Club Projects
Walkerville Art Show
The 2021 Walkerville Art Show was held at St Andrews School Gym Hall, Cnr of Smith Street and Church Terrace, Walkerville. Any artist interested in displaying art works in next year’s Show, please visit our ‘Art Show’ page.
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Calperum Station and a Healthy River
Majestic River Gums
In a new initiative Walkerville Rotarians have visited Calperum Station to experience the venue and consider ways Walkerville Rotary Club can support this facility. Members are looking to work with Prospect and Regency Park clubs to renovate a cottage that will provide additional rental accommodation at the complex.
The Health of the River Forum is scheduled to runfrom MONDAY 27th June – Friday 1st July 2022. We will hope to be encouraging Year 9 and 10 students to attend this forum. Held near Renmark the focus on a healthy river is of vital concern for south Australians and Victorians and NSW people located in the down stream parts of our iconic Murray Darling system.
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Revegetation and Tree Plantings
The programme was substantially encouraged by the strength of environmental concerns evident at the time of our club’s charter. PM Bob Hawke made a significant environmental statement at Wentworth in July 1989 and an objective of planting a billion trees was announced.
Whole program was aimed at being sustainable and required the construction, initially of temporary nursery at the back of wilderness and later our own nursery at the Council depot. This includes a propagation space and several water tanks and a connected irrigation system.
In all it has been a partnership between the Club, Wilderness School, Council, Walkerville Primary and Environments by Design. Recently nearby St Andrews School has joined the project.
PDG Allan Wilson applied for and received a number of substantial grants for the club to continue the work and it the sale of trees has been a major source of funds over a number of years.
The club has been involved for many years in revegetation projects in conjunction with our local schools. Most of these projects are ongoing.
Our first planting was at Kapunda, Eudunda and Robertstown (1990) followed by Langhorne Creek, Milang, Finniss River and Scales Park (1991-2004). In addition, we have donated and assisted with planting trees in the fire-ravaged areas following the Port Lincoln fire of 2005, Sampson Flat in 2015, Pinery area in 2016 and following years and Cudlee Creek in 2020.
The first major planting program was at Langhorne creek. This was for wind breaks and to correct water table problems.
Another major task was the closed road at Milang. Work spread over 5 main years. Included acting as a wind break and provided substantial diversity for native flora and fauna.
The Port Lincoln tree planting was set up by the late Rex Adams and Allan Wilson as a Disaster Recovery project following the devasting 2005 bushfires in which nine people died. It ran for 4 years and about 24 students from Wilderness accompanied us. It was a one-week program each year and in all up to 10,000 trees were planted.
Much of the propagation and planting has been conducted with the assistance of Wilderness Senior College and by Wayne Brown of Environments by Design who has been with us through the thirty + years our programme has been running. Wayne has opened up sales opportunities for us through his work alongside our burgeoning wind and solar energy developments.
The Vale Park Primary students have been revegetating the old Walkerville dump site at Scales Park and it is now well covered.
In 2021 our focus moved to St Andrews School where garden beds have been established. It is hoped to expand this to other primary schools in the region. These will include exotic and native foods and butterfly gardens.
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Vale Park Primary planters
Rex with Vale Park Primary tree planters
The Wilderness School students have been involved in the whole process, from planting the seeds to planting the young trees on-site at Milang, Port Lincoln, Cudlee Creek and Langhorne Creek. The seed propagation is done at the Walkerville Council Depot, the site of our shade house. Approx 7000 seeds from native species are planted each year.
It’s a messy job but fun
The label scribe did a great job
Filling tubes is fun
Milang hill planting
A great ‘feat’ at Milang
Port Lincoln saw us too
End of the day at Lincoln
Langhorne Creek planting
Home time at Langhorne Creek
At work at Cudlee Creek
Cudlee Creek job
Wilderness Cudlee Creek workers
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RYLA
Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) is Rotary’s leadership training program for young people. RYLA participants can be aged 18-30, but we choose to focus on a narrower 18 -26 age range. Our young RYLA students spend a week at camp.
For more information visit the D9500 website at www.rotary9500.org or http://portal.clubrunner.ca/50056
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RYPEN
Rotary Youth Program of Enrichment (RYPEN) is another of Rotary’s leadership training programs for young people that we support. It is a fun packed leadership experience for 14 – 17 year olds at a dynamic weekend residential camp. It is an opportunity for them to experience a weekend of learning activities and new friendships.
For more information visit the D9500 website at www.rotary9500.org or http://portal.clubrunner.ca/50056
For information on our club involvement email Richard Bentley on:
rbentleybisa@gmail.com
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NYSF
National Youth Science Forum is another of Rotary’s programs for young people that we support. It is a 12 day residential program for students entering Year 12 who are passionate about science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). The NYSF program aims to show participants a wide variety of study and career options in STEM fields.
For more information visit the NYSF website at www.nysf.edu.au
For information on our club involvement email Richard Bentley on:
rbentleybisa@gmail.com
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