WHO ARE WE, & WHAT DO WE DO?

The Year 9 Involvement Group RAF (Reptiles, Amphibians and Fish) grew from the Aquarium and Hothouse Year 9 Involvement Group when in 1999 we expanded our interests from fish to more "exotic" displays. The Science Faculty paid for five Green Tree Frogs (Litoria caerulea) and accompanying aquarium and applied for a permit from the department of Natural Resources and the Environment.

On the completion of the upgraded science department in 1999 each of the four general science rooms was designated a colour scheme which reflected an area of nature, these were:

Over time the original themes to the rooms have, to a certain degree, been forgotten however the “Tropical” room still houses our Green Tree Frog display and a South East Asian community tank, the “Desert” room still houses our Blue Tongue Lizard and a small Lombardoi Species Tank and the “Freshwater” room houses our Amazon community tank. It was not possible to accommodate a marine tank in the “Marine” room, as we do not have the time or resources to maintain such a set-up, therefore we settled with a Central American cichlid tank.

Research for the above displays involves a number of school run excursions to places such as local aquarium shops, Melbourne Zoo and Melbourne Aquarium to make sure that appropriate ecosystems are created and well maintained.

Members spend the majority of days in the science rooms to complete the daily tasks, which include feeding animals, cleaning and updating displays and breeding tanks, and other general maintenance tasks.

We are also investigating using the school hot house to propagate a range of plants (including aquatic plants) for use by ourselves, the Science faculty and school in general.

Although RAF is officially a year 9 involvement program the majority of our members are students who after joining in year 9 remain members throughout their school lives.

This site was developed to allow us to communicate and share information with both similar groups from other schools, and individual hobbyists. Throughout this site you will find various articles topics as well as photo galleries and profiles of our setups.