Happy Christmas EVERYONE see you again next year

There were many international volunteers in the group , this girl had only been in Australia for five days .

New Coordinator Phil Rance helped out in Chris' absence ( Mary has badly broken her ankle and is in hospital awaiting an operation )and enjoyed his first day working with volunteers.

The bus driver spent his time rewriting his science fiction noval in the bus - he emerged at lunchtime.

Clever use of a day away from the office was made by management , staff appraisal interviews were held in the paddock!

15 December 2010. Our very last team of planting volunteers for the year came from BMS Pharmaceuticals . This planting of aquatic and terrestrial plants was part of our Kinross Farm project at Flowerdale. Landcare supervisors :Janet Hagen & Phil Rance

The BMS volunteers arrived on time and ready for action. Agility and flexibility were the skills required for planting around the dam without falling into the water. 200 water plants and 300 lands plants were added to the edges of the beautiful dams at Kinross Farm , improving the habitat value of the site. (Phil noted sacred kingfishers and gang gang cockatoos watching us work) A peaceful and productive morning was enjoyed by all the participants , who promised to return again next year. Their catering crew did and excellent job preparing a BBQ lunch before the rain set in again !

Gumboots Essential for Aquatic Planting

Kinross Farm Flowerdale.

20 volunteers from the Commonwealth Serum Laboratory . Parkville (Biotherapies & Human Viral Vaccines plus 11 volunteers from the Department of Planning and Community Infrastructure. Spring Street Office.

Our very first aquatic planting day , yes we were actually planting sedges , rushes and reeds , into the mud under the water while standing in the shallows around the Kinross Egg Farm dam.
The beautiful weather made this a most enjoyable activity . Gumboots were the order of the day and 31 pairs were borrowed from GMLN & CSL . No snakes bothered us and no-one accidentally slipped into the water , even the mosquitoes and flies behaved themselves.

These were very speedy workers , first 300 plants were planted in about half an hour ! After BBQ lunch another 200 were planted quickly .

Through staff donations to Landcare and CSL’s match, givingforgood funded the purchase of these plants to help revegetate the area surrounding a number of ponds on the Kinross Farm. Neighbouring land was devastated in the Black Saturday Bushfires and revegetation of the ponds will help to improve water quality and reintroduce native fauna. (CLS source their eggs from Kinross Farm to make flu vaccines etc). Karen Brisbane , Corporate Landcare Coordinator , organised this project with Chris Cobern.

Victorian Mobile Landcare Group

The Victorian Mobile Land Care Group are wonderful bunch of conservationalists who travel all over the state helping to improve our environment and assist whose in need .

They have plenty of fun together while doing this noble work .

We have been fortunate to have Doug Parke and his team return this year to help with bushfire recovery fencing at Gleburn & Kinglake.

Quote from VMLCG web site :

"On Saturday 11 September 2010 the Victorian Mobile Landcare Group was pleased to be able to complete a stint of fencing work with Jim and Beverly, farmers in the Yarra Valley (some 60 km out of Melbourne) who were severely affected by the Black Saturday bushfires in 2009.

The VMLCG was only too happy to help Jim and Beverly and we value the connections we have now made with them".
"We conduct this work as a partner to the Upper Goulburn Landcare Network's (UGLCN) efforts to coordinate fire recovery work in this area.
This type of work is also part of Landcare's "Fire Buddies" initiative, linking Landcare groups to aid recovery projects. We look forward to continuing our work in assisting farmers and the UGLCN in these efforts."

Conservation Volunteers lend a Hand

An international team from Conversation Volunteers Australia helped out with our Fencers Without Boundaries program for 5 weeks in the Buxton/Narbethong area during May-June 2010.
The group was well lead by team leader Andrew Matthers and constructed many kilometres of fencing.

Children contribute to the project

Kinglake Scouts and Kinglake Landcare group at Pratts Rd


Rotary Nesting Boxes and Kinglake Scouts

Middle Kinglake Primary School

Yea High School

Clean Up australia Day

Marcellan College Boys Fencing

23/6/2010

The Boys from Marcellen College did a great job clearing away this burnt fence on the Leadstone property at Kinglake.

Yea River Landcare Planting Day

Members of the Yea River Landcare Group planted riparian plants at Judy's .

They look a wild bunch !

It rained all day but they volunteered to get wet

27/6/2010

This NAB team was pulling down a burnt fence on the Mt Slide Rd in Kinglake . It was an extremely wet day but this group insisted on volunteering for the bushfire recovery project. They worked with Chris & Bridget all morning before eventually giving in the good sense and calling it day at lunch time . 63mm of rain fall that day !

School Holiday Stand In

28/9/2010- Catching up on a few past events.
Chris , Cathy and Janet had family commitments during the school holdays , thank goodness we could call on Tim from Treeproject to stand in for us at this tree planting day in Mont View Street in Wandong . A team from the ANZ bank plant 300 seedling along a creek line .
Thanks Tim . (The Hagens certainly had fun camping at Lake Hindmarsh and the Little Desert )

Good deed by Scouts

Ron Ellis and Scouts from the Australian Scouting Fellowship and Heritage have grown 1000 correa's and bottlebrush's for our UGLN Lorax project.

