GORCC and college celebrate six busy years

THE Great Ocean Road Coast Committee (GORCC) and Geelong Lutheran College have celebrated six years of rehabilitating Whites Gap in Torquay.

The committee’s education team and Year 9 students in GORCC’S Coast Guardian program began work in Whites Gap when it was just a car park.

“Now it is developing into some fantastic coastal habitat for animals and plants,” GORCC education leader Hilary Bouma said.

“It’s a great credit to the students that a number of birds are already attracted to the dune site including superb blue wrens, grey shrike thrush, fantails, singing honeyeaters, and also reptiles such as the jacky dragon have been seen at the site.”

As part of a day of coastal education projects last month, the the students then travelled to Point Roadknight in Anglesea, where Great Ocean Road Coast’s Possum Pete and Ms Bouma took the students to see Hooded Plover nests, discovering three new eggs.

The day ended with a trip to northern Lorne for an afternoon learning about habitat, coastal management and hands-on weeding with GORCC’s conservation team.

“We’re very proud of all the Geelong Lutheran College students who have helped to rehabilitate this site as part of the Coast Guardians Program,” Geelong Lutheran College principal Barry Krueger said.

“It’s a great accomplishment and something each of them can look back on proudly, and hopefully share with their friends and family for years to come when they visit the site in Torquay.”

Coast Guardians is GORCC’s flagship environmental education program, tailored towards year 9 students protecting the coast.

It is an ongoing program that schools participate in throughout the year on one particular site to help foster ownership and enhance their understanding of the location.