Connecting Threads in the Garden

Thanks to Coledale Public School parent Amy Geddes

As part of the ‘Connecting Threads’ textile upcycling initiative at Coledale Public School, students from years 3-6 visited the Discovery Centre at Wollongong Botanic Garden. They learned about our local landfill at Whyte’s Gully, made their own upcycled bags and were shown amazing examples of textile art by Penny Hoswell, the waste education officer at Wollongong City Council.

Below is a fabulous recount of the day from year 6 students Arlo Schulz, Bec Sheath and Finn Kline.

Did you know that the average Australian buys 56kg of clothes every year?

Well, I certainly didn’t. This is everything you need to know about our clothes upcycling adventure!

We came to the gorgeous gardens, straight away we were greeted by beautiful trees, flowers, cacti, you name it! It was the 29th of March, Wednesday, 9am, when Coledale Public School embarked on a journey to the Botanic Gardens, to learn about textile waste and sustainability!

We began by splitting up into three groups. Our group started with the treasure hunt. We were supplied with a questionnaire that listed questions about composting. We were rewarded with a ruler, crafted from recycled plastic!

The next task on our hands was, oh yeah, eating! After that we went to the Discovery Centre and got the old clothing that we brought (a t-shirt or jeans) and made some epic bags out of them, without even needing sewing! The bags were awesome.

After making some bags we learnt about worms. We found out that if clothes were made of 100% cotton, worms would eat them! That means that anything that’s made mostly out of cotton or other natural fibres can be put in a worm farm!

Finally we walked through the garden to a building where we did a virtual landfill tour of Whytes Gully, our local tip. We learnt about how they stop the rubbish from flying away (they cover it up) and where all of the wastewater goes (into four ponds, three for wastewater and one for stormwater). We also learnt about the Revolve Shop, an Op shop-style place. In the Revolve Shop, they take anything that gets taken to the tip that can still be used. They then resell it!

The Botanic Gardens was an amazing experience for Coledale Public. As we all got back on the bus, everybody was talking about all the things we learnt. It was a wonderful day.