About

Through this project, council staff and workers have collaborated with local children to create a landscaped garden. Children in the area were involved in landscaping by making a scarecrow and planting labels.

The garden included:

• a teepee, log seating and picnic table
• over 100 native understorey plants
• a caterpillar garden bed with bush tucker plants
• storybook signposts
• scarecrow and painted animal silhouettes
• insect house
• signs inviting people to learn Kaurna counting.

Pirrku Garden

The garden was named the Pirrku Garden. Throughout the project, 36 events were delivered in the garden space. The events included:

• nature crafting
• outdoor-themed Storytime with rhymes and fingerplays
• Explore and Discover – biodiversity and STEM activities
• Fresh Food – pot-to-plate family activities and nature crafts
• gardening and mud play
• communication and language skills with interactive themed storytime sessions
• opportunities for child-led story creation.

Background

This project was developed in response to the Australian Early Development Census (AEDC), which showed that children in the area were disadvantaged across each of the five domains measured in the census being:

• physical health and wellbeing
• social competence
• emotional maturity
• language and cognitive skills (school-based)
• communication skills and general knowledge.

Outcomes

The project encouraged children and their caregivers to connect with the community. The project successfully engaged 669 people, including 389 children in the 0-5 age group.

Project participants attended library events in the Pirrku Garden at Evanston Gardens Library.

Outcomes from the project included:

1. An observable increase in language skills among CALD (culturally and linguistically diverse) people) who participated in the program. (A total of 61 CALD participants attended the program).
2. Children becoming more comfortable interacting with each other and the program staff.
3. Children becoming comfortable moving around spaces, including into the library and returning to the Garden, on their own.
4. Observation of children singing the songs to themselves while engaging in open-ended play.
5. Participation increasing in the program over time with some families regularly attending.
6. Participants feedback demonstrating the programs have been well received and appropriate for age.

Networking/Ongoing relationships

Community networking has occurred between the children who have enjoyed having a space to make friends in their own time and between accompanying adults.

Connections have also been made to other community organisations in the local area, such as the Gawler Environment Centre, Gawler Community Garden, sporting clubs, Toy Library and other local children’s events.

The program created an opportunity for locals to become library members and learn about the many resources available through South Australia’s public library network. The program led to a direct increase in library membership.

Learnings

Gawler Libraries staff learnt to be flexible and adaptable around project timelines, as unforeseen events such as building flooding and required maintenance work can interrupt plans. They learnt to try new timeslots for programs and experiment with formats to discover opportunities that best suited their community.

Ongoing benefit

Given the success of this project, the Town of Gawler will continue to be maintain and deliver events in this garden. Twenty Pirrku early childhood programs have now been developed. The Gawler Libraries will continue use these resources in 2024 and beyond.

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