Education Australia Project #10910

Improve facilities for young people and volunteers

by Wollangarra Outdoor Education Centre

Project Report | Dec 3, 2012
Wollangarra project update 2

By Will Ford | Wollangarra Council

Shaping verandah beams with an adze

As you can see from the photos below, we've made some great progress on our outdoor kitchen facility since the last report. At a recent work party, we completed the roof frame and installed some very solid sleeper walls.

We have an incredible team of volunteers who regularly give up their weekends to make this project a reality. We'd like to thank them for their time, dedication and enthusiasm. Our next opportunity to get some more work done on the outdoor kitchen will be at the annual Fruit Bottling weekend on January 19-20. We invite everyone to come along and get involved in either the bottling or the building!

Young people who come to Wollangarra get to experience a simple way of life where the effects of their actions are obvious. They leave behind their mobile phones, watches and timetables. They get to bake bread, split wood, tend the veggie garden, collect the eggs and light the fire. They get the opportunity to contribute in a meaningful way and feel like a valued member of the community.

Here's what one of our program participants had to say about Wollangarra:

'I never really realised what this whole 'nature' thing was about. Bird watching? Bushwalking? Camp food? It just isn't me! I was your typical no-nature gal! I didn't have anything to do with it and it didn't have anything to do with me. Until now. This week I realised that in actual fact I have no choice in the connection between us. My actions affect my environment whether I want them to or not. I cannot be detached from the things around me any longer. After what I saw I don't want to be either. I won't claim that I'm going home and will never use electricity or flushing loos again but I can honestly say that I will go home a little more aware of what I do. I've heard all this talk about the 'environmental crisis' and all the 'disasters' and 'catastrophes' that occur and I just thought it was someone else's problem. It was all a bit much for a teenage city gal like me. Wollangarra has given me the belief that I can do something. Beyond that in fact. I understand that I do do something - for better or for worse. So I may as well make that thing positive.'

Thanks for your support and we hope to see you up at Wollangarra some time soon.

Regards,

Will

Dusk on the building site

'Wozza' the tractor

Volunteers Jamie and John working on the roof

Building a sleeper wall while the dog supervises

Some great progress made on walls and roof

Links:

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Sep 21, 2012
Wollangarra project update

By Will Ford | Wollangarra Council

Raising the ridge beam

Thanks to your support, Wollangarra has raised $4,475 this month and earned a permanent spot on GlobalGiving.

Here are a few photos showing the progress we've made on our outdoor kitchen facility throughout the year.

Things take time at Wollangarra. We don't have any electricity or generators, so we use mainly hand tools. Most of the materials we use are second hand, having been donated, purchased or salvaged from old houses that are being demolished in the area. The only new materials we use are things like cement, paint and nails, but often we straighten out old bent nails and use them again.

We also use timber from the property, cut straight out of the bush. This in itself is a great lesson in cause and effect. Often young people don't even think about how much wood goes into building a house, but at Wollangarra, it's obvious.

All of the materials we bring in have to be carted up a little track and then sent across the river on our famous flying fox. It's pretty hard yakka, especially when it comes to lugging railway sleepers around. Helping with a project like this gives young people a real appreciation of just how rewarding a hard day's work can be.

Everyone who works on the project is a volunteer. We don't employ professional tradesmen or labourers, so when you donate to Wollangarra you know that your hard earned dollars are going straight towards purchasing stuff that we really need, and keeping our course fees affordable in the process.

A big thank you to the following donors for their support: Ivan Mort, Lucy Labram, Andrew McLeod, Sarah Carter, Sandie McKoy, Yvonne Thompson, Julie Wilson, Stuart Thompson, Geordie McCallum, Anna Moscovitch, Kurt Neville, Tess Macrae, Eliza Barlow, Paul Nichol, Shinead McLaurin, Rob Cowan, Matt Davidson, Carmel O'Brien, Jess McMahon, Dan Abikhair, Clare Bennetts, Hannah Ford, Matt Gray, Lucy Hunt, Catherine Allison, Russell Gladigau, Josie McLachlan, Chris Balmford, Andrew Parsons, Al Macrae, Emma Dean, Bonnie McWilliam, Russell Smith, Ross Davis, John Brydon, Eliza Zanuso, Jim Phillipson, Suz Christison, Helen Collins, George Georgiou, Ross Richards, Kev McGennan, Kathleen Collins, Brad Woods, Hedge Thompson, Bill Bainger, David Collins, Riss Robbins, Elizabeth and our three anonymous donors (you know who you are!).

Regards,

The Wollangarra Team

Working on the roof

The old cement mixer at work

Putting in the sleeper walls

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