Exeter will soon be home to 575 more trees thanks to a major planting effort from students across the region. Video by Aaron Smith (31/7/24)
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00:00This wonderful collaboration we're seeing here is part of our Trees on Farms program,
00:04so we're supporting schools across the state, particularly those with school farms, and
00:08it's all about matching educational opportunities through the Australian curriculum with opportunities
00:14for students to be out in the field learning about the role of trees in the agricultural
00:19landscapes and the many benefits that they bring.
00:22We've got a number of varieties, we've got some paperbarks and some tea trees, and particularly
00:26for attracting the insects, the birds, the pollinators.
00:30We then have a variety of commercial species, including the eucalyptus nitans and the eucalyptus
00:37globulus, our Tasmanian blue gum, as well as some radiata pine and some blackwood.
00:42So as the project evolves and students come through the school, there'll be opportunities
00:47to be involved in things like thinning and pruning and just sort of cultivating and looking
00:51after those trees for different purposes in the future.
00:55So we've got our 14 Year 11-12 students here this morning, and then we've got our 10 students
01:01from both of our primary school feeder schools.
01:03So Exeter Primary School and Beaconsfield Primary are our main feeder primary schools,
01:07so it's really important that we've got some of the future.
01:11So we've got our Grade 5-6s that, by the time they're in Year 11 and 12, the trees will
01:15be quite tall growing with them, so it'd be really nice, and they'll have that ownership
01:18so when they're here having an interview about another project, they'll be able to go,
01:23Oh, look at what I did five years ago with you.
01:25We're all aware, I think, that the globe's changing.
01:29It's getting warmer, we've got these freak weather events, and I think the students that
01:35are younger than me and younger than us that are standing here, is they are keen to look
01:40after the land, and it's going to be really important for us going forward.
01:45So giving them those skills and getting them just interested in the first place, I don't
01:50have all the answers, but my job as a teacher is to connect them with people that do have
01:55some of the answers, and get them keen about getting a job in this industry, and yeah,
02:02the planet's going to need it in years to come.
02:05Agriculture's been in my life a very long time, and ever since I went from being in
02:10primary school to this high school and I found out that there was a Year 11-12 course, I
02:14was like, I'm not going to any other college, staying at Exeter and living out my passion.
02:19It's great, it's good for hands-on, it's also why I decided to come here, I'm not really
02:25a town girl, so being on the farm and helping out with livestock and all that, it's really
02:29great.
02:30You get heaps of opportunities and windows open for you, and yeah, you learn heaps because
02:37it's not just you plan it and you're done, there's so much more to it.
02:41You learn about how it helps the farm, but also the soil and all that.
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