What We Do >> Events >> Golden Gumtree Postal Run
The Golden Gumtree Postal Run
“Bringing the Park to the People and the People to the Park"
September 2009 : Penrith to Lithgow
The Blue Mountains National Park turns 50 this year and many Blue Mountains residents want to celebrate. We are planning a major event for September to coincide with Spring and the first Gazettal date of the Blue Mountains National Park (records show this designation occurred on the 25th September 1959). We also recognise two coinciding celebrations, 200 years of Australia Post and the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth. He visited Australia and the Blue Mountains in 1836.
In partnership with the Blue Mountains Conservation Society, the Blue Mountains National Parks Service (NSW DECC), the Blue Mountains City Council and the Blue Mountains World Heritage Institute, the event honours the (over) 100 Eucalypt species that occur in the World Heritage Area, and which are the major Australian flora that distinguishes the park worldwide. It also honours the original custodians and the many people since, who have walked in and cared for this place..
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Vision: To engender in school students a sense of place, a positive connection with the natural environment and cultural landscapes, and to help them develop the knowledge, skills and understanding that will foster responsible stewardship of their local environment and the earth.
Objectives: To enrich the relationship between schools and the World Heritage National Park, and encourage communication between schools about our shared environment.
Activities:
- Investigation and observation of the natural world
- Walking in World Heritage National Park areas
- Weather monitoring of climate changes
- Creative writing and/or drawings in a diary
- Artistic interpretations from diary observations
- Creation of “sense of place” postcards
- Postal run celebration campfire in school grounds
The Golden Gum Tree Postal Run is divided into two parts:
Part One
The Bush Room - between now and September, schools are encouraged to select a bush room (in the National Park, Council Reserve or school grounds) to carry out investigatory and observational activities. During this period students will monitor the daily weather and to keep a regular diary on the natural events occurring in their bush room patch. Most of these activities can be carried out with equipment a school already possesses, such as art materials and digital cameras. However, each school will have to purchase or obtain a weather monitoring station, including a rain gauge. Some local businesses and the Blue Mountains City Council have offered to provide financial support for this purchase.
The diaries will provide the stories and information on plants and animals and thus the stimulation for the creation of the "sense of place" postcards to be collected during the Postal Run. Selected postcards will form a major public art display for the conclusion of the celebratory walk.
Teachers are invited to make use of the Earth Journeys literacy and science work units written specifically for each Stage (as provided by the Earth Journeys activities of previous years). Science work units exploring biodiversity are also available through Planet Ark's Schools Tree Day campaign. To enrich the experience of the students, schools are encouraged to take a bush walk in the National Park with NSW Parks and Wildlife Discovery rangers and engage with Aboriginal Cultural practitioners through the Aboriginal Cultural Resources Centre.
Part Two
The Golden Gum Tree Postal Run will take place in the month of September and is a walk from Penrith to Lithgow via each school on the route and the adjoining National Park. A group of experienced adult bush-walkers, led by Wyn Jones and supported by the Blue Mountains Conservation Society, will endeavour to visit each school collecting and delivering postcards made by the children. During each school visit there will be a traditional campfire, providing a dramatic backdrop for the postal exchange. The postcards and a gum nut capsule containing coals gathered from the fire will then proceed to the next school for exchange.
During the walk each school will have the opportunity to contribute diary reports, stories and postcard artwork from their respective Bush Rooms and upload them onto the Blue Mountains World Heritage Institute website.
The event is free, however donations (a 50th birthday present) to support the occasion are very welcome. A growing number of primary schools, individuals, local businesses and groups such as the Chamber of Commerce have committed to participate. Local cafes have offered to support the walkers by sustaining them with essentials (like coffee!) etc. for the duration.
See the route map below:
Click to view enlarged map
About the Organisers
Wyn Jones and Bronwen Maxwell, in creative collaboration with others, have worked together over the past 9 years on similar World Heritage events such as the Gumtree Songlines Walk (2001) and the education program Earth Journeys (2004 to present). Wyn, environmental scientist, bush-walker and Blue Mountains community member has been walking this Park for many years. Having first been taken to Jenolan Caves in 1945 as an infant and later down the Giant Staircase in 1957, he has since walked in many other areas of the Park. His long association with the Park and the now Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area, is to realise the dream and plan of Myles and Milo Dunphy and others of the conservation movement to continue to protect and conserve this important, spectacular and ancient natural place.
We look forward to this opportunity to care for and celebrate our World Heritage place together.
For further information please contact:
Bronwen Maxwell : 4787 5003 or email b.maxwell@bmwhi.org.au
Wyn Jones : 0428 877511
Downloads
The Bushroom Manual
The Calendar
The Teacher's STEP Guide
Teacher Resources
Environmental Events Calendar
