FROM LITTLE THINGS, BIG THINGS GROW
A SMALL rural North Queensland community has rallied around its even smaller primary school to help complete a wonderfully crafted $40,000 nature playground.
“If it takes a whole village to raise a child, today is testament to the fact that it takes a whole community to grow a garden,” Abergowrie State School principal Laura-beth Martin told dozens of guests and dignitaries Hinchinbrook Mayor Ramon Jayo and MP Nick Dametto.
The school has just four students, but numbers are expected to increase to six with two pre-preppies looking forward to going to the big kids’ school next year.
Ms Martin said the playground had been three years in the making, culminating in a successful application for a grant from the State Government’s Community Gambling Fund.
She singled out teacher aide Linda Di Bella for co-ordinating the project and the support of a number of people who lent a hand.
“Our school may be small, but that doesn’t mean our students can’t have the same opportunities that students at larger schools have access to,” she said.
“If these wonderful little people are our future, then our future looks bright.”
Cr Jayo said the school was opened in 1953 to “cater for the needs of the growing families in the Gowrie”.
“Abergowrie State School continues that tradition almost 70 years on and that is an achievement that you can be well proud of,” he said.
“It is projects such as this that bring communities together, providing muchneeded comfort and companionship to the community of which the school is its heart.”