Lara Primary kids paint Rock Monsters to save Serendip
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| India Heffernen: Saving Serendip with "Rock Monsters" |
Spurred on by a love of Serendip, Lara schoolgirls raise funds to help the Sanctuary by selling Rock Monsters
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"Our animals"
India Heffernen, a Year 6 Lara Primary student, was saddened when she discovered recently that the Tawny Frogmouths at Serendip had been removed by Parks Victoria.
“I don’t know why they would do that to our animals.” she said.
India reflects the way the Lara community feels.
Lara made Serendip. The animals are ours, not as owners in a traditional sense, but as a community that shared in creating a home for them - over a generation!
Now the children of Lara are fighting back…. by painting Rock Monsters to save Serendip.
What is a Rock Monster?
The Rock Monster idea began when two Lara Primary girls decided to raise money to protect Serendip. Their plan was simple (but hard work): paint smiling faces on hundreds of coloured rocks and sell them.
And it worked!
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| A Serendip Rock Monster |
India explains: “We sold rocks for $2 each for the whole term, three days a week - at lunch and recess - and we made a lot of money.”
Hundreds of Lara Primary students, keen to support Serendip, lined up in the playground to buy the girls’ Rock Monsters. At last count they had raised $227 and donated it all to Lara Care Group’s Save Serendip campaign.
(The Rock Monster collaboration was a Lara Primary School "Passion Project")
Why choose Serendip?
“Me and my family have been to Serendip and I love all the birds and the wildlife there and so does my friend,” said India, “So we thought Serendip would be a good place [to donate to], it’s close by and we don’t have to travel far to get there.”
India learned about owls from one of the Ranger talks at Serendip “There was a lady who talked about owls and I really love them now.”
Those owls were the Tawny Frogmouths displayed in the walk-through aviary at Serendip. Sadly, these remarkable birds - that helped India discover the world of wildlife - have now been removed by Parks Victoria, along with nearly all the displayed wildlife at Serendip.
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| India beside her beloved Tawny Frogmouth and family at the Apco servo (left to right: Mum, Stacey, brothers, Connor & Liam) |
No-one knows where they have gone; the entire removal was carried out secretly, without consulting the Lara community, after a sham public consultation process
The young people of Lara have had no say in this. They have lost an invaluable learning resource that lives on in the hearts and minds of tens of thousands of people who discovered Serendip as children.
Serendip’s display wildlife is part of growing up in Lara
For the past 35 years Serendip Sanctuary has helped students gain an appreciation of Australian wildlife. By getting up close and personal kids learned to respect and appreciate wildlife.
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| Youngster in a pram learning about the endangered Bustard (photo courtesy of a Lara resident) |
Many people who grew up in Lara now have children of their own who love to visit and learn about wildlife at Serendip.
And it’s not only local kids who’ve learned at Serendip. Thousands of students from other parts of Victoria, Australia and the world have discovered the importance of nature conservation and wildlife at Serendip.
For years Lara students had classes at Serendip and, in an extraordinary international connection, they made wildlife videos that they shared with other schools and students around the world.
Serendip is a part of Lara’s identity
People of Lara have a deep connection with Serendip; it’s more than a bush block, its “feel” is a palpable part of the community's identity. All of us, in one way or another, have been deeply involved in nurturing, caring and learning at the Sanctuary, many from early childhood.
Our social clubs, our banks, local industries and volunteers have all played a part in the making of Serendip
Ask anyone who grew up in Lara about how they feel about the removal of the wildlife and they are at first stunned then shocked, then angry. Even people who moved into the region recently respond in the same way.
Parks Victoria has desecrated our heritage
Now that Parks Vic has removed all the display wildlife, what is left for the kids of Lara? As India implies, why remove the heart and soul of a community?
Parks Victoria does not own Serendip, it acts on behalf of the community, and it has ignored us and desecrated a place that we as a community have loved and supported for a generation.
We are angry and we will not let you get away with it.
If you’d like a Rock Monster of your own let us know in the comments
Read this for more information:
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Join Lara Care Group
Please click here: Join the Lara Care Group
Write to Ella George, our local Member of Parliament: Here's how you can do that.
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NOTES on this Newsletter
- This is an ongoing series of updates about Serendip direct from the Lara Care Group.
- We will publish these stories regularly and post them on social media.
- To follow this blog go to: saveserendip.blogspot.com
- Your comments are welcome (be nice 😊please)
Parks Victoria have done us a huge disservice by removing the animals from the wildlife walk. They had been looking after those animals well in the past, so there's no reason to assume they couldn't keep employing a ranger to continue to feed and care for the animals, continue the ranger talks, continue to care for Serendip, continue to run the volunteer programs, continue plantings and monitoring the native wildlife and continue all the other aspects of Serendip Sanctuary. They have been given funding from the Gov, yet are spending less on the upkeep of Serendip, including reducing costs by removing the endangered species breeders. Why the bad management now? They'd been doing a good job previously. Why now? Does Parks Vic need a change of management?
ReplyDeleteWhat a great comment! Your last sentence is very poignant. The problems are coming from the top level as we pointed out the previous article in this blog. Keep pushing and never give up!
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