Garden links Oakey with Japan
A COUNTRY school in rural Queensland is probably not the first place you’d expect to find a Japanese garden.
But students who step through a red archway at Oakey State High School are transported to a serene, bamboo-fenced garden of tranquillity more likely to be found in the Land of the Rising Sun.
“I don’t reckon there are too many country schools that’d have a Japanese garden of any type, let alone something like this,” principal Danny Keenan said. “It’s pretty spectacular.”
The garden has been two years in the planning and builds on a relationship spanning more than 20 years between Oakey and the town’s Japanese sister city, Ena. Since 1995 Oakey has been hosting visitors from Ena - only the outbreak of bird flu in 2009 interrupted the annual trips.
And less than 24 hours after they arrived this year, Japanese students from Ena were shovelling stones and putting the finishing touches on the garden project.
“All the work’s been done by the teachers and the kids,” Mr Keenan said, adding that some teachers had given their weekends to work on the garden.
Measuring 5m by 10m, the garden cost more than $4000 - an amount that was raised by the visitors.
“There’s quite an amazing bond between the students,” Mr Keenan said. “There were tears in the eyes of some of the kids when they arrived on Monday (and saw the garden).” The students returned to Ena this week, leaving the garden behind to be enjoyed and maintained by the school.