I took Long Service Leave the first two weeks of this term. My husband and I did a road trip of regional New South Wales and Victoria. We visited Dubbo, Blue Mountains, Bathurst, Echuca, Glenrowan, Ballarat, and many towns in between. One of the things I really enjoyed was seeing the different landscape and trees as we moved from place to place. We spent many hours driving through farms with canola crops in full flower, with beautiful yellow as far as the eye could see. We saw golden fields of wheat and green soy crops. We saw magnificent trees and gardens.
One garden we explored was the Ballarat Botanical Gardens. There is an exceptional collection of exotic conifer, deciduous and native trees featured throughout the Gardens. These trees have reached a considerable size. The trees that really caught my attention were the giant sequoias, more commonly known as a redwood. There are 28 of these Sierra Redwoods in the Botanical Gardens, all planted between 1863 and 1874.
Redwoods are the tallest trees on earth, growing up to 300 feet high. Upon doing some research about these magnificent trees, I discovered that a redwood has shallow roots. Not what I was expecting for such gigantic trees! How do they not blow over in strong winds? Well, let me tell you! A redwood’s shallow but widespread roots help them survive by intertwining with the roots of other trees around them. Intertwined root systems provide stability to these mighty trees during strong winds and floods – quite literally holding one another down.
Redwoods are stronger together. What a beautiful picture of a thriving community! That’s what we aspire to create here at Avondale School. A community of people who are intertwined and supporting each other. That way, when we are buffeted by the inevitable storms of life, we have people to hold us steady and keep us grounded. We are stronger together.
“By yourself you’re unprotected. With a friend you can face the worst. Can you round up a third? A three-stranded rope is not easily broken.” Ecclesiastes 4:12 (The Message translation)
Mrs Kelly Morton
Assistant Head of Primary
Type on the line above then press the Enter/Return key to submit a new search query