New Landcare planting its roots

A NEW environmental group held its first meeting last month after being officially registered with Landcare Victoria.

About 35 people attended The Friends of the Woady Yaloak Landcare’s first meeting at Smythesdale Recreation Reserve, and convenor Bill MacNeill said he’s excited to see everyone get to work.

“It was a really great turnout, and it’s early days of course, so we’re not sure just yet how this’ll run regularly,” he said.

“You do need that coordination but we want this to be a practical group first, to get out there and get your hands dirty and really make a difference in the area.”

With 15 active members, the group will work at the Woady Yaloak river, clearing gorse and other weeds and revegetating the area.

Their efforts will cover the river from Scarsdale to Haddon, and Mr MacNeill said he saw a need for a new Landcare group in the area following the decline of the Dales and Haddon Landcare groups.

Membership will be free for the first year of the group thanks to a community grant from the Golden Plains Shire.

Mr MacNeill said he hopes the group’s establishment will reinvigorate their current project with the Smythesdale Progress Association in clearing gorse and hawthorn from the river between Snake Valley and Whites Road.

“It’s just not something we can do on our own. We need to broaden this and invite the community into this project so that was the other main thing behind this,” he said.

“It’s really important for people to have a project like this they can get stuck into. It’s a very public area so it’ll be obvious things are happening so we can build that momentum.

“We’ve got support from the Leigh Catchment Group, and we’ve got a grant from the Corangamite Catchment Authority for $18,500 over three years as part of their waterways project.”

The group’s next activity will be a working bee on Saturday, 10 September. To get involved, call Mr MacNeill at 0409 145 267.