Update on FROGZONE from State Coordinator Woodbridge School (FROGZONE Tasmania). Principal: Chris Barnes Coordinator: Nel Smit/ Steve Collins Woodbridge High-school is situated 50 kms south of Hobart, Tasmania and incorporates the Marine Discovery Centre with thousands of daily school visitors each year. Our FROG ZONE is part of the Woodbridge School farm. This coastal wetland, beside the school, drains into Peppermint Bay and is presently infested with weeds such as Cumbungi and blackberries. Grade seven students are actively involved in developing a management plan for the site. We aim to improve the biodiversity of the site through planting, reducing weeds and excavating out a pond area. We hope to encourage visitors to enjoy the site by creating a trail and visiting area with interpretation signage. South George Town Primary School FROGZONE Tasmania - July 2002 Coordinator: Nel Smit/ Steve Collins Students at South George Town Primary School in Tasmania organized a meeting with local council, business representatives and other interested community members to seek support for developing a frog pond near Wombat Walk. Wombat Walk is a walking track developed by the students at our school. It is a community walking track which passes through natural bush land that skirts our school boundary. The whole area is on Crown Land leased by our local Council. We have a partnership with the Council and it is with their support that we have been able to construct Wombat Walk, begin the process of revegetation and continue to maintain both the Walk and the surrounding remnant bush land. Encompassed in the area is a swamp cum mini wetlands area, which although badly degraded, is ideally suited to the creation of a frog pond. We are very fortunate to have access to this area, so close to our school grounds and we value it as an excellent resource for environmental education. The school has been lucky enough to have received a grant from CEE FROG ZONE. This has meant that we are now able to begin planning for a frog pond. But we need people help as well as money! (Doesn't everybody!) Consequently the attendance of so many people at our inaugural frog pond meeting was most encouraging. Many offers of in-kind assistance were made and several great ideas put forward. Students at South George Town gathered to survey the rubbish typical of the site to be developed for the frog pond. Their enthusiasm and enterprise should soon change all this ! June 24 2004 Any day now the machinery will arrive to begin excavating the site for our pond. The students are really excited about this great project and have taken ownership by forming teams across grades 3/4 Gill and 5/6 Riley. These teams are assuming various roles, including engineers, zoologists, researchers, publicity officers and financial advisors to name just a few. Students letters to the Council have been written, artist's impressions of how the pond will look in one year's time and the creation of a large model of the wetlands area is taking many hours work. We have registered for National Tree Day. The whole school will be involved, with all three hundred students planting out native plants, trees and grasses in the area around the pond. By revegetating the area and placing many large logs and boulders around its peripheral, we hope to discourage its use as a 'burn-out' area by motorbike riders and as a dumping ground by local gardeners. All the ground work is being laid. Soon it will be a reality, with many frogs enjoying a great new healthy environment.