A school is calling for anyone with information to come forward after children were left devastated by the theft of nine fruit trees from school grounds.
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The trees were removed two weekends ago from California Gully Primary School.
The citrus and stone fruit trees were planted in June last year. The school’s student wellbeing and family support worker Kerryn Phillips said students and parents had spent time caring for them through school terms and over holidays.
“They had just started to look really good and then one of our students came up to me and said ‘Kerryn, they are not there anymore’,” she said.
“The children were devastated. Believe it or not, last year they would argue over who got to water them. They were really quite proud of what was happening.”
The trees had been part of a long term vision for a community orchard for school families.
“If we had left overs we were going to donate them to our local community,” Ms Phillips said.
She said that these kinds of thefts were all-too-common occurrences at schools that attempted community-based food growing activities.
“Unfortunately there is a very small, small minority taking advantage of that and digging up trees,” Ms Phillips said.
“We want people to be aware that if they do see something they should let us know.”
Ms Phillips said lots of people had offered to donate trees to replace those stolen.
“We want to thank people who have kindly offered to do that,” she said.
Tom O'Callaghan
I grew up in Bendigo and I want to tell your stories.
I grew up in Bendigo and I want to tell your stories.
