HELPING hands from Beechworth Secondary College (BSC) students lightened the load for the Beechworth bush botanic garden working bee last week.

The project had been undertaken to restore the garden following recent flood damage from Spring Creek.

The creek had broken its banks, gushed into Lake Sambell, spilled across a section of the road and left both the native garden and Chinese Gardens were swamped under two metres of water.

A public opening to celebrate milestones of the bush botanic garden project had just taken place in September this year.

Local resident Mary Bould had joined close friend and neighbour the late Ali Garnet in leading the bush botanic garden project, created under the auspice of the Beechworth Urban Landcare Sustainability group (BULS) where many locals had helped to create the special garden.

Mary said as a native garden, all the plants and bushes had been resilient and had survived.

"Our working bee, with help from our secondary school kids who have done a marvellous job of shifting piles of mulch, has been wonderful," she said.

"It's good for them to see what's happening and be aware of the landcare situation as well as being connected in the community."

Beechworth Secondary College (BSC) year seven student Alistair Merritt said it had been important to help.

"We're really pleased to be here today helping the community where different generations are contributing," he said.

With students as volunteers to help, BSC Montessori Adolescent program (MAP) teacher and careers advisor Anthea Scott said their assistance had been a great opportunity for them to connect with older members of the community.

"Many hands make light work, and we have many young, enthusiastic hands from students making a contribution to their community," she said.

BULS member Nicki Munro said besides helping the community, the students gained valuable experience in volunteer service helping with post–disaster recovery.

"I think it is incredible bonding with our community," she said.

Nicki said the bush botanical garden had been well developed when the flood hit.

"A huge thank you to the shire where there has been enormous help with this project as well with dropping off mulch," she said.

Nicki said further funding is being sought for the project as well as the Spring Creek project that suffered ten times the damage.

"There's almost a hectare of plantings there that has been 10 years' worth of work (which is) now under nearly a metre of sediment, "she said.

"The damage there is huge and large earthworks have been undertaken to shore up the creek banks to prevent it from happening again."