28 June 2011
Wyndham Students Turn to Clay to Help Waterways
Point Cook College students will today premiere a claymation film that depicts local wildlife as superheroes improving the health of waterways.
Six students in years 7 and 8 scripted, animated and produced the film, which shows how to reduce threats to river health and encourages community action.
The ‘Waterway Hero’ themed claymation features local wildlife characters made of brightly coloured plasticine. The film includes a series of scenes that show the characters tackling a variety of tasks to protect the health of waterways, including:
- reducing and removing litter
- maintaining vehicles to reduce stormwater pollution
- cleaning building sites to reduce stormwater pollution
- planting native species
- building a raingarden.
Healthy Waterways Manager (West Region), Gavan O’Neill, said the film was a fun way to show people of all ages that there were many things that could help protect local rivers, creeks and wetlands.
“The students have done a great job in showing how simple it is to play a part in improving the health of waterways, whether it’s getting your car serviced, binning your rubbish or picking up after your dog,” Mr O’Neill said.
“The issues that confront the characters are the same as those being faced by the wildlife that live in and around Melbourne’s 8400 kilometres of waterways.
“We rely a lot on the community to achieve our river health goals, so I thank and congratulate the students for helping spread the message,” he added.
The film was launched as part of the Cheetham Creek Wetlands Celebration at the Jamieson Way Community Centre, and is the culmination of a partnership between Melbourne Water, Point Cook College, Carranballac College and Wyndham Council.
As part of the partnership, sparked by students’ concerns about litter in waterways, representatives of the two schools attended a two-day course to learn about stormwater quality issues in the Cheetham Creek Wetlands and investigated ways to improve water quality.
Following on from the course, the students from Point Cook College created the claymation film, while the Caranballac College students developed a session for other students to share what they’ve learned from the partnership.
Media Contact: Nicolas McGay (03) 9235 2278; 0438 981 836