PROSPER Coffs Harbour Limited is using a $22,086 grant from the Australian Government’s Black Summer Bushfire Recovery Grants Program to deliver Bushfire Education Workshops in thirteen primary schools in the Coffs Harbour Local Government Area to help children feel less anxious about bushfires.

The workshops will run until October 2023 and the first one was recently held at the Gumbaynggirr Giingana Freedom School – the first bilingual Aboriginal language school in NSW.

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Each workshop consists of a presentation by the NSW Rural Fire Service and an opportunity for children to participate in building nesting boxes.

Workshop facilitators, Jamie Bertram from the NSW Rural Fire Service and Nathan Brennan from Bularri Muurlay Nyanggan Aboriginal Corporation (BMNAC), took the children through the ecology of bushfires, cultural bushfire practices and wildlife preservation.

Students learned about ‘good’ and ‘bad’ fires, the behaviour of fires across the Australian landscape and cultural bushfire practices.

The presentation helped to create a greater understanding of bushfires and ease student anxiety around the concept of bushfires, with greater knowledge of bushfire preparedness and how to mitigate risks.

As part of the workshop, the children used creative arts to build nesting boxes for a range of native animals such as brush tail possums, small parrots, and kookaburras.

The nesting boxes will help to provide homes for wildlife displaced due to habitat loss.

Children are able to monitor visitors to the nesting boxes through a surveillance camera, meaning that they will be able to stay connected and engaged with the program.

Local Recovery Support Officer, Jan Rooney, who attended the workshop, spoke about how the Black Summer bushfires impacted the North Coast region of NSW and the benefits of the workshops that went beyond the children to include their families and broader community.

“Not only will this program increase young people’s knowledge about fire ecology and preparedness, it will also allow them to learn about native animals and their habitat.

“They can then take this knowledge home and share it with their families,” she said.

By Andrew VIVIAN