Where are we after 12 years of Landcare?

Introduced Red Fox, The Green Line Dec 2019.

Basalt to Bay Landcare Network has been a registered not-for-profit organisation since January 2008 - meaning that now in 2020 we're celebrating 12 years as a Landcare entity.

From the start B2B set out to positively influence the way landholders use native vegetation on their land. We quickly found that there are barriers to that - money, attitudes, resources, policies, land use.

But there are ways to break down those barriers - and one of those has been a partnership with a number of agriculture organisations on providing evidence to landholders and industry in a report written 2012 and revised 2015 called "The Economic Benefits of Native Shelterbelts Report"
( a free download from our website www.basalttobay.org.au)

Its been uploaded over 20K times since release, and continues to be the go-to report for finding the studies conducted in Australia which provide proof that shelterbelts using native locally climate adapted species has benefits for agriculture, biodiversity, catchment health, people health, disaster resilience.

Another partnership we've built since 2016 is one with the Australian Taxation Officer (ATO) - which was to develop together fact sheets for registered primary producers which explain what can and cannot be claimed against a farm based business under the Landcare tax offsets scheme.

We also partnered with Private Forestry Tasmania to have a fact sheet produced that explains the offsets available for establishing farm forestry/agro-forestry/plantations by same landholder base.

We also worked with the ATO to capture the details of what registered primary producers can claim to restore riparian zones on their land - which was one of the deliverable actions the Department of Environment Land Water & Planning has in their Regional Riparian Action Plan. We saw it in the plan and identified the blend of information that could be put into a fact sheet so that complementary actions in riparian and other land would be encompassed into a new fact sheet supporting more than just riparian specific outcomes.

In 2018 we took our unique and ground breaking ATO partnership to the next level. There is increasing demand from primary producers, to know what they can do to prepare for fire. Many don't know what they can claim on farm tax to buy fire specific tools like pumps, or build fire specific infrastructure like fire insulated sheds to house vital equipment.
So following the St Patricks Day fire events which hit the Basalt to Bay Landcare Region in 3 fires, we approached the Country Fire Authority (CFA) with a draft written by the ATO on this topic, and developed together a fact sheet "Fire Preparedness for Primary Producers".


All the ATO Landcare fact sheets & the fire and the forestry fact sheet are also free downloads from our website, and all apply to any registered primary producer farming any land anywhere in Australia. This includes businesses leasing land to farm.

Managing a Landcare Network and communicating what we do to our community & stakeholder audience is almost two jobs - and we have one full-time person to do it. So we don't come here often and if you're seeking more about what we do regularly, then there are two ways.

First is to follow our twitter profile: @basalttobay,which is also a live scroll on the front page of our website www.basalttobay.org.au 
Or you can follow us on instagram @basalttobay
We also offer associate membership to landholders in Moyne Shire/Warrnambool City - contact our office for more about that.
If you are a business that wants to become a supporter of our network through volunteering, board roles, sponsorship, shared events, education activities, or even just providing samples & fielday info for the network landholders - then get in touch with our office. We are always keen to assist with getting good practical tools to farmers.

Lisette Mill, Landcare Network Facilitator - February 2020

Landcare work is for everyone....

Rail Trails are fabulous use for disused railway lines. The Warrnambool to Port Fairy Rail Trail passes through Koroit, and to make the most of the currently disused Koroit Station, 600 native plants were planted in a sympathetically landscaped fashion around it. With help with funding from the “Victorian Landcare Program Volunteering Action Grant” and as part of the social inclusion ethos of Karingal (one of the organizations which assist adults with a disability in the Warrnambool district), five of their clients and a carer took part along with two Rail Trail members and a collie dog. We are not sure who had the most fun. This was an experiment to see how Karingal clients and community groups could work together. Basalt 2 Bay Landcare Network facilitated this combined activity, and all who took part now want to do more things together.

The next exciting environmental event for the Karingal clients was on a Saturday morning to join in with Warrnambool Coastcare monthly weeding, planting and mulching activity at the Harris Street Reserve. This reserve is developing from its original ‘grass and path’ format into a landscaped area with lots of endemic plants on one side of the path, giving a nice view of the Merri River that attracts lots of birds, which were previously missing. There was no shortage of walkers & cyclists using the path and thanking the volunteers for making the area so much nicer. It’s nice to be appreciated.

