Primary Excursions for Term 4

Have you immersed your students in nature this year? We would love to help you with your next excursion and have a range of new and existing programs in a variety of subject areas to inspire, engage and enhance the learning of your students.

As an added bonus – all visiting teachers will receive 4hrs (BOSTES registered) field work professional learning!

Our NSW Environmental Education Centres are all staffed by trained teachers who have a passion for outdoor learning and specialist skills environmental and sustainability education.

Prices listed are for Public Schools only.

Stage 1

Program	Syllabus	Price
Reptile Recon.	Science & Tech – Natural Environment: Living World	$10/student
Past in the Present	History – The Past in the Present	$10/student
Where is Nessy (Incursion)	Science & Tech – Natural Environment: Living World	Flat Day Rate – $500 (max 60 students)

 

Stages 2 & 3

Program	Syllabus	Price
Aboriginal Education	History – First Contacts, Community and Remembrance	$15/student (includes Aboriginal Presenter)
Aboriginal Education (Incursion)	History – First Contacts, Community and Remembrance	Flat Day Rate – $900 (max 90 students, includes Aboriginal Presenter) Call Brewongle for Details
Barefoot Lawrence	History – First Contacts, Community and Remembrance	$10/student
Tawny Tragedy	Science & Tech- Natural Environment: Living World / Working Scientifically	$10/student
PhotoVoice (Incursion)	Visual Arts & Literacy	Flat Day Rate – $500 (max 60 students)
Art in the Environment (Incursion)	Creative Arts & Science & Tech: Living World	Flat Day Rate – $500 (max 60 students)

In addition to our day programs and incursions, we also have camp facilities and programs for school groups.

Please phone Brewongle on 02 45 79 1136 for further information or to have one of our staff present at your staff meeting.

Warawi Yana Nura – Art, Acknowledgements and Creativity

Our Aboriginal student leadership program continued today here at Brewongle EEC. Students got their smocks on and let the artistic talent flow. We saw some amazing designs as we worked on some rather large animals. Using a combination of symbols, dots, hand prints and other techniques – we now have some very impressive large paintings to put up!

Erin Wilkins – our Darug educator also helped students develop their own acknowledgment of country. Students are now taking a leadership role within their schools and reading acknowledgments at school events. The Aboriginal Representative Council at Blacktown Girls High is in full swing and I look forward to hearing of their initiatives.

Thanks so much to all participants and have a great holiday everyone.

Aboriginal Student Leadership

Warrawi Yana Nura – Aboriginal Student Cultural Leadership

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

Bloody battles and new life – the story of the Waratah

Chris Tobin is a local Darug Aboriginal man, artist and educator who we sometimes manage to lure out to Brewongle. We love hearing his stories and feel privileged to learn of his cultural knowledge. Chris recently created some beautiful artwork on one of our grey gums during the Engaging Visions artists workshop. Enjoy this short video as he relates the story of the waratah via his artwork with bellbirds in the background and the majestic Hawkesbury River as a backdrop. Notice the contributions of the grey gum via some macabre leaking sap and look closely for the goanna claw marks on the tree.

Camping with James Erskine PS part two!

We just enjoyed another camp with the fine students from JEPS. Thanks to all students, staff and parents from this lovely school for all your contributions over the two days. Enjoy the following gallery of photos! Click on the link to view them online.

Some links that may be useful as follow up on some of our lessons:

Dharug Dalang for Dharug language – http://www.dharug.dalang.com.au/Dharug/filedownload/FrontPage.html

First Footprints – and excellent documentary and website on Aboriginal Australia – http://www.abc.net.au/tv/firstfootprints/

Birds in Backyards to learn more about the nesting grey shrike thrushes – http://www.birdsinbackyards.net/species/Colluricincla-harmonica

The University of Western Sydney Solar car team – https://www.facebook.com/?ref=tn_tnmn#!/UWSSolarCar?hc_location=stream

and the world solar car challenge they are entering in – http://www.worldsolarchallenge.org/

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Aboriginal Art and Artefacts with Kurrajong North PS

Another perfect spring day greeted our visit to Kurrajong North PS. Perched on the escarpment with views to Sydney, this school is very pleasing to the eye! This area was the home of the Kurrajong Clan of the Darug Nation and students enjoyed the stories and knowledge from Flinn Donovan our Aboriginal Educator. Flinn has a captivating style and all students were engrossed in his presentation.

Some items in the Darug toolkit

They also discovered the joys of body art as they painted arms and faces with multi coloured ochre. Students utilised the different Aboriginal symbols used by some of the desert tribes as they decorated each other and enjoyed becoming really grubby!

We were very impressed with the artistic skills of the older students who rendered some stories using symbols and sand art without making the library too messy!

Some useful links for Aboriginal resources and information

Dharug Dalang – a great language website:  http://www.dharug.dalang.com.au/Dharug/filedownload/FrontPage.html

First Footprints – an ABC documentary: http://www.abc.net.au/tv/firstfootprints/

Hills Sports Climbing High

data collection in the forest

Year 11 Senior Science from The Hills Sports High were at the top of their game when completing a study of the open forest adjacent to Turnbulls lagoon, Sackville North.
We travelled to our field site, determined that the ecosystem type was in fact open forest, dug some dirt, climbed to the ridge top and avoided the jumping ants.

The students decided the Western Sydney Dry Rainforest was in fairly healthy condition with plenty of habitat elements.

As an aside – did you know that Western Sydney Dry Rainforest has recently been listed as endangered? This vegetation class is on the brink of extinction.

The students had a close look at the Lagoon too. After testing for many abiotic parameters like oxygen, salinity, nitrates, phosphates and ammonia they concluded that the water was good quality and passed water quality guidelines all but for saturated oxygen.

These students impressed us here at Brewongle with their skills in understanding the local environment. They served themselves and their school well. Top work folks!

Geography in the field @ Cattai National Park with Norwest Christian College

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 height

The rickety water towers

Go pro movie filming

Arndell House

Byala Yana Nura – Stand tall, Walk tall in Country

Byala Yana Nura – Stand tall, Walk tall in Country

Brewongle has recently established a partnership with Greening Australia to regenerate a section of the Hawkesbury River at Sackville North. This is part of a larger project that has many sites along the Hawkesbury Nepean River system.

Our centre has utilised the generosity of many local landholders over the years and now we have a chance help them restore some weed infested riparian areas. Below Brewongle on the river is the old Methodist and later Uniting church and graveyard that is now in private ownership. The owners, Lauren and Simon Jones are extremely enthusiastic to involve students on their site and have welcomed a grant that will target bamboo, lantana and balloon vine problems along the riverbank.

Blue Tongue Ecosystems are local bush regenerators who will be overseeing the work and Brewongle will be engaging local schools to help in the process of weed removal and planting. Students will gain an in depth knowledge of local species and weed problems as well as learning how to manage riparian areas along the tidal section of the Hawkesbury.

We plan for this to be an ongoing project that will involve many schools. Some will be kayaking to the site as part of our adventure conservation program which has now been named ‘Byala Yana Nura’ which means ‘stand, walk in country’ in the Darug language.

Join us to help restore our valuable river systems and give your students a strong connection to country and learning experience. Please contact us at Brewongle via email.

brewongle-e.admin@det.nsw.edu.au

Mega discoveries and Megafauna

The Diprotodon optatum

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

http://australianmuseum.net.au/Diprotodon-optatum

http://www.abc.net.au/science/ozfossil/megafauna/fauna/default.htm

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?)

Some items in the Darug toolkit