Carlton Preschool (PreSchool – Year 9)
“We are from different seas, but we all swim together.”
It’s a simple message at the heart of a colourful new mural taking shape at Carlton Preschool in Port Augusta – and one that captures much more than its school of painted fish. The mural is about connection: between children and families, between different services sharing one community, and between the land people live on and the marine environments nearby. For the children of Carlton Preschool, those ideas have grown naturally from something they already love to do – play. Now, their fascination with fishing and the sea has helped Carlton Preschool become South Australia’s state winner in Keep Australia Beautiful’s Paint Australia Beautiful campaign.
Following the children’s lead
The idea for Carlton Preschool’s mural began in the playground. Although the beach can’t be seen from the preschool, it isn’t far away – and fishing has become a recurring theme in the children’s imaginative play. They pretend to fish, catch one another and explore ideas inspired by the marine environment around Port Augusta. Educators followed that interest, and eventually those games became the inspiration for a fish-themed mural.
Around 25 preschool-aged and younger children have been involved in designing and painting metal fish for the project, with approximately 15 older school students also expected to participate. Adults from across the community will join in too, learning wet-painting techniques to create the reeds that form part of the mural.
For Preschool Director Maggie Kamin, who is coordinating the project, the process has provided an opportunity to bring together the preschool, school, families and community services around a shared goal. The children, meanwhile, have been able to watch something they helped imagine gradually come to life.
Different fish, swimming together
Each part of the mural carries meaning. The fish represent the different people and families who make up the Carlton community, while the blue background represents water. Together, the fish all swim in the same direction – a visual representation of people from different backgrounds moving forward together.
There is also a practical reason for their journey. Carlton Preschool sits within the Port Augusta Children’s Centre, where several services and buildings share the site. The fish have been positioned to guide families towards the centre’s access door: “follow the fish to the door”.
The mural has already become a collaborative project across the wider site. Children and staff from occasional care have participated alongside playgroup families, with school teachers, support staff and other community members also planning to take part. The preschool hopes even more people will add their contribution as the mural develops. That collaboration reflects the close-knit community Carlton is part of.
The preschool was established in 2017 as part of a process to bring early years education into the existing school community. While the preschool itself is relatively young, the school has a much longer history – its connection across generations is reflected in the fact that the current principal once attended the school as a student. The school has strong connections to Aboriginal culture and community while welcoming families from across the wider Port Augusta community. It is a place where, as Carlton describes it, people know one another and support one another “like a big family”.
Inspired by Port Augusta
The environment surrounding Carlton Preschool has also shaped the mural. Port Augusta sits between marine environments and the landscapes leading towards the Flinders Ranges, an area to which many school families have connections. Emus, kangaroos, wattles and saltbush are part of the wider landscape, while the waters around Port Augusta support a vibrant marine environment. Most of the fish chosen for the mural represent species found in local waters – with one playful exception. The seahorses may not be local, but Carlton decided they were welcome visitors anyway.
There is distinctive plant life within the school grounds, too. An abundance of quandong trees grows across the site. The native wild peach can be difficult to grow, but thrives at Carlton, where children collect the seeds and incorporate them into their play. That kind of interaction with natural materials is becoming an increasingly important part of learning at the preschool.
The environment as the third teacher
Over the past year, Carlton Preschool has been rethinking its outdoor spaces around the idea of the environment as a “third teacher”. Rather than seeing the playground simply as the backdrop for learning, educators are creating spaces where the natural environment itself encourages children to explore, question, imagine and play. Unused garden beds have been relocated so they can be better cared for, while the preschool is developing “garden rooms” and other areas designed to create intrigue and invite nature-based play. The transformation has required some serious work.
Two large hills and enormous Yakka bushes were removed during the redevelopment, along with more than six tonnes of boulders. The newly opened space is now being planned around children’s interests in fishing and nature. A native flower garden has also been established, with the intention that children will eventually be able to pick flowers to use in their mud-kitchen creations.
Next comes an edible community garden, designed not only for children but for families across the school community to use and enjoy. Children are already actively caring for their environment, including watering new plants each day and helping shape plans for what their outdoor space will become.
Caring for the land means caring for the sea
For Carlton, sustainability is closely connected to the way children play. Educators encourage nature play and the use of loose parts, helping children discover that a quandong seed, gumnut or branch can be just as valuable for imaginative play as a manufactured object. That means questioning the need for materials such as plastic straws, foam shapes and stickers and considering what the surrounding environment can provide instead.
Children are also learning that resources such as water are not infinite and need to be treated with care. The mural takes those conversations one step further by connecting what happens on land with what happens in the ocean. Its message is that caring for the land is also a way of caring for the sea. Reducing plastic, respecting natural resources and looking after the places where we live and play can help keep beaches and marine environments healthy.
Already, the project is prompting children to ask more questions about the sea life found around Port Augusta and what other creatures might live at their local beaches. The preschool hopes those conversations will continue to grow – encompassing marine life, beach and water safety, plastic pollution and Aboriginal perspectives on caring for land and sea.
A mural that will keep growing
Being named South Australia’s state winner has been a source of both pride and surprise for the Carlton community. For the preschool, however, completing the mural isn’t intended to be the end of the story. The plan is for it to continue changing alongside the community itself.
Each year, Carlton hopes to host a “fish painting day”, inviting new families to paint their own metal fish to add to the mural. As new children arrive, new fish will join the school. Over time, what begins as a Paint Australia Beautiful project can become a living record of the families who have passed through Carlton – while continuing to spark conversations about sustainability and the environment.
And as that school of fish grows, so too will the message behind it. What we do on land affects the waterways, beaches and marine life around us. What one person does can affect another. And while every child, family and community member may come from somewhere different, they are all part of something bigger.
Different seas, perhaps – but at Carlton Preschool, everyone swims together.