Landcare Illawarra

Landcare Illawarra educational progarm

Building our members' capacity

Landcare Illawarra educational progarm

Building our members' capacity

Collaborations -

LP035-004

The issue

Inspiring our Landcare members and growers to regain momentum after COVID-19 lockdowns and suspension of our group working bees as well as supporting our nurseries to extend production and distribution.

Part of our mission is to educate and guide our members, remaining current is important to our work. We have found that workshops always prove to be popular. Our Landcare members are keen to learn and develop their capacity to work smarter, more sustainably and follow best practice. We decided to institute regular targeted training programs to build capacity and provide current guidelines.

We are fortunate that the Illawarra has many environmental experts actively involved in supporting community education who agreed to help out.

The solution

A series of educational events and activities.

Thanks to a small grant from National Eucalyptus Day we hosted both Talking Landcare and a  Eucalypt Walkshop to build local plant identification skills. Landcare Illawarra chair, Emma Rooksby, and highly regarded author Leon Fuller produced a Eucalypt and Revegetation in the Illawarra map and publication to guide appropriate species use in regeneration projects throughout different landscapes in the Illawarra.

We are always looking for more community support for local nurseries and many people have expressed interest in growing plants for our projects. Our partnership with Berry Public School has enabled us to build capacity for people to help our nurseries and growers. With the guiding hand of Lyn Clark we ran three events to undertake seed processing and propagation and plant identification while showcasing the Berry school facility.

The impact

We now have regular Landcare Illawarra learning events with a quarterly calendar posted on social media and emailed to our members.

We are providing a range of activities to boost our members’ skills and capacity. There are more hands to share the job of propagating locally provenanced plants for our sites and community groups now with a better understanding of the importance of our local provenance.

Our participants have increased their familiarity with local plants at all stages of their life cycles. It’s been a great way to showcase the Berry Public School facility and to be guided by the knowledge of many seasoned seed collectors and plant experts.

Key facts

  • 5 events with 80 participants
  • Eucalyptus Day Talking Landcare and Walkshop
  • Local plant Identification
  • Seed processing
  • Pricking out seedlings

Project Partners