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Out of the ashes

Education

A REGION devastated by bushfires has become a unique learning hub for horticulture students.

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Students at a South Australian vocational college, called TAFE in Australia, have the opportunity to help the communities impacted by the damage caused by the Samson Flat bushfires earlier this year. 

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TAFE

Principal Lecturer of TAFE SA, Peter Clark says both courses have been very successful and are being run in the devastated Kersbrook Forest.

“ForestrySA have helped us tremendously with providing a venue in the centre of where the fire ground was,” he said.

KersbrookForestrySA

Both courses provide students with a full Certificate II in Horticulture along with practical bushfire recovery training to assist with the Sampson Flat bushfire recovery.

Kersbrook

The course focuses on working with trees that have been damaged by the fires. The students learn safe chainsaw operation, tree felling, erosion control, and fence construction and repair. 

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The students currently participating in the course are residents of the Sampson Flat area. 

Students learn how to redesign gardens to make them safer, plant identification, how to control weeds through the safe use of chemicals, erosion control, and the safe use of machinery.

Lecturer Pat Wake says the garden revival course helps people understand how to plant a garden to keep their property safe and prevent any future damage from fires.

“It’s contributing to those people that were affected by the fires in one way or another. Whether they lost whole properties, and what they might put back in there once they’ve re-established, or people that have lost part or all of their garden,” she said.

“There were a lot of people who lost their actual gardens, their vegetable gardens and their flower gardens, or their lawns and things like that. So it’s been helping people look at what they can put back into those areas.” 

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