Bushfire Education Workshops

The Bushfire Education Workshops support the mental health of Primary School aged students affected by the 2019-20 bushfires by educating them about bushfire management. Thanks to the support of the Blacksummer Bushfire Government Grant, another 13 of these important workshops will be conducted across Primary Schools in the Coffs Harbour local government area from July 2022- October 2023.

The workshop will include an education session by NSW Fire Service called the ‘hot spots program’. This interactive presentation educates students on bushfire management, cultural bushfires practices, the ecology of bushfires and wildlife preservation. Students will learn about ‘good’ and ‘bad’ fires, the behaviour of fires across the Australian landscape and cultural bushfire practices. Through gaining a greater understand of bushfires, the program aims to help ease the anxieties of children around the concept of bushfires and feel safe knowing how to prepare and mitigate risks.

After the presentation students then get the opportunity to engage in a creative arts nesting box workshop, constructing nesting boxes for a range of fauna such as brushtail possums, small parrots, and kookaburras. During the nesting box construction students learn about the value of hallows in trees and logs on the ground and how these should be protected to provide shelter for our native fauna.