A total of about 50 people took part during the morning. One of the Karingal clients has a special interest in endemic plants and knows lots of the plants that were being planted. He helped other members with the “How big does it grow?” and “How close should we plant them?” questions. Another just loves wheeling a wheelbarrow around. He earned his morning tea by wheeling most of the mulch to where it needed to go, and made lots of friends along the way. The Karingal clients had so much fun that they wanted to come back the next day to do more. They were told that they had to wait a whole month as the working bees were once a month. They decided that Karingal should join Warrnambool Coastcare so that they would get each newsletter and be able to join in as often as they could, hopefully each month. Karingal is now a member of Warrnambool Coastcare.

Each September, Year 9 (70 students) from Gilson College in Melbourne’s West visits the south west for their camp. They stay at the Scout camp at Brucknell for 10 nights, and spend 9 days engaged in service activities, which may be environmental, social or for each other (they even have a daily catering group which cooks dinner for the entire group).

Killarney Coastcare (KCC) hosted 10 students and one teacher in the ‘bird group’. Their activities were centered on birds that use the beach and estuary for all or some of year for feeding and/or breeding - specifically the Orange-bellied parrot and Hooded plover, but we also included Red-capped Plovers, Ruddy Turnstones and various Raptors.

The first day that the students were with us, we made seed balls that would be tossed on their fifth and last day with Killarney Coastcare, the following Monday. Four Karingal clients and a carer joined in to make a total of 4 large buckets of seed balls. Seed balls are a convenient option to use for direct seeding in places that have limited access for machinery, or where machinery would cause environmental damage.

Seed balls are made from a mix of clayish soil, compost (we used zoo poo) and a small number of mixed seeds. The soil and compost are thoroughly mixed, and a small handful is squeezed together to form a ball about the size of a golf ball. As it is squeezed together, a few seeds from the separate bowl are pressed into the centre. The ball is rolled in your hands until it holds its shape very well. The best balls were well-rolled and held together when tossed. The other consideration is to have seeds of species that have similar requirements in each seed ball. We divided ball-rollers into 2 groups, and each group had seeds for a particular zone of wetness.

The balls were laid out on newspaper to dry, keeping the wetness zones separate, and hands and clothes were washed. Tossing them was even more of a highlight than getting dirty. If the Year 9 students had fun, the Karingal clients had even more fun. Some clients had not spent much time at the beach, let alone a wild beach like The Cutting, where they went to toss the seed balls that they had made

The Karingal guys had to wait a few more weeks for their tossing session, but the wait was well worth it. Maybe next year we can have a joint seed ball tossing session?

Is environmental work supposed to be fun? The Karingal guys reckon so, and want to do more stuff that’s this much fun. They also like being part of what is going on, as well as giving something back to the community that supports them, though they might use different words to express it. The students enjoyed the interaction, and got to find out that people with all sorts of abilities can do things together and have fun. I think the technical word is integration.

If you would like the recipe for seed balls, contact Lou Hollis on 0408 527 670 or micklou6@bigpond.com , or just enter seed balls into your search engine.

Killarney Coastcare would like to thank Basalt 2 Bay Landcare Network for supporting us in this ongoing environmental work (and fun).

Lou Hollis

Killarney Coastcare

Bsalt to Bay Landcare Network still running strong

Hello again - finally back on board the blog. Mick, our coordinator is well and truly established in his role now and we have found plenty to keep him busy.

Mick puts out a quarterly newsletter by e-mail which you can get e-mailed to you direct by asking Mick via basalttobay@gmail.com or we have a presence on the Victorian Landcare Gateway www.landcarevic.org.au and newsletters will get posted onto that. The latest will be circulated this week.

We have continued to attract funding for Micks position, workshops and on ground works in the last 6 months. This has allowed us to run field days on birds, wetlands and sustainable farming plus allow revegetation to occur in the Watershed 2000 region (Woorndoo / Mortlake / Caramut / Ballangeich areas) and the Killarney Coastal Reserve.

