Seventeen Lismore Landcare members recently participated in a 4 day Landcare bus tour to the Wimmera looking at farms, Landcare projects and meeting Landcare members from a different region.
A privately owned Trust for Nature covenanted block near Donald was visited where native seed gets harvested and wildflowers were in bloom. Several threatened species of plants were being protected on the property and a fire regime was used as part of the native grassy woodland management.
Cropping farms were then inspected at Corack, past a very full Lake Buloke; and the group spent the following day looking at projects of the Birchip Cropping Group where Cereal crop and Canola cultivar trials were of interest to all.
The group then travelled to Lake Hindmarsh and stayed at the Little Desert Nature Lodge south of Nhill, where Mallee Fowl and Bandicoots roam in predator free enclosures. Hindmarsh Landcare Network projects were visited including a property just south of the Big Desert where sand dunes were being revegetated with indigenous species using direct seeding. In an adjoining property impressive stands of Lucerne were growing in paddocks where clay had been incorporated into the very sandy soils.
An organic farm was visited near Jeparit where salt bush was also extensively planted and grazed by sheep. Compost tea was used as fertiliser in crop paddocks.
The Project Platypus Landcare office was visited in Stawell along with farm tours at Great Western where thousands of trees had been recently planted by community group members on hilly farmland.
The Landcare bus trip was supported by funding from the Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry under FarmReady, part of Australia’s Farming Future. In 2012 the group plans to visit Landcare projects along the Limestone Coast.