Moss Vale Landcare
Moss Vale Landcare group formed in 2000 and has rehabilitated a range of sites over the past 20 years on Whites Creek which runs through the township of Moss Vale.
MOSS VALE LANDCARE GROUP This group started as an Incorporated Association in 2000 with a major project on private land at the Moss Vale Golf Club plus a small demonstration project rehabilitating a small length of Whites Creek at Mack Street Reserve, just downstream from the Golf Club. With support from the Hawkesbury Nepean Catchment Management Authority (now the Local Land Services) and Sydney Water, it was planned that the Landcare group would move downstream all the way to Medway Rivulet. At this time our local Council was not much involved in Bushcare support.
Whites Creek flows through Moss Vale with its headwaters developing on hillside drainage at Werai. It flows down through farmland (soon to become residential land), then via the Golf Club and on through a pipe beside the walkway from Mack Street to the back of Coles carpark. After flowing under Argyle Street and the railway, and through the St. Paul’s International College grounds, it runs under Berrima Road. Here the creek enters publicly owned land known as Cosgrove Park and continues its flow to private farmland at the end of Gibbons Road. The creek goes on, eventually crossing Oldbury Road and joining Medway Rivulet and, ultimately it joins the Wingecarribee River and becomes part of Sydney’s water supply.
Twenty years on and work has been completed at the Golf Club, at Mack Street, at the boundary of Seymour Park with the Golf Club, at the back of Coles and along the Creek from Berrima Road to Gibbons Road. However the area and length of the creek through Cosgrove Park has seen the group decide to give up their ambition to go further. With ongoing maintenance and the development of a marsh land area for Latham’s Snipe plus a recent Council purchase of further land for inclusion into Cosgrove Park, the group has chosen to reduce their commitment and has ceased to be an incorporated body. Moss Vale now has a number of Bushcare volunteers working alongside the council’s Bush Regeneration Team.