Regional Landcare Awards
It had been many years since the Landcare community in the Hunter region were able to celebrate together, individual and group achievements. The Regional Landcare Awards provided the platform to highlight a number of projects, collaborations, and individual efforts over the past few years.
Collaborations - LP038 -R005
The issue
Our Landcare community needed to get together, celebrate, and acknowledge, all that we had achieved collectively through a couple of difficult and challenging years of fires, flood, and pandemic.
The challenge has been to stay connected through these challenging times. We were able to stay connected through online platforms which worked quite well, but it never did replace the joy of face to face gatherings for our wider Landcare community.
The solution
We launched the Regional Landcare Awards starting with an invitation to nominate, which was open to all groups, individuals, schools, community and corporate organisations, and government agencies in the region, undertaking all sorts of conservation and landcare type activities.
We received a good number of nominations across 8 award categories including; Junior Landcare, Youth Leadership, Farming, Individual, Group and Indigenous Land Management.
We were able to host a wonderful celebration and awards ceremony which took place in the old hall at Kurri Tafe, the perfect venue for a gathering of 100+ nominees and their guests.
The impact
The Regional Awards ceremony provided the platform for our wider Landcare community to gather and socialise with their fellow landcarers and groups that they had not met or had not seen in a long time, so the ceremony was not just about the winners of the 8 categories, but about all of our collective achievements in Landcare.
The ceremony also allowed us to acknowledge the collective effort towards natural resource management across the Hunter region, the impacts of the work of Landcare volunteers, and the wide ranging benefits to our regional biodiversity as a result of many volunteer hours.
Key facts
- Over 100 volunteers from across the Hunter region were able to gather and celebrate at the Regional Landcare Awards.
- It's important to acknowledge and celebrate the work and achievements of volunteers on a regular basis.
- Working locally with a regional perspective can demonstrate the large scale impact that Landcare has for our environment.