Ron is also the Environment Officer for the Clifford Park Scout Centre and organised for Bunnings to donate the potting mix and a local cafe donated all the milk cartons that were used as pots. As the Scout law says á Scout is thrifty' and landcare certainly encourage recycling.

The plants were very popular and this ute load pictured was gone in one day.

Scouts Kinglake West Nest Box Project

The Kinglake Scouts recently checked the Rotary built nest boxes that they installed at a property on the King Parrot Creek in November 2009. Using the UGLN nest box inspection camera the Scouts checked nine nest boxes. One had what appeared to be a Sugar Glider nest but the rest were uninhabited. The Scouts GPS'd the locations of each box and recorded their observations on a data sheet. This work goes towards their World Conservation award and helps UGLN with our ongoing fauna monitoring in the fire affected areas.

Bicycle ride to Buxton

5 November 2010

Landcare / Treeproject Partnership

Janet & Chris from Landcare plus a small but super dedicated team from ANZ ' Group Treasury Department' helped plant around a dam in Buxton today creating frog habitat with grasses and shrubs. Just as well this was a small group of workers because Chris and Janet were rather disorganised today , We had the plants , equipment , tools and food sorted but weren't quite sure where we were meant to plant ! The landholder was not around and Cathy was out of phone contact so we played it safe and planted wetland plants around the dam and creek . 102 plants in the ground and woody weeds removed from the garden.

Action man , Liwa , rode his bicycle from Malvern to Taggerty !!!!

He left home at 6.30am and rode to Taggery via the Black Spur Road , arriving at 9.45am .
He then changed into camo working outfit and planted trees. Georgina gave him a lift back to the city at the end of the day . Paul drove from Sunbury using his navman for guidance , which was a good effort as well.

Thanks guys , it was a beautiful day and we enjoyed your company .

Fencing in Flowerdale

On a fine spring day 30 staff from NAB Financial Planning completed 2km of fencing at Paul Michael's Flowerdale property. The NAB team were supervised by Mick Yarwood and some of the Shepparton fella's from the Uniting Church's fencing team. The property is nearly 1000 acres and very steep and rugged country and we spotted a couple of snakes but this didn't deter the very enthusiastic team from putting in a great days work.

A couple of weeks later we finished the remaining 800m with great help from Benalla High School students and teachers supervised by a couple of our SA Rotary fencing team.

Powerful Performance by Origin Energy Team

26/10/2010

South Cathedral Farm

Award Winning and Pet Friendly Luxury Bed and Breakfast Cottages

The rebuilding process has really moved along at Megan & Marty's place since we last visited with volunteers. The holiday cottages are up to painting stage and a bore drilling rig was working to provide a water supply to the new gardens .

Today's project was to clear vegetation from a burnt fence line . Preparing the site for the Uniting Church fencing crew to put up a new fence in the next few weeks.

Nineteen Origin Energy volunteers arrived by coach from Melbourne believing they were doing a 'weeding' job. This was very extreme weeding and the hardest , most exhausting volunteer day I have done !

Conditions were beautiful as Megan & Janet disappeared into the scrub with their chainsaws revving . The Origin Energy team followed with loppers and hand saws, clearing a four metre wide path through the regrowth and dead burnt tea trees. The front team cut and pulled while the rear team dragged and stacked the cleared vegetation into bonfire heaps. The three girls who volunteered for the catering crew cooked a wonderful BBQ back at the house aided by the bus driver. We worked for 5 hours and cleared 200 metres. This does not sound like a lot but it was a massive effort by everyone. Thank you very much guys. I think there would have been lots a sore muscles in the office on Wednesday.

Notable firsts : The first snake for the season was spotted (by a girl who expressed a fear of worms before we started working so you can imagine how she felt about snakes !) and the first Gucci handbag to be worn on a volunteer day appeared. It is modelled by its proud wearer in the pics .

1041 Eucalyptus Rd Glenburn - Photo's

Warm Mud for EPA

20/10/2010
1041 Eucalyptus Road Glenburn.
10 volunteers from the EPA . Chris & Janet from Landcare.
Beautiful sunny , warm day.
Before lunch planted native grasses around the new dam to stablize the soil and create habitat for birds & frogs.
The EPA crew ( Caroline organised all this ) shared a sumptous picnic lunch on the back patio . Played the 'coin' game which was an interesting way to learn more about each other . Take a cup of random coins , each person takes one and looks at the date, in turn everyone tells the group what they were doing in year on their chosen coin . Eg. 1988 The bicentennial year , a cloud of fertilty had decended on Ruffy and just about every child bearing age woman had a baby . I gave birth to Jacqui at 3 minites to midnight on the 29th of February . A leap year baby but only just !
After lunch we got stuck into it , the mud I mean , the team constructed 2 silt traps below the dam to catch sediments before they reach the creek . Warm , sloppy, sticky mud everywhere.