General News
24 May, 2022
Competition helps raise bandicoot awareness
STUDENTS have helped draw attention to the Southern Brown Bandicoot through a competition.
STUDENTS have helped draw attention to the Southern Brown Bandicoot through a competition.
The Port Campbell Community Group Inc supported by the Port Campbell Board Riders Association announced the winners of a Southern Brown Bandicoot competition held over the last few month.
Ruby Fynn and Ruby Gillingham, both of Timboon P-12 School, have had their drawings made into car stickers which will be distributed to raise awareness of the endangered Southern Brown Bandicoot.
Secretary for the community group Marion Manifold said entries were invited from primary and secondary school students to design a sticker depicting the bandicoot.
She said the group provided an education program which included photos taken by remote fauna cameras of the bandicoots and other wildlife on the Port Campbell headland.
Dr Manifold said there were some “beautiful and creative drawings”, including one which used bark to create the bandicoot.
She said some of these may be used to create stickers in the future.
This program follows other bandicoot awareness programs conducted in 2013 and 2015 which has resulted in 11 different car sticker designs and two posters being printed.
Timboon P-12 School teacher Julia McMeel said she was happy to promote this competition to the grade three and four students.
“It’s great to have opportunities to educate our students about their local environment and to raise awareness of the plight of an indigenous animal,” she said.
“Ruby really enjoys drawing and said that she has never seen a Southern Brown Bandicoot but she’d really like to before they are extinct."
“She is hoping that people will keep their cats in at night so the bandicoots are safe.”
Dr Manifold said one of the winners in the 2013 program has gone on to become an environmental scientist and is researching the Southern Brown Bandicoot.
“This was exciting and rewarding to hear. It gives deeper meaning to our group’s work and shows that our work has high outcomes,” she said.
The bandicoot generally lives within 50 kilometres of the Victorian coastal fringe and is an endangered species.
The Port Campbell headland currently has a healthy population of bandicoots, which at times is impacted by cats and foxes.
The Port Campbell Community Group supports council policy and encourages responsible cat ownership.
Dr Manifold said it was necessary to keep reminding people of what beautiful and unique wildlife we have at Port Campbell.
The competition is a result of a Corangamite Shire Council environment grant.
Other parts of the grant have assisted in weeding the headland, and a revegetation program will follow later in the year.
Dr Manifold said eradicating weeds and promoting indigenous plantings keeps the headland beautiful and encourages indigenous wildlife.
She said other than a healthy bandicoot and rufous bristlebird population on the headland, wildlife fauna cameras show there was also swamp antechinus, dunnarts, and sometimes an occasional wallaby visits the headland.
For more information, or to assist in these programs, contact Marion Manifold via the Port Campbell Community Group website.