Written by Kimie Tomida, MUELC Student Experience Coordinator

On 3 Aug MUELC students volunteered to attend the Pentland Hills Landcare Community Planting Day. The project involved planting 6000 seedlings along the Myrniong Creek in Bacchus Marsh and was supported by the Department of Sustainability and Environment.

Twenty-eight of us (including one visiting staff member from ICU University in Japan) were among 285 volunteers who planted 8,600 trees on the day!

It was the first time that any of us had planted tree, so many of the students looked confused about how to do it at the beginning, thanks to the instructions provided by our team leaders, it didn’t take much time before everyone was working hard .  All of us forgot about the time and before we knew it, it was lunch time! We were served a true Aussie BBQ and for afternoon tea we had scones with jam. Other highlights were the speech made by the Honourable Ryan Smith, Minister for Environment & Climate Change  (he acknowledged our participation in his speech!),  learning about how planting trees is beneficial to the environment and learning that small animals such as frogs benefit from the trees.

We all enjoyed getting out of the class room, meeting new people and friends, working under the beautiful weather and best of all, contributing to improve our environment.

Student comments about the day:

“I enjoyed Planting Day very much. I liked working in the very fine weather. When I visited Pentland Hills, I was so impressed with the beautiful scenery and at how big the land was. Soon I started feeling that we must conserve this beautiful nature. We tried to plant as many trees as possible. It was very meaningful day, and it was a very good opportunity I could never forget, ever.” (Study Group student)