Young Farmers Club members and VET Agriculture students have recently been involved in planting out an on-farm wetland of considerable significance. The Petinella family operate four farms, with their main base of operations being 160 acres in Coldstream. The creek running through the farm directly feeds into the Yarra River. Works were recently undertaken here to build a large dam to store sufficient water for summer irrigation of their soft berry fruit. Water storage and use is a complex issue and the family worked closely with Yarra Valley Water to build the first diversionary wetland of this scale on a farm in the Yarra Valley.
This is where our Young Farmers Club came in. Over a series of two days, students from the College and our VET Agriculture program participated in the planting of this amazing wetland. When complete, this system will filter water from the farm and a nearby housing estate on-site and contribute significantly to the water quality of the Yarra River. The wetland, over five acres in size, comprises three stages — initially settling large sediment and finally using large shallow ponds to purify the water with over 30 different species of indigenous plants.
In the tradition of learning by doing, our Young Farmers spent time with Rowan Hore from Yarra Valley Water and Michael Petinella from The Fresh Berry Co. Students explored the engineering works from start to finish, studied plans for the facility and learned all about whole catchment management. The group also planted several thousand plants into the system, contributing to stream quality for decades to come.
We are looking forward to coming back and visiting the system next year when it is fully operational. We would like to thank the Petinellas and all of the local farming families and businesses that take the time to include our students and invest in the future.
