The community plants together.

After the ceremony of the morning, parents and students, staff and community were asked to join in, dig in, turn the earth and plant trees. It was a great sight to see so many planting for the future and beginning the growth of the Green. Special thanks to those fathers, mothers and grandparents who came today bringing plants for windbreaks, citrus for the orchard and elbow grease for the hard yakka!

Big Red

Dennis Clarke our longtime A.P., kids champion and big burly good bloke returned to Halinda from long service leave momentarily to plant an Australian Red Ceder tree. A gigantic, legendary, rare tree to mark the beginning of our garden and the presence of a big hearted man. With a personal and working history intricately bound to the school in its old location and in its new one, Dennis plants for the future. He planted with soil from the old school site to mark a continuation of tradition.

A place of peace.

I would like to thank all those who have helped make the vision of Halinda Green begin as a reality. As I said in thanking Uncle Wes today 'this will be a place for gardening, learning, meeting and forging community links, and it is a place of peace'. I believe gardens can do this.

Mathew Dollisson

Cultural Custodians on the Green

Uncle Wes, an Elder of the Darug, came today and performed the Darug smoking ceremony to begin to cleanse, welcome and heal the land and the community of Halinda Green. He burnt the freshly chosen fronds of a precious local plant to make smoke. The whole school walked through it, circling through the meeting place. Students, parents, staff and community members took part and enjoyed the experience. Good will was felt. It highlights links to this area. The land will continue to sustain people as it has done over the vast history of the Darug and will once again host plants known now as Cumberlain plain species. Plants which Uncle Wes told us have cultural histories that carry on. They are part of our story too now and we are part of theirs. We must be mindful of the importance of the nature around us and the cultures that live by it.

Busy Hands Digging

After a frosty morning setting up the meeting circle, classes came out to dig some holes for the days' planting. Students shone as enthusiastic workers on the Green! The garden brings out the best of practical abilities in the kids. The soil is hard to dig, very hard. But it was ripper to see students getting stuck into the task, which didn't seem like a task, but fun.

Hay for the winds

30 bales of hay arrived today. That's 30 bales of protection for the garden + trees. The Green is a very wind prone site and to establish our first wind break the plants will need the help of a wind break of their own. The bales are an extra bit of protection from wind evaporation too. But first they will be used for our official tree day, marking a ceremonial meeting place at the heart of the garden.

Blacktown City Council Trees

Plants arrived today from the Blacktown City Council Tree Program. Thanks to a forward thinking Council for this initiative to provide trees for schools, and thanks to all staff of Halinda who signed over & donated their residential allocation of plants to kickstart the schools native garden !

Thanks from the Halinda Green Project !

Gates have Opened

We have had a gate installed today. This solves access issues and sets us up for a fine round of preparations for the garden stage of green projects. Thanks to John and Peter who worked very hard for long hours to clear a path through years of encrusted soil and weed growth. Hard slog that will allow easier passage of bikes to the track and wheelchairs to the future sensory garden.

The pace is picking up and things are developing each day.

Thumbs Up from Track Inspection Crew

Students wasted no time getting out onto the track today. First day back students stretched their limbs in the sun and got rolling around the new bike track. Smiles all around and big thumbs up !

Things are happening on the track! The Rotary organised roadbase was poured today. Men at work dropping a track down, then rolling got underway. It's great to see the plan coming together.

Moving the Earth

Up bright and breezy this morning and Mick from Rotary was at the ready with a backhoe to shift the earth for us. It was great to see the first soil turned on the track. The soil here looks good too. It will provide landscaping for safety zones and a good base for our garden.

On your marks

Our garden will be fringed with a school bike track. Today we marked out the circuit on the ground. The track will provide the school with a fantastic area for our students to practice bike safety and road sense. It will also provide wheelchair access for our special needs and high support students.

Topsoil is more precious than oil

There are other projects going on around the school at the moment, such as the installation of a wheelchair swing ! The excavations for which mean some topsoil is for the taking !

Topsoil is the stuff we all rely on for nutrients.

Erosion, development and land degradation due to poor land use all make soil vital to hold onto and nurture. So when there was some about we jump at the chance.

Fertile Beginnings

July holidays have given us a good chance to go for a trip to the horse stables of Hawkesbury to load up with well composted manure. It was cool and foggy when we got there, it rained on us too ! But the horses were out on the track already and they had left us plenty of nuggets of wisdom to shovel. Thanks to Ms Singleton's son for the supplies. Thanks to Mr Clarke for use of his 4WD and trailer and his time. This big haul of fertility will kickstart our garden plot terrifically !