Landcare groups come together

A NEW Maude, Meredith and Districts Landcare Group has been established following the amalgamation of two neighbouring branches.

Combining the Maude and District Landcare with the Bamganie-Meredith and District group, an inaugural meeting took place last week and member Laura Hollingsworth said the merge will create a better group for the region.

“We’re joining together to become a larger, hopefully stronger group in numbers,” she said.

“We’ve got people come in here with great ideas. The Maude group still has Spiller’s Bridge in Maude to do and then we’ll be able to move onto projects closer to Meredith.”

“I know the Meredith-Bamganie group got to the point where their numbers were very low so they approached us to merge and create that outreach.”

The combined group will cover the Maude area from Sullivan’s Creek up through the Moorabool River to SheOaks and into Meredith towards Stieglitz.

The Maude and District Landcare Group had between 15 and 20 active members and has been running for more than 30 years.

The Meredith-Bamganie group had been in operation for a similar length of time, and treasurer Nerida Anderson said the amalgamation will help them continue.

“We’re very excited to be joining with the Maude group,” she said. “For us it’ll mean a greater reach and a more sustainable approach.

“We’ll be able to put on more functions and activities, so I’d be hoping for the area it will be a reinvigoration for Landcare around here.

“It was becoming less relevant for people in the area. It’s more difficult for smaller groups and it’s not unusual for groups in our situation to merge.

“It’s happening in other areas too where it’s becoming increasingly difficult to operate as a smaller group. We really needed some scale involved.”

Ms Hollingsworth said their annual initiatives like their recent rabbit baiting program, which saw more than 30 orders, will continue under the merger.

She said the amalgamation highlights the difficulty in recruiting for Landcare.

“It’s really hard to get people to volunteer,” she said. “It’s not necessarily getting people to come to our events which are often quite successful.

“People love the concept of Landcare as a whole but it can be a bigger commitment than they expect.”