The
Archibull at Winmalee
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| Winmalee's Deputy Principal Mrs Facas Visual Arts Teacher Miss Allen and students enjoying lunch with Archie |
Winmalee High School is in New South
Wales, Australia. Winmalee is located 80 kilometres west of Sydney. Winmalee is
surrounded by the Blue Mountains National Park. This National Park is on the
World Heritage List and is known as the Greater Blue Mountains Area World
Heritage Site.
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| Winmalee |
As you can see our school is surrounded by bushland and housing estates, this doesn’t leave room for agriculture. Students at Winmalee do not interact with farming in their day to day lives.
This year students will learn about the Beef and Cattle Industry leading to a better understanding of why sustainable farming is so important to Australia.
'Singer' The Cotton Cow
This is the
second year that students at Winmalee High school will have the opportunity to
take part in the Archibull program. Last year students created ‘Singer’ who received
a warm welcome back to the green pastures of the Visual Arts department.
‘Singer’ was
a Archibull prize winner of excellence. The design of ‘Singer’ is a
contemporary portrayal of the cotton industry with one side an intricately
detailed depiction of an old-fashioned Singer sewing machine. This is
juxtaposed against a highly driven consumerism side which scans viewers via a
giant barcode with interactive lights and sound. ‘Singer’ also has its own pest
management system inbuilt with clouds of ladybirds which are good for cotton as
they eat the destructive aphids. Winmalee’s 2012 ‘Singer’ was displayed at the 2013 Royal Easter show at Olympic Park and viewed by many people.
According to Mrs Rowston Head Teacher of Visual Arts, “Students critical and creative thinking was challenged in this program as they learnt about the agricultural and environmental difficulties that cotton farmers in Australia face. Students were challenged by Miss Pinto to think outside the box and look beyond their local environment. ‘Singer’ visually represents collaboration and creative excellence”.
Check out 'Singer' and friends
Archie- Just one of the students at Winmalee
Over the past two weeks Archie has been out and about meeting the students of Winmalee High school. The interaction between students and Archie raised some interesting points about farming in Australia. Straight away students identified myths about cattle farming and the effects it can have on the environment. After talking to students and reading the material the team was able to put students minds at ease and a sure them the information they believed to be true was in fact fiction.
As part of our Archibull prize journey our school is given a blank life size fibre glass cow which we use to create an artwork with the focus theme:
"What does it take to sustainably feed and clothe your community for a day?
You can see the stats to feed Sydney here
Did you know?
It takes 400,00 cows to provide the population of Sydney with it's 3 serves of dairy every day.
Australia has nearly 27 million cattle and 2.5 million dairy cattle.
Australian farmers care for over 60% of Australia's landscape.
93% of the food we eat is grown in Australia.
THE 2013 YOUNG FARMING CHAMPIONS
BEEF
Sponsored by Meat and Livestock Australia Target 100 program
"My passion is agriculture and I am proud to say I love my beef cows! Every day I know that I am contributing to help feed the world – and I also love what I do. Agriculture is an exciting place to be, yes there are challenges but there are also endless different opportunities within agriculture and that is something I hope to share and encourage a new generation to take on the challenge to help feed the world!"
To watch Jasmine talk a little about herself click here
