Victorian Landcare Magazine - Summer 2020, Issue 77
2019 was an action-packed year for Aboriginal Landcare filled with new partnerships, new projects and new ways of understanding each other to get the job done. It will be exciting to see this continue into 2020.
An Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Guide has been produced to assist Landcare and environmental volunteer groups and networks to better understand the state’s Aboriginal cultural heritage management process and increase appreciation of cultural heritage throughout our rich landscapes. The guide encourages the community to work actively with Traditional Owners. The guide is available from the Landcare Gateway www.landcarevic.org.au (search for Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Guide).
The Victorian Rabbit Action Network held a Cultural Heritage Awareness and Rabbit Management Workshop at Neds Corner Station in the Mallee in October 2019. The workshop brought community and government land managers together to experience best practice rabbit control at highly sensitive Aboriginal sites. The workshop participants learnt that partnerships with Traditional Owners are vital to the successful delivery of weed and pest control in these areas.
For more information email jackson.chatfield@delwp.vic.gov.au or call Jackson on 0419 504 451.
The Corangamite Rural Women’s Network celebrated the International Day of Rural Women at Pennyroyal in October 2019. The Rural Financial Counselling Service, Farming Community Support Program and farm succession planning were discussed at the event.
Congratulations to the region’s project and group support grant recipients as part of the 2019/20 Victorian Landcare Grants. There are some exciting projects including a range of on-ground engagement activities and environmental improvement works.
We are currently working with our Landcare network chairs, Landcare facilitators and agricultural stakeholders to set future directions for sustainable agriculture in the region.
RMIT Creative Communications students have been let loose to help us communicate the value of Landcare to the community using a variety of innovative media and communications techniques.
For more information visit www.ccma.vic.gov.au (What we do/Community Landcare) or contact Elisia Dowling on 0418 397 521.
The region’s Landcarers are still being impacted by drought. Group members are spending a significant amount of time watering seedlings to ensure their survival. The Tambo Bluff Coastcare Landcare Group and the Eastwood Landcare Group received funding to purchase water carts from the Australian Government Stronger Communities Program and Australian Government Volunteer Grants.
Landcare Week activities included a gathering of the East Gippsland Landcare Network at The Abbey on Raymond Island where members shared what they do and why they do it. Landcare groups from the Far East Victoria Landcare Network gathered in Orbost to share information.
A fantastic mix of projects and groups have received Victorian Landcare Grants across the region and are excited to begin delivering their projects.
For more information visit www.egcma.com.au (What we do/Landcare) or contact Carolyn Cameron on 5150 3682.
An international biochar field site tour was held at Portland last October. More than 100 delegates visited the biochar demonstration site at Gorea West. The Southwest Environmental Alliance has been running the trial site for the last four years to investigate biochar use in agriculture.
Victorian Landcare Grants contracts have now been signed by the successful groups and networks. The additional funding made available from the Victorian Government was welcomed by the CMA with five group projects being funded with the extra Victorian Landcare Grants funds.
The CMA is running a photographic competition to celebrate wetlands. The region’s thousands of wetlands have abundant wildflowers, plants and animals. Entries close on 1 March 2020. For further information contact Jan Barton on 5571 2526.
For more information visit www.ghcma.vic.gov.au (Get involved/Landcare) or contact Tony Lithgow on 5571 2526.
Here’s hoping our hardworking Landcare community had a great festive season and are ready to take on the challenges of natural resource management in 2020.
Projects are moving along well in the region, which is a great effort considering the difficult seasonal conditions. Landcare continues to deliver innovative programs that provide information on land management for our diverse range of managers across the catchment.
In the first half of 2020 we will be providing training for community members and Landcare facilitators in group/network governance and Aboriginal cultural heritage with funding from the Victorian Landcare Program.
For more information visit www.gbcma.vic.gov.au (Community natural resource management) or contact Tony Kubeil on 5761 1619.
The 2019/20 Victorian Landcare Grants recipients are actively working on their various projects including pest plant and animal control, track works, ecological surveys, habitat creation and revegetation. Many Landcare groups are taking advantage of dry conditions to control broadscale rabbit infestations, with pest plant treatment to occur when conditions are favourable.
We thank the outgoing Regional Landcare Coordinator James Walker for his role in administering the Victorian Landcare Grants program and wish him all the best for his future endeavours. Welcome to incoming Regional Landcare Coordinator Nelson Burand-Hicks. Nelson is from the Hunter Valley in NSW and has a background in environmental community engagement and project management.
For more information visit www.malleecma.vic.gov.au (Get involved/Landcare) or contact Nelson Burand-Hicks on 5051 4373.
