State honours natural ag project

ROKEWOOD natural agriculture community, Moonlight Creek, has won a Premier’s Sustainability Award.

An initiative of Kyneton-based landscape restoration group, Cassinia Environmental, the project took out the Thriving Environment – Industry Leader award for the community-centric biodiversity and farming model.

The organisation’s aim has been to take away any competition between farming and biodiversity interest groups within the centre of the Golden Plains Shire.

“Cassinia Environmental has shown true leadership in its field and has demonstrated how farming can work in harmony with nature,” said Sustainability Victoria interim CEO Matt Genever.

A family of farmers live in the homestead within the Moonlight Creek property and follow regenerative farming principles to grow produce.

A land management plan has been written by project officers to encourage large scale agricultural profitability on site, while also respecting and leaving the surrounding plants and animals uninterrupted so they can be enhanced and preserved in the long term.

Much of the work to restore about 200 hectares of the Moonlight Creek property was done two years ago, and project officers have reported clear improvements in that time.

More than 10 kilometres worth of waterways have been a focus, and have been protected, meaning they are cleaner and native birds are returning to the area in droves.

But works on site are not just eco initiatives, with Cassinia Environmental staff aiming to increase Rokewood locals’ health and wellbeing, and link them with their neighbours.

The Victorian Premier’s Sustainability Awards annually highlight communities, groups, enterprises, and local governments working to boost environmental health.