Wirraminna is the heart of Burrumbuttock, but the heart of Wirraminna is its founding members Darryl Jacobs, Judy Frankenberg and Sue Rose. Photo: Vanessa Hayden.
The founders of the Wirraminna Environmental Education Centre are well used to having their photo taken.
It’s been happening for 30 years now and they strike a similar pose today as they have for many that have come before me to interview them about the transformation of an abandoned public watering space into a benchmark native bush reserve and learning centre.
Darryl Jacob, Sue Rose and Judy Frankenberg blend in unassumingly with the other volunteers as they prepare the grounds for the annual National Wattle Day event on 31 August; an extra special one this year as it celebrates three decades since the 4 ha bush block was named.
As they potter about, planting, weeding and perhaps a little fussing, you wouldn’t realise it was the meeting of these three minds in the early 1990s that would set the course to create something amazing in the tiny rural village of Burrumbuttock.
A place that would be opened by the then Deputy Prime Minister Tim Fischer and go on to win national Landcare education awards, attract thousands of school children and become a beacon for tourism in the Greater Hume Shire.
The Governor General of Australia has even been here, oh, and Costa Georgiadis too, of course.
“It’s been an unbelievable journey,” Darryl tells Region during a tea break.
“The original idea was to get the kids from the school next door out of the concrete and tar and bring them out to ‘smell the roses’ so to speak. Then it became an arboretum and then in 1995 we gave it a name and away we went.
“I’ve travelled all over the world and most of Australia and this place is up with the best as far as sending a message out to the community and school children.”
He admits it wasn’t an easy start to the project.
“There was a lot of opposition to start with and it even took the council a while to catch on.
“We were lucky though with the principal of the school, Owen Dunlop. He had the big vision, he could see outside the square and he latched onto the environmental education part and pushed that through the school.
“Now, as a result of what we have achieved, there are schools all over Australia that have cottoned on and have found crown land nearby to their own schools where they can develop something similar.”
Wirraminna can be enjoyed in all its glory this Sunday between 10 am and 2 pm. A free event (but gold coins are welcome), there’ll be a sausage sizzle, guided walks, kids’ activities, face painting, live demonstrations, presentations and more.
Home to a number of the endangered South Corroboree Frogs, it is one of only three locations in Australia (other than zoos) where you can see the tiny yellow and black amphibians. There are themed garden beds which contain hundreds of different native plant species and a discovery centre built in 2006 which includes an aquarium display of native fish.
For the founding trio I imagine it’s hard to quantify what their single greatest achievement in the past 30 years may have been – the awards, collaborations, partnerships, VIP visits, events, accolades or attention.
No, says Darryl, it’s none of that.
“It’s the commitment of the volunteers that we are most proud of. Without them there wouldn’t be anything here. When you look around everything has been done by the volunteers. No-one got paid to do any of this. We are so very thankful to all of them who made this happen.”
Like many other not-for-profit organisations, freely given man hours are becoming harder and harder to find.
“We are ageing and younger people are busy with family and work, so what we are trying to do here is future proof the place so things like the bridges and the seating, which is now all around the park, will be here for many years to come and won’t rot or deteriorate,” Darryl says.
“We are getting close to operating just at a maintenance level and of course that will be ongoing because there is always weeding and watering to be done.”
Whilst Darryl now lives in Wodonga, he was a student of the Burrumbuttock Primary School in the 1950s, as were his children after that.
“Wirraminna has given Burrumbuttock a bit of a heart and something to be proud of and it’s a feather in the cap of council,” he said.
“There has also been a polar shift from farmers who originally thought of us as a bunch of greenies.
“I can tell you, we all follow different parties, Green, Liberal, Independent, National Party and so on, but we don’t talk politics because we’ve all got one aim and we’ve all got that in our hearts, to leave something behind that will leave the world a better place.”
For more information visit Wirraminna Environmental Education Centre or follow them on Facebook.
