International Seafood & Health Conference

Craig Waldon and Grayson Hart have been given a once in a life time opportunity to represent Djarragun College at the “International Seafood & Health Conference” and “Wonders and Opportunities of our Oceans Expo” at the Melbourne Conference and Exhibition Centre 6-9 November 2010. The boys were mentored by Mr Joe Coco and the 3 were sponsored by Agri-Food Skills Australia to set up a “Training and Careers” display and coordinate and present at the Expo. This all came about because of their outstanding performance at the Australasian Aquaculture Conference in Tasmania earlier this year.

Barramundi were supplied by a local farmer Mainstream Barramundi, Silver Perch from NMIT (North Melb Institute of TAFE), albino crayfish supplied by a Diploma student from NMIT and basil and lettuce supplied from VISC (Victorian Indigenous Seafood Council). The students had to put their skills on show and demonstrate how to acclimatise the fish before putting them in the tanks and maintain the water quality to keep them happy. Basil and lettuce were also transplanted into the shallow trays and had to be monitored.

The students had the opportunity to network with highly respected national and international Aquaculture and Medical experts as well as parliamentarians. The Parliamentary secretary for Fisheries Forestry and Agriculture “The Hon Dr Mike Kelly” was interested in talking to the boys on their future careers and commented that Aquaculture has a very important future to help balance the demand of seafood to feed the country and the world. The medical experts main message was that by eating 2 fish meals per week, minimised the risk of depression and also assisted the brain development of unborn children by the absorption of micronutrients that seafood have.

It is fair to say the boys learnt an awful lot and had a lot of fun to boot!
Well done to Mr Joe Coco for looking after the boys and taking your VET course to new levels.

Aquaculture News

I would like to praise John and Telita in year 10 for their fine efforts at the Aqualab on Monday. They set an exceptional example to the other students of taking responsibility for their actions during the day. John and Telita were persistent in getting the job done to clean down 2 tanks in the hot sun without being distracted by others who sporadically did some chores and then gave up and watched these 2 work so hard. They focussed on completing the job to a high standard and never once gave up or complained. Please pass on my appreciation to them. If they are given an award, I suggest the following: "Showing leadership values, persistence to finish the job and setting a great example to others".
Regards,
Joe Coco.

Aquaculture conference in Tasmania

Hello Jean
I am writing to both thank you and compliment you regarding the recent international aquaculture events in Tasmania.

I’d like to thank you for assisting Joe Coco to attend the AquaEd Workshop in Launceston. Joe is a vital part of the aquaculture educators network in Australia. He gave a couple of excellent presentations – one in particular detailing challenging (and impressively successful) training with indigenous students. Joe is popular and highly respected in the seafood industry and training circles, and I believe that the AquaEd Workshop would have been far the poorer without his manifold important, inspirational and interesting contributions.

I’d also like to compliment you, Djarragun College and Joe on the conduct of the two students – Craig and Grayson - who accompanied Joe during the two events. The daily activities throughout the events were often highly technical, frequently long and occasionally probably boring for those two young men. At all times, however, Grayson and Craig conducted themselves in an absolutely exemplary manner, which I know (from private comments during the events) was noticed and noted by many influential people from industry and educational organisations from all over Australia. They were very, very good ambassadors for Djarragun College.

So thank you Jean, and my compliments to you on your excellent work.

Yours sincerely,
Peter Preece
Aquaculture Coordinator
TAFE SA Urrbrae Campus

Here is another vote of confidence from Roy Palmer

Aquaculture interview on ABC Radio

Ginger Gorman came to Djarragun College to conduct an interview on ABC Radio about the school's Aquaculture program. Ginger interviewed Mr Mathew, Craig Waldon and Grayson Hart. Click on the link to hear what's happening...