Collaborating to Create Koala Corridors in Kurrajong

A copy of the presentation delivered at the National Landcare Conference by the Local Landcare Coordinator (Katherine Clare). Summary (prepared by Landcare Australia) Creating Koala Corridors in Kurrajong was established to restore koala habitat and create a koala corridor through bush regeneration, fencing and revegetation activities. The project brought together 13 neighbouring landholders along Little Wheeny Creek in Kurrajong because, while their properties were too small to be eligible for funding individually, collectively their properties could be connected into one large project with a common cause. This presentation will look at stage 1 of the project, which ran from 2019-2021, and outline how collaborations and partnerships between landholders, Hawkesbury-Nepean Landcare Network (HNLN) and Greater Sydney Local Land Services (GSLLS), achieved more holistic outcomes for the community, the environment and the landholders conserving it, than each body could have achieved on their own. The presentation will also explore how valuable community capacity funding is, even for projects with an on-ground focus; the value of workshop opportunities for building skills, growing group cohesion and maintaining energy despite set-backs (in this case, bushfires, floods and COVID-19); and how a support network formed, now the Little Wheeny Creek Landcare group, which continues to bring energy to the region and grow Landcare involvement throughout Kurrajong.