Milestone for Landcare group

THE Upper Williamsons Creek Landcare group is turning 30, and will hold a formal celebration of the achievement tonight.

It will take place from 6pm at the Scotsburn Hall and will feature a dinner and live music by The Hardies Hillbillies.

And according to founding secretary and current committee member Andrea Mason, it will be a full-on party.

“We’ve invited as many past members as we can find,” she said.

Ms Mason – who will be among official speakers at tonight’s celebration – said as many as 40 people had already confirmed their attendance.

Apart from officially marking the 30-year milestone, it will be a time to reflect on all the work the Landcare group has done.

Ms Mason said the group has had more than 180 paid-up members since it began, primarily on the basis of weed control with a focus on blackberry and gorse on local farmland.

“We did a lot of campaigns on that in the early days,” she said.

Ms Mason said other notable projects and campaigns have included protection work on Williamsons Creek, various work on and around Mount Buninyong, koala corridors, and a close collaboration with VicRoads as the Midland Highway was upgraded.

She said the group was heavily involved in the recovery from the 2015 Scotsburn bushfire, which tore through 4000 hectares of land and destroyed a dozen houses.

The 10-year anniversary of that disaster will take place in December this year.

As well as being involved in the Landcare group’s founding, Ms Mason has also served as its chair.

“I’m very proud of the group and what we’ve achieved over the years,” she said.

The group maintains strong links with the Scotsburn campus of the Buninyong Primary School, which runs its own junior Landcare program.

The group’s area of responsibility covers Mount Buninyong, Lal Lal, Scotsburn and Clarendon.

Its official focus is to protect and enhance natural resources within the region through on-ground works, educating the community and running community capacity-building activities.

It meets every second Thursday of the month on even months of the year, at the Scotsburn Hall.