Picnic For Nature at Imperial Lakes Nature Park, Broken Hill
On 16 November a pleasant Sunday afternoon was enjoyed with a Gumnut Picnic for Nature, part of the Nature Conservation Council Statewide Picnic for Nature celebration. Teaming up, Broken Hill Landcare LLC Selen, and Western Landcare LLC Diana co-hosted a whimsical, family-friendly afternoon of arts, music & nature fun. Held along the Forest Walk at Imperial Lakes Nature Park in Broken Hill, the walk into the picnic space made arrival quite special, revealing the event slowly.
Self sustenance - LEP23-021-21
The issue
In November Broken Hill can be quite warm, or windy or see absolute downpours! So, an afternoon/evening picnic invitation allowed people to pick their best time to attend.
Participants spanned generations and backgrounds, all there to enjoy what nature had to offer. We watched a quiet flow of people in and out of the picnic and a few who didn’t expect to stay long still lounging when it was time to pack up, so that the truly spectacular sunset could be enjoyed.
Surprisingly, it needed much thought to keep it simple and just let the afternoon evolve.
The solution
Let’s just do it and see what happens! And people came! There was a real connectedness of the people gathered spending time in nature, chatting, listening to local music, reading to children, being curious with the magnifying glass, just lying on a rug and looking into the canopy.
As there were plenty of adults to watch the children they moved from ‘slightly’ structured activities to free roam adventures.
We were also very careful to mention we were sharing the nature park with its residents.
The opportunity for access by car overcame some tricky to navigate terrain and was not disruptive.
The impact
We unanimously decided we need to schedule more time in the future to come out from our busy lives to just sit and relax.
The idea of providing an event to offer volunteers and the public an opportunity to reflect and enjoy all the work achieved so far by simply connecting with nature and new friends while not new is sometimes overlooked when there is weeding, planting and watering waiting to be done. But it really is worth it!
Key facts
- • It does not take a big budget to make a big impact
- • Nature is a great teacher
- • It takes planning for a relaxing event!