The achievements of the 2018/19 Victorian Landcare Grants projects have been published through the most recent North Central Landcare Report Card. We look forward to supporting the current projects in the coming year.
We wish to recognise and thank Kevin Spence from the Buloke and Northern Grampians Landcare Network for his many years of service and dedication to the farmers, schools and local communities around the St Arnaud region. We also welcome several new local Landcare facilitators to the team.
Training opportunities in weed mapping, citizen science, platypus monitoring and media and communications are being planned. Landcare network facilitators are also undertaking training through the third peer-to-peer networking event, planned for March 2020.
For more information visit www.nccma.vic.gov.au (Landcare) or contact Tess Grieves on 5440 1890.
A large cohort of Landcare representatives from across Victoria were among the more than 200 attendees at the National Nature Resource Management Knowledge Conference held in Wodonga in November 2019. The conference was hosted by NRM Regions Australia with support from the North East CMA. The theme focused on creating resilience through natural resource management.
Landcare and community groups have been working with the Atlas of Living Australia (ALA) to test and improve new forms for nest box monitoring projects. Swamps Rivers & Ranges helped develop the streamlined forms which are now used for all nest box projects on the ALA Biocollect system. Greta Valley and Burgoigee Landcare Groups have been testing the system, assisted by project officer Sally Day.
The Ovens Landcare Network and member groups thanked and farewelled Local Landcare Facilitator Gayle South at the end of 2019.
For more information visit www.necma.vic.gov.au (Landcare and community projects) or contact Tom Croft on 02 6043 7648.
The CMA ran a two-day Landcare Facilitator training event at Moorabool and Werribee in November 2019. Representatives from Wadawurrung Aboriginal Corporation explained the deep spiritual connection and practicalities of life of the Aboriginal people of the Western Volcanic Plains over millennia.
Participants visited Mt Rothwell Conservation Centre where remnant populations of eastern barred bandicoot, brush-tailed rock-wallaby and eastern quoll are protected. The achievements of the CMA-led Grow West project were also featured during the event.
The CMA signed a partnership agreement with Middle Yarra Landcare Network, whose activities centre around Warrandyte and other outer eastern suburbs, in December 2019.
Rob Fallon has joined the Northern Yarra Landcare Network and Lauren Linke has joined the Upper Deep Creek Landcare Network as new Landcare Facilitators.
For more information visit ppwcma.vic.gov.au (Landcare and Sustainable Agriculture) or contact Barry Kennedy on 9971 6506.
Regenerative agriculture continues to be a trending topic in the region with two sold-out workshops run by Maffra and Districts Landcare Network. The field days focused on cover cropping with Colin Seis and grazing management with Graeme Hand.
South Gippsland Landcare Network launched its Enhancing Soil Biology project which will run for the next two years and include forums and field days plus training for 30 farmers to set up soil biology demonstration sites to trial aeration, seaweed and mycorrhizal fungi.
Members of Yarram Yarram Landcare Network have been getting wet in Corner Inlet undertaking the largest community-led seagrass restoration project ever attempted in Australia. The network, in partnership with the commercial fishing industry, will replant 200 hectares of broadleaf seagrass over the coming two years. (See page 20.)
For more information visit wgcma.vic.gov.au (Getting involved/Landcare) or contact Kathleen Brack on 5613 5966.
Planning is underway with Barengi Gadjin Land Council (BGLC) and the statewide Aboriginal Landcare Facilitator for a Traditional Owner and Landcare engagement project to be delivered in coming months.
The project will provide further opportunities to build relationships between Traditional Owners, community members and Landcarers, while contributing to BGLC’s Growing What is Good Country Plan – Voices of the Wotjobaluk Nations.
The Wimmera Machinery Field Days will be held at Longerenong on 3-5 March 2020.
The annual junior Landcare Nature Connection day with Chris Humfrey will be held at the Horsham Fishing Competition on 8 March 2020, and the Harmony Day and Landcare celebration with Sophie Thomson will be held in Horsham on 27 March 2020 to coincide with the International Year of Plant Health.
Wimmera Landcarers were saddened by the passing of Geoff Handbury in November 2019. Geoff and his wife Helen, through the Handbury Foundation and their extraordinary philanthropic support of Landcare in western Victoria, have left a unique legacy in the local landscape. Landcarers who were fortunate enough to know and work with Geoff were inspired by his knowledge and his enthusiasm for community-driven environmental efforts.
For more information visit www.wcma.vic.gov.au (Get involved/Landcare) or contact Joel Boyd on 5382 9919.