NEWS

Watering a mangrove seedling every morning and afternoon doesn't stop for a weekend or a school holiday. The Mangrove Warriors at St Joseph's Catholic Primary in Crib Point kept it up for four straight months. The student leadership group grew out of the school's wider Sea is Our Best Friend program: once the whole Grade 3/4 cohort had planted mangrove seeds, the Mangrove Warriors took over daily care of the seedlings as they grew, watering, monitoring and troubleshooting, wi

Grade 3 and 4 students at St Joseph's Catholic Primary in Crib Point have a fortnightly appointment with Western Port Bay. At Woolley's Beach, students collect mangrove seeds, propagate them in the school greenhouse, then return to plant the seedlings and track how many survive. This year they've planted 1,000 seeds, with roughly 30% establishing, a result the school rightly counts as a strong outcome for young mangroves in a tidal environment. Funding through OzFish's Big Bl

22 families. Then 50. Then 95, twice. That's the growth of St Joseph's Nature Play Group in Crib Point since 2023, and it tells you most of what you need to know about this Tidy Towns finalist. Every week, young kids and their families turn up rain, hail or shine (this playgroup doesn't stop for weather) to make crafts from recycled and natural materials, care for the resident chickens, explore the school wetlands, and share a snack of fruit and veg donated by the local Woolw