![\"UWA](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/3e27676e21bfc288a91cdbad770e608b086d92b2.jpg\")
Camera IconUWA student Catalina Cox volunteered at the Coastal Futures day to revegetate the damaged beach. Credit: Supplied<\/p>\nPerth students have kicked off national youth volunteer week with a major project to restore one of the State\u2019s most vulnerable coastal environments.<\/p>\n
TAFE and university students across WA planted more than 2000 native seedlings at North Fremantle\u2019s Sandtrax Beach last week after the dunes were again battered by winter storms.<\/p>\n
High tides and powerful winds exceeding 100km\/h destabilise the sand dunes and cause severe coastal erosion every year, but local young people decided to take a stand for the popular beach by participating in the Coastal Futures Challenge.<\/p>\n
Camera IconUWA student Catalina Cox volunteered at the Coastal Futures day to revegetate the damaged beach. Credit: Supplied<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s always good to get out and meet new people. I thought it would be nice to get out on a Wednesday morning and be outside, and do some good for the environment,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s always nice to do something hands-on, and feel like you\u2019re actually contributing to it, not just donating money. It\u2019s easy to say you\u2019re helping the environment, but to actually go out there and be physically planting, it feels really good.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will be so nice if I were to go to that beach again and see those plants growing, evidence that this sort of small local impact can make a global change.\u201d<\/p>\n
The event was hosted by Perth NRM with support from Volunteering WA and the City of Fremantle.<\/p>\n
Students arrived to the beach early in the morning to learn how to plant the seedlings and why the work was important to combat coastal erosion.<\/p>\n
The first year university student said she met lots of new people from different universities, which was a meaningful part of the volunteering experience.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s a great way to meet like-minded people, and there are so many volunteer opportunities within whatever sector people are interested in,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a great way to make connections within your field, and I think it\u2019s really important for young people to feel like they can make a change by getting this hands-on.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe get so much media saying \u2018the world\u2019s going to end and there\u2019s nothing you can do about it\u2019, but I think getting out there, meeting people, having a great vibe and feeling like you\u2019re making a difference just spreads this positivity and hope for the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Sandtrax rehabilitation project hit Fremantle shores just before national youth volunteer week, which runs from August 10 to 16 and celebrates the impact young people can make through volunteering.<\/p>\n
WA\u2019s 2025 volunteering report revealed 78.2 per cent of people aged under 25 are involved in some form of volunteer work.<\/p>\n
Volunteering WA chief executive officer Tina Williams said this not only benefits the community, but the volunteers themselves.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf children volunteer before the age of 13, they\u2019re around 28 per cent less likely to experience poor mental health in later life, which is huge,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYounger people are more socially isolated and lonely than ever before … we know regular volunteering reduces the risk of being lonely and isolated by about 75 per cent.\u201d<\/p>\n
University student volunteering opportunities are organised annually, and Ms Williams said it was powerful to see the young faces getting involved at Sandtrax this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe mix of people that were there learning about their studies, but also giving them that connection to community and to each other through volunteering is really important,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an opportunity for them to come together and do something great for themselves, have a sense of belonging, a sense of purpose, and be able to meet other people.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 2026 national youth volunteer week is themed \u2018year to lead\u2019, and recognises that leadership begins by taking action.<\/p>\n
Ms Williams said volunteering can range from putting out a neighbour\u2019s bin to helping at a Bunnings sausage sizzle, and encouraged anyone interested to check the Volunteering WA website for opportunities near them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Perth students have kicked off national youth volunteer week with a major project to restore one of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":71343,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[3683,4317,152,335,4316,464],"class_list":["post-71342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-perth","tag-environment","tag-fremantle","tag-news","tag-perth","tag-south","tag-wa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71342\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}