About Us

This project is the result of cooperative work by over 100 people from the Cairns community. Its focus areas are education for sustainability, wetland conservation, revegetation, community capacity building, and place-based learning. The Cattana Wetlands are a key part of teacher education for JCU students.

The Project Manager, Dr Ruth Hickey (James Cook University, School of Education), Russell Wild (Cairns Regional Council) and Dr Michele Dale (Terrain NRM) formed a partnership to develop this Community Awareness Raising project. Funding for the project was through a grant from the Australian Government’s Caring for our Country: Community Coastcare initiative, which was supported by significant in-kind contribution by all three partners. Nigel Quayle from NQIT webdesign worked with our material to build the website. Julie Haysom contributed art work for many of the factsheets.

Teams of preservice teachers from the 2009 Graduate Diploma of Education group worked with local experts, to develop the site materials:

• Marnie Rowe with Mary Rowland;
• Trevor Elliot and Barbara Prentis with Russel Wild;
• Loretta Kishihara, Scott Graham & Rosslyn Mikits with Michele Dale;
• Michael Anderson, Ivan Theron & Glen Tannock  with Terry Genever;
• Tim Jackson, Kate Newman & Sam Camp with Tania Cobham;
• Bryn Johnson, Amber Miller with John Seale;
• Samantha Derret, Regan Stevenson & Mika Patterson;
• Christine Dugan & Catherine Peters with John Winter;
• Joanne Drake, Bevely Morton & Lisa Brown with Anja Bakker;
• Romy Fritz, Fiona Lin & Helene Cirrani with Petrina Johnson;
• Lucas Black, Louisa Gander & Salesh Pillay with Hilary Whitehouse;
• Elaine Romognolo, Jo-anna Furse & Sarah Decker;
• Sigita Ulanas, Leah Moss & Amy Jennings with George Skeene;
• Hanna Wood, Brooke Crippin & Marnie Rowe with Andrew Wood;
• Lance Milne, Geoff Wall & Shaun Fitzgerald with Elaine Harding.

Each preservice team also presented a Community Awareness Raising Event (CARE) at these locations:

• Smithfield & Holloways Beach Community Markets
• Cairns Bird Group
• Yorkeys Knob Residents’ Association
• National Tree Planting Day
• JCU Open Day
• Whitfield State School
• Edgehill State School
• Trinity Beach State School
• Trinity Anglican School’s Coconut Festival
• The Cairns Post Environmental Liftout.