B2B will be working with Karingal to encourage and assist their clients to become involved in landcare out at Killarney to improve their social skills and wider interests while achieving great mental health and environmental outcomes.

The Kick Start Your Reserve project is still working with Yatmerone Wetlands and Penshurst to reveg and control woody weeds, Hawkesdale Golf Course and Racecourse Reserve to establish what native grassland species are present to establish a management plan and Griffith Island Reserve at Port Fairy to plant trees with good wallaby proof guards.

We welcome other reserve managers and friends groups in our region (Moyne Shire mainly west of the Hopkins River) to contact us with ideas about how we can assist them with resources to improve thier favourite bit of bush. Also land holders and farmers in the district who want to do more revegatation, waterway fencing and remnant bush enhancement to contact us as to possible funding opportunities.

Look forward to hearing from you. Karen - B2B Chairman

Adios Amigos

Hey Folks, as of this Friday I will be leaving as coordinator of Basalt to Bay Landcare Network.

I have made a heart felt decision to move on, so that I can devote my energies to other areas of my life that I have been neglecting.

During my time with the network, we have achieved many wonderful things including on ground projects with some 21 landholders and 8 public reserves/sites, equating to some 114,000 trees. We have delivered 6 capacity building activities, involved 400 plus volunteers, developed a strategic plan and a web log. In recent months I have secured funding for another 20,000 trees to be planted at 3 reserves and 2 landholder sites. I have also set about seeking expressions of interest for funding for a further possible 25 land holder projects around Belfast Loch.

I had great ambitions for the network and was unable to realise all of them but I am still happy with what I have been able to achieve.

There are many highlights for me but none greater than the relationships I have formed with many wonderful people along the way (especially enthusiastic land holders) and the opportunity to play a small part in rejuvinating the brutalised landscape of the green desert.

Few people seem to realise how much effort some people put into caring about the local environment. Many people go unrecognised in their efforts, despite achieving great things. A few people I would like to recognise for their outstanding contribution to local environmental conservation include :

• Don McTaggart
• Ian Bodycoat
• John Amor (RIP)
• John Norton
• Peter Bolte
• Richard Weatherley
• Brenton Bartsch
• Carolyn Rundell
• Dean Suckling
• Matthew Ebden.

I would also like to recognise the input and connection to country of the local Gunditjmarra people, who have gone largely unheard by local NRM groups.

Thank you to the support of local agency staff and staff in Landcare Australia Limited, especially :

• Mary Johnson, Dave Nichols, Tony Lithgow & Margie Finnegan of Glenelg Hopkins CMA
• Francis Jeon-Ellis, John Bott & Shivani Jayasinghe of LAL
• Carolyn Rundell of Trust for Nature
• Jonathon Lee of Conservation Volunteers
• Marty Gent of DSE
• Matthew Ebden of Deakin University.

Thank you to everyone for their ongoing support and interest in healing Gunditjmarra land.

I wish you all the best in health, happiness and harmony.

Richard Hudson.

PS. From this point onwards key contact for the network will be Karen Wales (Network Chair) via email : basalttobay@gmail.com or 55 620 021.

Creating Landscapes to Attract Birds

On Friday 13th August, Basalt to Bay will be running the Creating Landscapes to Attract Birds workshop in St Helens - north of Yambuk. Keynote speakers will be Rod Bird from Hamilton Field Nats and Jonathon Lee. During this workshop, participants will learn about :

• Identifying key local species
• Guidelines for designing landscapes to attract birds
• The benefits of birds

Where : 185 St Helens Rd, St Helens (Google maps will help/car pool may be available)
When : Workshop starts at 9:30 am and finishes at 1 pm
Cost : Free

Picnic lunch and drinks provided, as well as a goody bag with relevant information.
Please RSVP asap by calling Richard Hudson on 0458 268 119 (or by emailing richardb2b@gmail.com) or Karen Wales 55 620 021.

Resource Update 4

Hey Folks : Just to let you know that things are still busy at this end - lots happening with new funding submissions and new projects that we're developing for next year. Also a reminder that info will be posted soon regarding the upcoming Birds on Farms workshop.

