A fresh group of faces, eager to help out and get their hands dirty arrived at the Arid Recovery office last Friday morning. Arid Recovery is pleased to be involved in the 5th Prisoner Reintegration Employment Opportunity Program, working with Port Augusta Prison, Exceptional Recruitment and BHP Billiton.
After an introduction to what Arid Recovery is all about, the boys were piled into cars and headed out to the Reserve. Arid Recovery staff joined in with the PREOP boys, pointing out the unique aspects of our fence design, and few tricks of the trade when it comes to wrangling foot netting. It wasn’t long before a 100m roll of wire was clipped on to the fence and neatly covered over with an assortment of rocks and sand.
“It was exciting to see how much they could do in such a short amount of time!” exclaimed Scientific Field Officer, Anni Walsh. “It usually takes me half an hour to struggle with a couple of metres of foot netting, but these guys had 100m done in the same amount of time.”
Some of the PREOP participants getting stuck in to the foot netting at the Reserve.
Not only were the boys keen to help out with the fencing, but they also showed an interest in the native wildlife, learning a little about the different tracks the Arid Recovery big four leave behind. They were also keen to find out exactly how we knew what feral cats had been eating, and are now keen to take up the challenge set by the last PREOP camp of 7 feral cats.
The boys will return to the Reserve several times over the course of the next two months, assisting with a range of tasks. Already obtaining their fork lift and loader tickets, the boys will continue their training including resume writing, interview training and safety inductions before hopefully securing position interviews. In between this they will be returning to the Reserve several times over the course of the next two months, assisting with a range of tasks including an upgrade to the viewing platform and erection of a fence.
