Here’s How you Can Use a Satellite Dish to Save a Wombat, Kangaroo, Snake, or Birds

By Tony Bosworth, Editor Hawkesbury Post

The folks in the Macdonald Valley will launch their new Valley for Wildlife community initiative this coming month with a series of artistic and imaginative signs using old satellite dishes to remind drivers to slow down and watch out for wildlife crossing.

Led by local Stephen Brown, a past President of the Macdonald Valley Association, which is the organisation behind the innovative art project, the initiative will see designs created by local school students bought to life on recycled satellite dishes.

The idea of using the redundant dishes came from one of the Valley’s popular school teachers – Louky Gibb.

“One of the things that I love about the valley is the amount of special wildlife in the area, be that the rare rock wallabies, wombats, bird life, or even our wide variety of snakes,” says Mr Brown.

“As custodians, it’s up to us to care for them and their environment and that’s what Valley for Wildlife plans to do across the whole community.”

The community will have the opportunity to bring out their artistic side under the expert eye of Webbs Creek artist, Luke Kelly, who is well known for his colourful wildlife artworks, and not least for his great work on an ugly water tank at Macdonald PS, which we wrote about here.

“As an artist, I take great inspiration from the wild life that we find in our area,” Mr Kelly says.

“I have a real appreciation for the beauty of our birds and other animals and love recreating this in my art. I was thrilled when Valley for Wildlife asked me to be part of this project to create a unique community art project that will hopefully remind people that we share the roads with some special animals.”

Once completed, the signs will be erected in road kill high impact zones around the valley.

The Valley for Wildlife Signage Workshop will be held in the afternoon of June 25, following the official launch of the new initiative. All paints and materials will be provided for the community painting session.

It’s on Saturday 25th June from 1.00pm at St Albans School of Arts, with all costs sponsored by the MVA Wellbeing program.

If you’re looking to go along, it’s important to RSVP via email at: valleyforwildlife@ macdonaldvalleyassociation.org.au