The idyllic rock pools of Eyre Peninsula’s Greenly Beach on South Australia’s west coast have become a mecca for campers and tourists since the pandemic, but it has come at a price.
Fragile pockets of vegetation have been trampled and guard fencing damaged — an unwanted souvenir as tourists tick off a bucket list swim in the crystal-clear rock pools.
COVID travel restrictions increased the number of visitors travelling to pristine areas in South Australia.
The caravans may have slowed over winter but the damage was done.
Now a group of young people were rolling up their sleeves to fix it.
Greenly Beach was a playground and a classroom for the 60 students from nearby Lake Wangary School.
Over the past three years the small, rural school developed a unique, curriculum-based learning program called Minya Custodians.
One focus of the program was on repairing damage and protecting the Greenly area.
Minya Custodians ticked maths and English goals in the classroom while shaping the next generation of environmentalists.
School principal Wade Branford said Minya Custodians capitalised on the school’s location in a pristine part of Australia.
Teacher Luke Rowe said the students took pride in their community.
“The main goal of it was to connect kids with country, culture and custodianship and we are doing that, and it is just amazing to see what these kids are doing around the environment and how protective they are now of this environment,” Mr Rowe said.
Student surveys, signs encourage change
The school traditionally had a green focus but its work had become more important recently.
For eight years it worked with Coastcare to collect seeds, grow seedlings and plant 1,000 trees annually along the fringe of the windswept Greenly cliffs area.
But some of those plantings were destroyed by tourists accidentally driving on them.
“We’ve come out and investigated damage due to excessive camping and a lack of rules and regulations,” Mr Rowe said.
“We then visited Coffin Bay National Park and we spoke to park rangers and an ecologist out there to look at what best practice might be.
“Today we’re out applying some of what we learnt.”
The students designed a three-bay camping area based on national parks standards.
They recorded details of the area’s vegetation, including native and invasive species.
They planted seedlings and lined parking bays with limestone rocks.
Lower Eyre Coastcare chair Kerryn McEwan said the students were leading the way.
“The school has been doing some great work with sustainable camping,” Ms McEwan said.
“They’ve done some great surveys of the campers out at Greenly Beach. They’re great little ambassadors for camping sustainably.
“The school and the kids are spreading that message about not leaving behind a footprint when you’re camping.”
Mr Branford said the Minya Custodians was an empowering learning tool.
“Our goal is to effect governance, which we have done,” Mr Branford said.
“At Greenly we’ve now got two signs up there that we designed that say leave only footprints and we’re also involved in developing the caravan park and helping create an area where the environment is not damaged.”
Student Tiernan Fealt said human impact outside of defined camp sites was a problem.
“When we first got here there was no vegetation all around the sides of the campsite, so we’ve added rocks and vegetation so people don’t go crazy all over the vegetation.
“We had a sign saying beware of campground creep which is when people go running or driving all over the vegetation.”
Mr Rowe said the school was brainstorming a catchy phrase to help stop campground creep.
“That was a term that was used by the national parks and so the kids are going to have some fun designing some persuasive posters with those too,” Mr Rowe said.
“We’re determined to stop the campsites from creeping out and becoming bigger and bigger.”
Confidence boost for students
Minya Custodians has helped some students focus.
“The kids are just learning and they’re thirsting for this,” Mr Branford said.
“We go out there and we give all the kids the necessary tools, we have bum bags, with a tool kit with everything from compasses to tweezers, to measuring tapes, so they can actually get in and look at things closely.”
Year 5 student Kayden Roach enjoyed the excursions.
“We get to investigate places, like we are scientists and I just love researching,” he said.
Minya Custodians also provided cultural knowledge.
“Greenly is a quite a significant [cultural] area. There was trading done there many years ago by the Nauo people and [an anthropologist] was able to show us that very clearly and very easily which was amazing,” Mr Branson said.
“One of the great things that’s come from it is wellbeing, the wellbeing that we really didn’t pay that much attention to when it came to the planning, it just followed.”
Mr Rowe said his students were “very happy to be here”.
Ms McEwan said the school’s plant nursery had been upgraded and she hoped 3,000 seedlings could be grown and planted at Greenly next year by the students and community.
Coastcare volunteers held an annual planting day where community members plant ot the school’s seedlings.
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