Braving the rainy weather, the students gathered around a freshly prepared garden bed, ready for a butterfly garden planting session with the PTP Alliance and Deidre and Steve from Bringing Back the Butterflies.

The students have spent the past few weeks curating which plant species they would like in the garden and learning about which corresponding butterflies the species would attract.

Based on these learnings Deidre and Steve carefully selected tube stock plants, including:

• Sweet Apple Berry (Billlardiera cymose)
• Australian Pig Face (Carpobrotus Rossi)
• Australian Saltbush (Atriplex semibaccata)
• Coastal Umbrella Bush (Acacia cupularis)
• Native Oxalis (Oxalis perennans)
• Golden Everlasting Daisy (Xerochrysm bracteatum)

These plants will establish, with the warmer weather in the coming months, and soon the students will be able to see some butterflies fluttering amongst the foliage.

The PTP Alliance collaborated with Bringing Back the Butterflies to deliver their community initiative- to assist schools and community groups to plant out endemic butterfly attracting species, to help preserve native flora and fauna and assist pollination in the natural environment.

To continue this great initiative, the PTP Alliance has created an area for a butterfly garden in the Ovingham Level Crossing Removal project landscaping. More information on this will be available soon!