Regional Landcare Awards
2025 Greater Sydney Regional Landcare Awards and Forum
Capacity building - LEP23_015_RLC_1
The issue
Volunteer Landcare groups across Greater Sydney invest thousands of hours restoring, protecting and caring for the environment, often without formal recognition. Maintaining long-term motivation and energy among these grassroots champions requires more than just resources — it demands visibility, appreciation, and inspiration. The challenge was to create an event that both celebrated achievements and inspired ongoing commitment while fostering collaboration with partners like Local Land Services.
The solution
The 2025 Greater Sydney Landcare and Bushcare Awards and Forum was a celebration which recognised the contributions and inspiring efforts of many diverse volunteers and groups across the Greater Sydney Region. Held at Waterview in Bicentennial Park, the event was designed to feature a range of entertaining and informative guest speakers, engaging field trips, and heartfelt award presentations that celebrated the impact of local Landcare efforts. A structured planning process — including fortnightly coordination meetings with Local Land Services — ensured the event ran smoothly and aligned with shared goals. Outreach through social media, email campaigns, and partner networks ensured broad awareness and strong community attendance.
The impact
The 2025 Awards at Waterview Bicentennial Park were a standout success, drawing high attendance despite adverse weather. Volunteers and partners gathered to celebrate winners, hear inspiring guest speakers, and strengthen cross-regional networks. The event boosted morale, encouraged peer recognition, and raised public awareness of Landcare’s contribution to Sydney’s sustainability and biodiversity.
Learnings
What worked: Regular collaboration with partners, a clear communications plan, and accessible nomination tools ensured smooth delivery. What could be improved: A simplification of the nomination form should be considered to make the nomination process less overwhelming. Preparation of a wet weather plan for field trips should have been devised as unfortunately, the field trips were postponed due to adverse weather. These could have potentially been replaced with a short talk by each of the Field Trip Guides. Following this event, Greater Sydney Landcare has developed a Guide to Running a Landcare Awards Event — a practical internal framework to support consistency, knowledge sharing and future event success across regions.
Key facts
- Recognition of volunteers is motivating
- Bringing people together in celebration promotes positive knowledge sharing
- Planning is key to success