Helen Tyas Tunggal
Helen Tyas
Tunggal has made a longstanding contribution to environmental education in a
variety of contexts ranging from:
·
The
development and implementation of the popular Learnscape Program first in NSW,
then Australia wide and finally to Europe and 20 countries overall throughout
the world. In its early stages this led to the publication of Hands on
Learnscapes, a sequential and development teaching and learning package using
the school grounds as a learning resource
·
Facilitated
Australia’s first school sponsored LEAP (Landcare and Environment Action
Program)
·
One of the
first to implement the original Environmental Education Statement from 1989 by
winning Rivercare 2000 Awards as the principal of Harwood Island Public School
and escorting students to Winchester in the UK to attend the Leave it to Us 1995
International Children’s Conference on the Environment.
·
Facilitated
collaborative planning and design workshops for school communities, working with
students, teachers, staff and community representatives to design school grounds
to improve learning, recreation choices and of curse the environment in general.
As
Principal of Harwood Island Public
School in the 1990s Helen embarked on a number of projects that still
survive today. The school became a waste recycling centre for the village of
Harwood Island and organic material from the school was sold back to the
community as potting mix.
Helen’s
contributions go well beyond Learnscapes of course although it is Learnscapes
that she will be long remembered for.
·
She is
known as the voice of the Clarence and the local environmental group Valley
Watch and is particularly vocal for writing letters to the papers on
inappropriate development and unsustainable management of natural resources
·
She
networks, liaises and where possible attends meetings with organisations like
the Clarence Environment Centre, The Regional Alliance for Sustainable Planning,
North Coast Environment Council and the North Coast NCC.
·
She is a
tireless volunteer in the local community being involved with many organisations
including Country Womens Association, Angourie Coastcare/Dunecare, Yamba
Skatepark Committee and Angourie Residents and Ratepayers Association
·
Through
Valley Watch and with financial support from NPWS she initiated a scientific
report into the management of urban flying fox colonies on the lower Clarence to
provide accurate information on appropriate management of the flying fox
colonies at Iluka as well as applications to colonies on the North Coast,
chairing the interagency/university steering committee which oversighted the
project
Her passion
for communication combined with her intuitive understanding of the complexities
of getting people to begin behaving more sustainably goes beyond making them
simply more aware but getting them to actually do something is first manifested in a number of educational
documents that she has developed and then through activities while she was a
teacher and then as a roving consultant.
Congratulations
Helen.
Mark
Caddey
PRESIDENT
AAEE
NSW Chapter
2007