FRONT GARDEN & LONE PINE LANDSCAPING @ MESC 

FRONT GARDEN AND LONE PINE LANDSCAPING PROJECT 

This year the VCE Unit 1 Product Design & Technologies students spent Terms 1 & 2 designing, making and installing two separate projects now situated at the front of the school.

New seating area 

Seven students worked on landscaping a new seating and mindfulness area for the area outside the administration office. 

Hayley (Year 10) worked independently to produce a stunning wooden bench. Hayley designed the seating using recycled timbers and a huge slab of beautiful Californian redwood for the seat. 

Brodie and Zac created a sculptural bird bath and feeder. They used very old recycled red gum for the base and designed and created a sculpture out of solid metal round rod. They certainly improved their welding skills as the project progressed. They also were involved in slip casting and glazing two ceramic bowls for the sculpture.

Reuben and Kai produced a metal, wood and gabion stone bench. After designing the bench, they welded up the frame and made a separate Merbau decking top. The inside was then filled with stones. The result is striking.

Billy and Austin designed a unique bench using three different materials: marine plywood, metal and recycled wood. They developed their skills in welding and carpentry, resulting in a unique and charming example of outdoor furniture. 

Lone Pine fence and bench

Angus and Lucas worked extremely hard to remodel the area surrounding the school Lone Pine. In 1998 Mornington Peninsula Legacy donated a Lone Pine seedling in honour of the Gallipoli campaign. Both students wanted to honour the tree and its symbolism by creating a feature to surround it. It now has a beautiful new picket fence, a Merbau decking bench and two life size WW1 soldiers which were laser-cut from metal. The result is a stirring tribute to World War One soldiers whilst respecting the honour of receiving the pine seedling from Legacy over 26 year ago. 

All students recently spent an entire day working as a team on each other’s projects; digging in extremely hard soil, shovelling and concreting to complete the project.

I congratulate all students on their enthusiasm and commitment to oversee this project during the past six months.

I would also like to thank and acknowledge the amazing work that our maintenance team (Chris and Tim) performed to help prepare this project for the students. They spent days clearing the area and hand shovelling all the rock and stone for the new garden area. This was an enormous physical effort from them both. 

Another important helper was Jess from Chipper Constructions, who volunteered to prepare the site with his earth-moving equipment.

Finally, I would like to acknowledge our two Design Technicians, Steve and Stuart. This project would not have been possible without their expertise, enthusiasm and the positive relationships they formed with each student over the past six months.

Sue Holderness

Unit 1 Product Design & Technology Teacher

Head of The Arts Domain