Working Bee

Working Bee – Saturday 18th November at 9am

Image courtesy of http://www.victoriannativeseed.com.au/?product=yam-daisy.

Picture is not an actual working “bee”, it is a native insect known as the hoverfly, however it is performing an important role in pollinating this once widespread culturally significant bush tucker plant, the Yam Daisy or Murnong (Microseris lanceolata).

In 2017, MGC was awarded a Community Partnership Grant to strengthen partnerships with the Traditional owners of our land, the Wurundjeri People with a specific goal to develop our community bush tucker garden on the banks of the Yarra. We have developed a tradition over the past 7 years where year 7 students participate in a Welcome to Country Ceremony on Tree day and they plant their own bush tucker plant into our reconciliation garden. The space is open to the public, located on the eastern fence of the boundary between the bike path and the main building.

Our dedicated student members of the environment team have been working on maintaining the area, but the weeds continue to be a challenge. Hence we would like to invite members of the wider MGC community to lend a hand weeding and landscaping the space on Saturday 18th of November from 9-11am. We will have indigenous plant experts on hand to help with weed identification and lots of knowledgeable students eager to tell you the stories they have learnt about the cultural significance of the Murnong and other bush tucker plants. The working bee is an opportunity to learn about the aims of the reconciliation garden and to also help prepare the site for our first ever Murnong Harvest that will hopefully be conducted under the supervision of Wurundjeri elder Aunty Dianne Kerr in late November. We also have plans to work with the Narrup bush team from the Wurundjeri Council to install signage and care a traditional scar tree on the site.

MGC would like to acknowledge to ongoing support of the Yarra Council in facilitating this habitat restoration and cultural awareness work and invite you to share in the knowledge we have developed since we first started planting Murnongs on the site seven years ago.

If you would like to attend the working bee, contact Andrew Vance @ avance@mgc.vic.edu.au or sign up here