The The Friends and Residents of Goulburn Swamplands Landcare group affectionately known as FROGS took out the Fairfax Landcare Community Group award which is made to an outstanding community group that is working towards sustainable land use and/or is undertaking on-ground action to protect, enhance or restore an area on behalf of the community. The group will now go on to represent NSW at the National Awards which will be held next year.
FROGS are an inspirational group of volunteers who are transforming an abandoned brick pit, once full of rubbish, pests and weeds in the heart of Goulburn into a beautiful functioning natural storm and water treatment system, known as the Goulburn Wetlands.
Ray Shiel, president of FROGS Landcare was at the awards ceremony to receive the trophy on behalf of the group.
“This award is for the volunteers, it recognizes the effort of each and every volunteer that devote their time on site to develop the wetlands as a community asset.” Ray said
“FROGS is an outstanding example of community commitment and “people power” for positive change. The group meets every Wednesday and once a month on a Saturday to systematically restore and enhance the Goulburn Wetlands. This equates to around 3000 volunteer hours of ongound work per year.”
“It is quite an achievement to take what was once a vison of The Goulburn Group (TGG) in 2008 to a project which is now worthy of winning the State Landcare awards and put forward to represent NSW at the National Level. This is a testament to the dedication of the FROGS members.” Ray Said
The Goulburn Wetlands Restoration is symbolic of a wider concern community members have for remedial action and adaptation to climate change. The project has given a voice to the environment so that communities can see what is at stake when we lose it and what a wonderful asset it is when we apply knowledge and community collobration to regenerate it.
The NSW Landcare Awards are supported by the Australian Government’s National Landcare Program, NSW Government, Landcare NSW and Landcare Australia.
FROGS Landcare were joined by other successful winners from our region including Crookwell Potato Farmer Garry Kadwell who won the Australian Government Innovation in Agriculture and Land Management Award, David Marsh from Boorowa who took out the Australian Government Individual Landcarer Award (won previously by our very own Eric Hurn in 2015) and Ross Webster from Yass Landcare who won the NSW Fish Habitat Partnership Individual Award.
Chair of Landcare NSW, Rob Dulhunty comments; “These awards show how Landcarers across NSW are using their skill, ingenuity and commitment to protect the environment and fundamentally change the way we view and use the natural resources that sustain us. The awards show Landcare’s unique strength in achieving innovation and collaboration. I warmly congratulate all winners and nominees.”