Here are some relevant resource links that have come my way the last few weeks :

• Community Action Grants : http://www.maff.gov.au/media/media_releases/2010/june/further_$8_million_community_action_grants_for_community_groups
• National Landcare Awards : http://svc009.wic050p.server-web.com/nationalawards2010/?page_id=1508
• news from SW Climate Change : http://swccf.com.au/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=29&Itemid=26
• Suregro reveg products : http://www.suregro.com/
• Dairying for Tomorrow : http://www.dairyingfortomorrow.com/
• Stipa native Grasses Association : http://www.stipa.com.au/
• Demo Dairy What's On page : http://www.demodairy.org.au/joomla15/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=15&Itemid=7
• Pulse Oz : http://www.pulseaus.com.au/
  

Resource Update 3

Hey folks, here are some relevant resource links that have come to my attention since the last update :

• Victorian Conservation Management Network : http://www.vvpcmn.org/
• NE Dung Beetle project - kit availible : http://northeast.landcarevic.net.au/dungbeetle/projects/do-it-with-dung/dung-beetle-resource-package
• Do it with Dung Dung Beetle Newsletters : http://northeast.landcarevic.net.au/dungbeetle/projects/do-it-with-dung/do-it-with-dung-newsletters
• Dung Beetle Articles : http://northeast.landcarevic.net.au/dungbeetle/projects/do-it-with-dung/dung-beetle-articles
• Dung Beetle ID Guide : http://northeast.landcarevic.net.au/dungbeetle/projects/do-it-with-dung/dung-beetle-identification-chart/DUNG-BEETLE-IDENTIFICATION-GUIDE.pdf/view
• Victorian Dung Beetle E-Forum : http://mc2.vicnet.net.au/home/beetles/index.html
• Landcare Australia on Facebook : http://www.facebook.com/posted.php?id=107873861044&share_id=369259282292&comments=1#!/landcareaustralia
• Landcare after 20 years on Landline : http://www.abc.net.au/landline/content/2010/s2869583.htm
• Landlink Landcare Australia Newsletter : http://braveclients.com.au/landcare/landcare/edm1_html/index.html
• Indigenous Landcare : http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/05/19/2903312.htm?site=idx-act (a good possibility for our region ?)
• Free Dung Beetle Package : http://www.landcarevic.net.au/news/dung-beetle-resource-package
• Start Up Grants : http://glenelg-hopkins.landcarevic.net.au/news/start-up-grants
• International Centre for Excellence in Landcare : http://www.landcare.com.au/
• Landcare Case Studies : http://svc018.wic008tv.server-web.com/news_details.asp?sType=news&news_id=287&from=archive
• Regenerating Native Pastures : http://svc018.wic008tv.server-web.com/case_study.asp?cID=195
• Managing Dairy Effluent : http://svc018.wic008tv.server-web.com/case_study.asp?cID=188
• New Fodder Crops for Sheep : http://svc018.wic008tv.server-web.com/case_study.asp?cID=222
• Free Online Videos for Your Group : http://animoto.com/

Kick Start Your Reserve Bus Tour

Last Friday Basalt to Bay ran our long awaited Kick Start Your Reserve Bus tour - after 2 previous cancellations. The tour visited Tozer Reserve, Yatmerone Reserve (Penshurst), Hawkesdale Common, Hawkesdale Racecourse Reserve and Pallisters Reserve. 10 people took their place on the bus with another 8 visitors joining us at individual sites. It was a great day for all with plenty of time out doors and lots information about current projects, opportunities for networking and heaps of food (we try hard to fatten our guests !).

The tour profiled a wide spectrum of reserves. Many reserves have the potential for the involvement of large numbers of volunteers and to be used as environmental education sites, while others have the opportunity for additional on ground projects. Pallisters Reserve is clearly the bench mark when it comes to local reserves but all the reserves had something special to offer. Tozer Reserve shows great promise as an environmental education center close to Warrnambool, Yatmerone is a great site for bird watchers, Hawkesdale Common is a great education site for local flora, while Hawkesdale Racecourse Reserve has plenty to offer, including club rooms which could be used for environmental education, a wide selection of native grasses and native orchids and is host to the largest Manna Gum in the region and a huge number of swamp rats !

