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Orford Primary School is
a small, rural school situated in Orford on the east coast of Tasmania,
approximately 85 km North-east of Hobart. The school is located around
200 metres from Millington's Beach Coastal Reserve where spectacular
views of Maria Island can be seen.
For more information about the school,
click on the bandicoot.
The Project
In 1996, students from Orford
Primary School discovered a dead bandicoot in the school grounds. Steve
Mallick from Tasmanian National Parks and Wildlife was contacted and it
was soon discovered that the Eastern Barred Bandicoot, although considered
a threatened species over most of Australia, had something of a haven in
Orford and some other parts of Tasmania. The degraded coastal reserve nearby
was identified as a major habitat area for the animal and after contacting
Coastcare funding was made available to rehabilitate the reserve and help
to secure the bandicoot population. Feral plants have been identified and
removed. The university of Tasmania has mapped the position of old established
pines and Australian Conservation Trust Volunteers are contributing to
the site's maintenance. A management plan for the are has been developed
in consultation with the community
The Bandicoots at
the Beach Project is a focus for a school wide integrated study focussing
on the key SOSE strand of place and space. With the bandicoot as an icon
for all living things in the coastal environment the intention is to make
environmental education an everyday part of school culture and curriculum..
Through field work, site rehabilitation and ongoing routine maintenance
conducted by children from the school, the boundaries of classrooms have
been extended into the environment.
The Future
While work up to now has focussed on the Eastern Barred Bandicoot as a symbol for the local environment and the maintenance of the rehabilitated site is now part of school culture, attention is beginning to shift to new areas for investigation. Some of the possibilities discussed have been:
- shore birds
- history of area
- marine environment
- Aboriginal history connected with middens in the reserve
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