Bandicoots made Garfield Primary School home last year. 67638
By Danielle Galvin
AN ENDANGERED bandicoot species that disrupted a redevelopment project at Garfield Primary School has returned, but this time the animals are welcome.
In November, angry parents spoke out saying they were sick of the band of bandicoots that called the school home, forcing their children into a cramped multi-purpose room.
Geoff Boyes from the Westernport Catchment Landcare Network said the school would be given a grant of $15,000 towards the bandicoot relocation project.
“Garfield Primary School is undertaking a bandicoot project which has been designed to teach the students about one of our locally threatened species,” he said.
The bandicoots at the school were trapped and removed from the school grounds when the buildings were demolished and returned to the school in late December.
Students at the Railway Avenue school are involved in the project.
“The project includes planting a wildlife and habitat corridor at the school and looking after and improving a small patch of bush on the school grounds,” Mr Boyes said.
“The students will grow some of the plants for the habitat corridor and will also learn how to look for signs of bandicoots and monitor their activity in the school grounds.”
Kathy Himbeck was the project manager employed by the Department of Sustainability to help relocate the bandicoots until it was safe for them to return.
She said parents, students and teachers at the school were concerned for the population of bandicoots.
“I know a lot of them thought that the bandicoots were important too, not just the building redevelopment,” she said.
The team captured two females and one male bandicoot and returned them after the buildings had been demolished.
She said it was unusual that the bandicoots had been spotted during school hours.
“Bandicoots are nocturnal, so they are more active at night-time,” she said.
Ms Himbeck, an ecologist, said the bandicoots had adapted to the school’s environment by scavaging for food when the cleaner changed the bins.
“We released the animals into a section near the oval at the back of the school,” she said. “The kids got involved, too.
“Luckily it coincided with their lunch break so they were around relaying stories of bandicoots.”
