The annual Landcare Awards are on again this year in Winter at Government House in Melbourne.
Landcare Awards Victoria Australia.
The annual Landcare Awards are on again this year in June at Government House in Melbourne.
These awards acknowledge best practise Landcare in our state.
Landcare Awards are given both to individuals and groups to recognise extraordinary efforts to improve and enhance our environment.
Everyone nominated for a Landcare Award is an ambassador for promoting sustainable management of Victoria’s natural resources. Past winners are innovators and leaders and their efforts are inspirational.
Some of the Mallee’s past winners of the Heather Mitchell Memorial Fellowship include Glennis McKee from Murrayville and Malcolm Thompson (2003) from Nyah. Malcolm is the Western Murray Landcare Co-ordinator and has co-ordinated the Nyah West, Waitchie, Ultima, Swan Hill West and Mid Murray Landcare Groups for many years. He has a passion for Mallee landscapes and puts nearly all of his waking hours into working to restore them. He has the special ability to find the connection between planning and implementation. His knowledge of the Mallee and its many local groups and organisations means he is always on the lookout to link projects together and get as many people possible involved.
Other Mallee winners include Murrayville Landcare Group, winners of the Alcoa Landcare Community Group Award. This group has a strong focus on pest plant and animal control. They have run poison oat/carrot and ripping campaigns for rabbits, rabbit calici virus monitoring, chemical rebates for private control, funding for private contractor sprayers and the release of biological control agents for bridal creeper. They have also documented and recorded a local action plan. The plan identified pest plants on roadsides, native vegetation protection and enhancement, flora and fauna protection and pest animal control. Tree planting and direct seeding have also been completed.
Ross and Helen Bennett, members of the Waitchie Landcare Group won the Victorian Sustainable Farming Award in 2007. Improving local Landcare practises is just one of the goals Ross has for his local area. As Waitchie Landcare Group President, Ross leads by example and has planted thousands of native trees and shrubs on his 4000 hectare wheat and barley farm. He has also created a wildlife corridor between two local lakes, Lake Timboram and Lake Wahpool and has completed protective fencing of three patches of remnant vegetation adjacent to the wildlife corridor. Minimal tillage farming, environmental mapping and property planning, saltbush planting and rabbit control are also some of the other landcare projects Ross and Helen are implementing.
State winners will be representatives in the National Landcare Awards announced in Canberra.
If you would like to nominate an individual or a group for these awards please contact your local Landcare Co-ordinator to discuss your nomination.