Morawa students remind drivers to keep safe on country roads

A Mid West school is doing its part to help reduce country-road deaths and injuries by transforming old satellite dishes and banners into colourful road-safety signs. Morawa District High School last year won a RoadWise grant to commission WA artist Paula Hart to host creative workshops with students. Hart helped students develop their designs inspired by road-safety messages and paint them on recycled 1.8m satellite dishes and banners. Student-designed road safety banners were installed along Winfield Street as part of a similar project in 2019. Principal Tonia Carslake said the school had wanted to do another road-safety project with a focus on sustainability and reducing waste. “We had a real focus on wanting to do something that was a bit more sustainable for the environment, so we recycled two really big satellite dishes and some banners to go on the entry of the town,” she said. “The messages are about road safety and what our Mid West data tells us, which is that speed kills and not wearing your seat belts also kills.” The signs are now with the Shire of Morawa, which has identified two locations on Wubin-Mullewa Road as potential sites for the satellite dishes. The Shire has also agreed to replace damaged bushfire banners with the new road-safety banners.