MK Think Tank Research the River

Millennium Kids Youth Board visited New Norcia 150km from Perth on a mission to better help them understand out history and how we use and manage water in the Avon – Swan River Catchment
New Norcia Water Tanks
By Samuel and Jack - City of South Perth Youth Sustainability Ambassadors

When we went with Millennium Kids to New Norcia every single building had at least one water tank. The Monks used water tanks because they needed fresh water and all the water in their well had gone salty because they had cut all of the trees down.

All the water tanks prove that New Norcia is very water conscious because it is in the middle of dry land.

New Norcia has way more water tanks than Perth.


Our Trees at Calingiri
By Savannah, Darcy and Zoe - City of South Perth Youth Sustainability Ambassadors

During the Millennium Kids Leadership program we visited Calingiri . Penrhos College has been planting trees at Calingiri since 1996 with Year 5 students attending every year.

The river at Calingiri is very muddy and not clear. Before Penrhos started planting there were only trees on the horizon. Now there is an expanse of bush land.

One of the interesting ways of planting trees is making a mud ball with seeds inside them and when it rains the mud disintegrates and the seeds grow into trees.

The Avon River Toodyay.
By Dana and Kimberly - City of South Perth Youth Sustainability Ambassadors

At the Avon River we noticed that the water was extremely low. It was also polluted with rubbish, oil from cars that pass over on the bridge and salt.

Because people have been cutting down trees salt has risen from underground and rain has washed it into the river.

We observed that there were lots of signs that said that they were restoring the river.