Every teacher has applauded our design. Not one has complained about the ant colonies; and rightly so. The ants belong as much as the gum trees do. Indeed, why should we sanitize the bush?

“Go to the ant,” said a wise man centuries ago. And he was right. For industry, social consciousness, personal sacrifice for the common good, and overall sense of who they are, and what they have to do, the ant is a model for survival. Truly an issue human society needs to pay attention to. Just check the statistics for Lifeline to see what I mean.

The purple-coloured meat ants are our local species. They are in the Iridomyrmex genus and surprisingly they play a significant role in local ecology. Also called gravel ants, which accounts for our fellows liking the local granite, they are 10mm long, are mostly scavengers, eating remains of animals and plant debris. They are the ‘carpet cleaners’ of the scrub.

Meat ants have a symbiotic relationship with certain butterfly caterpillars. Local farmers use them to remove animal carcasses from the land. Two weeks and all you have left is bones. Some reports show meat ants will attack, kill and eat cane toads! Colonies can have some 64,000 ants who don’t have stings. Instead they overwhelm their prey with numbers and tenacity; plus the odd bite. Some spiders and beetles even rely on these ants for food. Maybe an echidna will come our way. We are ready.

Perhaps it is good for adults and children to practice awareness in the bush. If they step lively and are focused, maybe they won’t step on a frenzy of ants. This ‘bush alertness’ may also prevent them from stepping on a brown snake in Goonoo forest.

The bush is a living organism which needs all its components, including the meat ants. In this age of plastic we are so fortunate to have the real deal; an organic, self-sustaining bushland.