The students at Heywood and District Secondary College have been on an interesting journey. The township of Heywood is close to Lake Condah - a significant Aboriginal cultural heritage site. The students have been studying the local Gunditjmara heritage and have decided to create their cubby based on the stone huts found at Lake Condah. The students wanted to create their cubby as a meeting place and an outdoor learning space.
Over the course of the year students have made observations and collected data from a few potential sites where the cubby could be located. Over some months of significant rain in the area, one site was abandoned as it became flooded for some time during the winter. Another site was decided on in bushland next to the school oval. This site comes with it's own problems such as snakes and the potential of bushfire, however with the grass mown and the site maintained it is proving to be their most likely site for the cubby.
The school has an agriculture and horticulture program and students learn about farming and land management along with gardening and growing food, and there is a significant vege garden in the making. Students will be involved in researching indigenous plants and foods and will incorporate planting these within the cubby site in the coming year.
Excursion to Lake Condah
One of the original mission buildings
The Gunditjmara created ingenious fish and eel traps
The stone huts at Lake Condah show that the Gunditjmara lived in permanent settlements, dispelling the myth that Australia’s Indigenous peoples were all nomadic.
Birds eye view of the school site
The cubby site
