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Wilderness School, in Medindie, South Australia, received a grant from the Australian Commonwealth Government’s Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment, and Water (from the Environment Restoration Fund for Threatened Species, Strategy Action Plan) in 2022 to undertake a project to save from extinction the critically endangered Woods Well Spyridium—WWS—(Spyridium fontis-woodii) at the Schools Crawford Campus on the Coorong, South Australia. This was a a unique project where the Commonwealth Government gave a grant to an independent all girls school to restore an endangered species.
This book documents the project undertaken by staff, students and community members at Wilderness School, with input from Dr Dan Duval of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens, Environmentalist, Dr David Paton AM and Bio-R, to germinate over 700 seedlings in Adelaide of which over 400 have been planted in 2022 and 2023 in and around the Crawford property. The property, 2 hours south-east of Adelaide, is the only residential outdoor education facility owned by an independent all-girls school in the State of South Australia. Crawford was established in 2014 and has been running programs each year since then by the Outdoor Education Department’together with other academic disciplines at the School.
‘Crawford sits in the heart of the Coorong. It is here, at the interface between nature, girls, Ngarrindjeri culture, and academia where the magic of deep learning is experienced. This immersive education provides a lived opportunity to connect with the environment and culture, appreciate the interconnectedness of life, and be moved by the beauty of nature. It hopes to seed a lifelong philosophy to conserve and renew the natural environment, to navigate respectful stewardship, having inspired confidence in young women to be ethical changemakers on this land.’
The book aims to communicate the WWS project to conserve and renew a critically endangered plant species, the role of women in science, a Wilderness education beyond the classroom and to empower girls as ethical change makers. Contributions outline the projects aims, processes and outcomes, by those who led the project, the indigenous leaders of the region, those who gave scientific input and the voices of the students who were involved in the project.
The publication is a joint publishing project between ATF Press and Wilderness School, South Australia and was supported by the Australian Commonwealth Government grant.
Editors, Simone Burzacott-Gorman, Sally Nobbs and Lauren Walker, are all teachers at Wilderness School.
