Stuart Henry (Hasluck, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

This morning I wish to talk about Parakeela Reserve, which now has 3,300 new trees within its grounds thanks to the innovation of the year 9 Yule Brook College students, with the help and support of years 6 and 7 Orange Grove Primary School students. Both schools have cooperated very effectively together as part of an innovative land regeneration project.

Previously, Parakeela Reserve’s main attraction consisted of a concrete drain overgrown by a mass of weeds. This caught the attention of a bright young group of students from Yule Brook College. These students are a fantastic example of community spirit within the electorate of Hasluck. Realising that together they could improve the area for the benefit of the community and the surrounding neighbourhood, they approached the Mayor of the City of Gosnells, Councillor Pat Morris, with the idea of transforming the barren reserve into a treed parkland area.

Over the past year both schools have worked together. They planted 2,000 seedlings in 2006, and this month they turned out in force again to plant a further 1,300 trees. With plans for more trees to be planted in the years to come, the Yule Brook College students’ idea of turning this reserve into a beautiful parkland is well on the way to fruition. The land regeneration program that enabled this transformation of the reserve was made possible by the Maddington Kenwick Sustainable Communities Partnership. The sustainable communities partnership committee’s main objective is to provide a framework and a plan for sustainable generation of Maddington and Kenwick. This project fulfils the objectives of that committee, which are to improve the physical, economic, environmental and social aspects of the area and to promote a positive and attractive image.

I congratulate the students of Yule Brook College on recognising the problem, devising a solution and working with the local community and the City of Gosnells and its mayor, and then engaging the services of the Orange Grove Primary School in a partnership that has really enhanced the beauty of that parkland. I think it is a great thing to see and it is a wonderful thing for our community. I have spoken on a number of occasions in the past about Orange Grove Primary School, which has developed a wonderful learning environment for students. What they have done for their students is a great credit to the principal and the teachers of that school. But to Yule Brook again, a neighbour to Orange Grove Primary School, I extend my congratulations on their innovation.

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