle Environmental Education Centre 