National Water Week

Goulburn Valley Water / Community / National Water Week

National Water Week is celebrated during October each year across Australia.
To celebrate National Water Week, we organise free events, competitions and activities for school students and members of the community.

Water Week celebrations help raise awareness of the need to value and conserve water as a precious resource that brings life and prosperity to our region.

This year we acknowledged climate change and environmental issues by having Rushworth based landscaping advocate Louise Costa speak to gardeners in our southern region. She spoke at a Kilmore event, while the week also included facility tours of our Daldy Road Wastewater Management Facility at Shepparton North, a number of events at our partner schools and the wonderful Water Night event.

There were almost 200 househols from our region that registered for Water Night, which involved them turning off all non-essential taps for a five hour period.

This year, 5000 children from 40 primary schools were involved in a story book competition under the all-encompassing title of A Watery Adventure.
Each of the students were given a blank booklet that they could create a children's book with the theme A Watery Adventure.

Congratulations to all of our winners, who are listed below.

Our tour of the Shepparton Wastewater Management Facility attracted a number of people, who were given an insight into the farming operation and storage lagoons.

The winning stories were not only printed and placed in regional libraries, but they were also given to our Water Only kindergartens as learning material. There are 70 pre-schools registered with program, where children and teachers make a commitment to have water as their first choice of hydration during operating hours.

The four overall winners also received a gift voucher and were given the chance to read their book at a local kindergarten during the Water Week celebrations.

WINNER: Prep-Grade 2

Hannah Potter - Grade one, St Anne's College, Kialla.
The Thirsty Cat: A thirsty cat who goes in search of water has to wait before satisfying her thirst. To listen to Hannah read her book click here.

WINNER: Grade 3-4

Audrey Gacus - St Mel's Primary, Shepparton
Rainy's Show Down: Rainy the rain drop has to wait for the sun to come out before setting sail for Tasmania. To listen to Audrey read her book click here.

WINNER: Grade 5-6

Indiana Brennan - Grade six, Katunga Primary School
The Adventure of a Water Drop: A family of water drops experience the water cycle, then repeat the process. To listen to Indiana read her book click here.

Winner - Inclusive

Damien Peterson, Verney Road School, Shepparton
The Sailor's Treasure: Sailing is thirsty work and after finding treasure a sailor returns home for a drink. To listen to Damian read his book click here.

Silly Scarecrow Competition

Our Silly Scarecrow competition has been a big part of our Water Week activities for the last five years and this year we are again offered kindergarten and pre-school children the chance to decorate the usually field-bound creations in water related poses.

The winner of the competition was Shepparton's Wyndham Early Learning Centre. They built a solar powered scarecrow, who took on a tin man look and was channelling his inner Terry Tap (also in the photo) with his facial features - a tap for a nose.

If you look closely, you can see the solar panel on top of the Scarecrows hat, which powers a reticulation system that pumps water from the tap (nose) of the scarecrow, down the blue hose and into the watering can.