NEARLY 300 pupils from eight Wimmera schools learnt about safety and farming at the Wallup GrainCorp Kids Safe Event on Wednesday.
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Grade three and four pupils from St Michael and Johns Primary School, Holy Trinity Lutheran School, Horsham Primary School Rasmussen campus, Dimboola Primary School, St Peter's Primary School Dimboola, Warracknabeal Primary School, St Mary's Primary School Warracknabeal and Minyip Primary School attended.
Wallup Ag Group president Bruce Crafter said activities included learning about fire safety with the CFA, farm machinery and chemicals.
"We just gave them basic safety tips about farm machinery, like where to stand and what to wear,'' he said.
"The CFA filled a room up with smoke to simulate a house fire and the kids got to squirt a house on the fire truck.''
Mr Crafter said pupils also learnt about general farming.
"There were all different types of grain so we taught them about what we grow around here,'' he said.
"We tried to give them a basic knowledge on farming.''
Mr Crafter said although 90 per cent of the pupils didn't live on a farm, many visited farms through friends or family.
He said GrainCorp also sponsored a poster competition, rewarding the schools with a cash prize for those who went to the most effort while Wimmera machinery dealers provided prizes for individual winners.
"The posters also give us feedback on what the kids know about farm safety,'' he said.
Mr Crafter said the event, held every second year for the past 12 years, was started to help prevent child deaths on farms.
"Not many people realise we live in our workplace, and we needed to create awareness about it. Not everybody's parents go to work in a factory,'' he said.