Given the postive feedback that we recieved in response to the tour, it's likely that we'll have a follow up tour next year.

Thanks to the Department of Planning & Community Development for the funding to run the bus tour and Glenelg Hopkins CMA for resource support.

Victorian Landcare Gateway Training

Does your group need an effective way to inform your local community and members what is happening, events that are coming up, and group projects? Do you want to better promote the group and its activities?

The Victorian Landcare Gateway www.landcarevic.net.au has been designed to make it easier for groups to:

• add or update information on the group
• add news or events, including opportunities for volunteers to participate
• add newsletters and photos
• describe or promote group projects
• find other related groups or projects
• map activities or projects

When Groups have their information listed, community users can:

• find information on topics of interest
• find their local group
• volunteer for events in their area
• link to groups of interest

All this is free for Landcare and related groups. The Gateway has been designed to enable people with basic computer skills to maintain and edit their group information and notices, so you do not need to be a computer whiz to use the site.

There are opportunities available for Landcare and related Group members to attend a training day on how to use the Gateway. THE TRAINING IS FREE.

I have organised training days for Hamilton 10/5/10, Portland 11/5/10, Warrnambool 12/5/10 and Ararat 13/5/10.

If these days do not suit we can make some other arrangements. Please call me to book a position or discuss options.

Thank you for taking the opportunity to participate in the Gateway Training. The following are some house keeping we need to take care of before the day.

1 – if you do not yet have a username on the Gateway you must register and login well before the training. (Visit the Gateway and click on New User link in Login Box)

2 – It is essential that you have logged in at least once, know your username and password and can login on the day –there is no guarantee that this can be done on the day as password reset is dependent upon email access – so please log in to be sure you can remember the details on the day. THIS IS MOST IMPORTANT!!!

3 – You will need to be provided with management rights to your group site. I will arrange for this to happen. It would be helpful if you Email the name of the group you will be using to make sure I have them right. I realise some groups are not set up yet. I will rectify this.

What to bring to the training, preferably in electronic file:

1- An example of an event – field day, workshop, forum notice

2- A news item/media release

3- A digital image or two – preferably with the file size reduced to 200-300 kb (warning, most digital cameras now produce file sizes of 1-8Mb, which are too big)

4- A pdf or background document as well if required

Get an idea of how to use the site, by visiting a couple of group sites that are using the Gateway. Easiest way is to go to www.landcarevic.net.au and click on one of the events coming up from a group, which will take you to their event. Then look at their main site.

Additional tool that may be of use for Landcare Groups - the Gateway has an email server which enables groups to have their own email address, such as group@landcarevic.net.au

The email can be managed via webmail, and allow full contact lists to be managed. This can avoid the issues of transferring group contacts from personal computers, as using this option would only require the login details to be handed over to the new executive member.

Emails can be one way only, where messages sent to the address are forwarded automatically to one or a group of executive email addresses, but the address cannot be used to send messages.

The email can also be fully functional, with messages received, sent and contact lists and address books maintained. The Email addresses are protected by a top line spam protection system, so it is also rare for junk to get through. If your group would like an email address, please also contact me with the preferred address and requirements.

Center	Location	Address	Date	Time
Southern Grampians Adult Education	Hamilton ( above Kerr and Co.)	89 Gray St	10/05/2010	10.00-2.00 pm
South West TAFE Portland	Portland	154 Heard St	11/05/2010	10.00-2.00 pm
South West TAFE Warrnambool	Warrnambool	Timor St	12/05/2010	5.00 - 9.00 pm
Ararat Neighbourhood House	Ararat.	56 Campbell St	13/05/2010	5.00 - 9.00 pm

We will provide a light lunch at the Hamilton and Portland sessions and there will be some snacks before the Warrnambool and Ararat sessions. Tea and coffee will be available.

Please do not hesitate to call if you have any questions. PLEASE VISIT THE SITE TO SEE WHAT IT CAN DO!

Cheers,

Tony Lithgow

Regional Landcare Coordinator

Glenelg Hopkins CMA

Ph. 55712526