Lithgow Oberon Landcare Association go to the Rydal Show
Lithgow Oberon Landcare Association go to the Rydal Show
Engaging the local community through a popular and well attended local rural show
Community Participation -
LP013-02
The issue
Lithgow Oberon Landcare Association has over 20 years experience in undertaking land management activities and community engagement in the Lithgow and Oberon Local Government Areas. However, despite having undertaken so much work in the area, a recent survey indicated that there is still a lot of work to do to engage the various local communities on subjects to do with erosion control, weed management, biodiversity and the value of healthy bushland and waterways.
The solution
Rydal Show is a long running local agricultural show that attracts a wide diversity of rural and urban landholders, local agricultural businesses and local government and non government agencies and this presented an opportunity for face to face engagement with a broad diversity of the region's community.
Selling plants from Lithgow Community Nursery and handing out flyers of our activities, volunteers from the LOLA committee and the Local Landcare Coordinator engaged with the community collecting email addresses and phone numbers for later engagement.
The impact
Increased interest in activities through email and Facebook page.
It is difficult to gauge the real impact of our attendance at the show as we had COVID19 lockdown not long after this event and this has affected our ability to plan events that would further engage this community down the track.
Learnings
Many in the Landcare community do not communicate via email or social media, so this was an important opportunity for the community to meet the new Local Landcare Coordinator and other members of the committee face to face to discuss local land management issues and opportunities.
Key facts
- Lithgow Oberon Landcare Association Local Landcare Coordinator, Secretary and other committee members attended local agricultural show to raise awareness of the organisation's activities
- Sold several hundred local provenance tube stock from Lithgow Community Native nursery