Watershed Landcare is a community Landcare group encompassing the towns and surrounding villages of Mudgee, Rylstone and Gulgong in the Central Tablelands of NSW. Our area covers approximately 900,000 ha (9000 km 2) stretching to Gulgong in the north, Burrendong Dam in the west, the Turon River in the south and the Wollemi National Park in the east.
Watershed Landcare began in the early 1990s as a steering committee for a number of landcare groups in the region. As more groups formed, the Watershed Steering Committee was established to enable an integrated approach to issues that affected the whole district. In 2004 Landcare in the region underwent a restructure due to changes in natural resource management (establishment of the Catchment Management Authorities) and associated funding. Instead of individual incorporated landcare groups, everyone became a member of Watershed Landcare Inc. with members now participating in different projects according to their particular interests.
Why join Watershed Landcare?
- Be challenged, inspired and informed as part of a network of people who care for the land
- Learn about all aspects of our natural resources and how to manage them in innovative and sustainable ways
- Hear about our field days / workshops / seminars / projects through our newsletter (members attend free or at discounted rates)
- Contribute your ideas for Watershed activities
- Join one of our specialty interest groups – Mudgee Microscope Group, Grazing Group, Women in Agriculture Group; or the Mudgee Bee Group
Watershed Landcare has an ever-growing membership. The majority of these members live in the Mid-Western Regional Council area with about 30% being urban dwellers.
Members include established landholders, town and village residents, land managers, people with country retreats and local businesses.
Watershed’s objective is to “provide a catalyst for the community through education, co-ordination and support towards the improvement of the socio-economic and physical environment of our region”.
This is a formal way of saying we want to encourage positive change and progress in the community from a people, prosperity and environmental point of view!
Members come from every walk of life and interest; large and small landholders operating a variety of businesses, rural livestylers and urbanites! All share a common interest in finding better ways to do things sustainably – using innovation, education and support to help us humans change for the better!
Latest News
Projects
The ‘Sticks & Stones’ project aims to inject fresh knowledge into our region – on how to increase landscape function and productivity, improve farm water cycles and restore productivity in saline areas. Now that all sounds like a bit of a mouthful, but ultimately it’s about soil (improving fertility and reversing erosion), rain (soaking up every drop), plants (maximising green growth throughout the year). All of this spells increased productivity and a healthier landscape for farmers.
The 2015 Women in Agriculture Program aims to empower women in Central Western rural communities through targeted training, mentoring and built support networks to strengthen resilience, foster new career pathways and increase the profile of women in the industry that will flow-on into the future.
The Connecting Our Waterways project aims to improve landscape function and productivity by restoring or increasing the connectivity of riparian vegetation on farms in the Watershed Landcare district. Watershed Landcare is seeking expressions of interest (EOI) for funding from landholders in our region to conduct on-ground works to enhance riparian vegetation or increase the connectivity of riparian corridors on the land they manage.
The Landcare driving sustainable land use project aims to restore or improve landscape function and productivity by encouraging farmer innovation and change in two key areas: grazing management and farm trees/revegetation on farms in the Watershed Landcare district. Total funding of $21,300 is available to contribute to activities that increase groundcover and perenniality of pastures, improve soil health, and/or improve ecosystem function. Individual landholders can apply for up to $5,000 in funding to conduct on-ground works to enhance their grazing management and vegetation on the land they manage.
The Green Army is a Federal Government program aimed at achieving positive environmental outcomes while giving young people training and practical experience. The Mid Western Regional Council recently sponsored a Green Army project in the region. The team is run by Conservation Volunteers Australia and has nine participants aged between 18 and 24. There are five different sites where they are working; Adams Lead Reserve in Gulgong, Peoples Park in Gulgong, Rylstone common, Flirtation Hill in Mudgee and Putta Bucca Wetlands. The program runs over a period of six months.
The Friends of Putta Bucca Wetlands seek to restore an area of cleared land within the boundaries of the Putta Bucca Wetlands Reserve (PBWR). We seek to a restore a woodland of trees native to the local area and once much more extensive in the region, including within the PBWR. This woodland restoration will focus on restoring an open grassy box-gum woodland dominated by Yellow Box (Eucalyptus melliodora) but will also include other native trees including Rough-barked Apple (Angophora floribunda), Kurrajong (Brachychiton populneus) and shrubs such as Acacia implexa, Acacia decora and Bursaria spinosa. This woodland type is listed as a Critically Endangered Ecological Community on the Commonwealth EPBC Act 1999 and an Endangered Ecological Community on the NSW TSC Act 1995. It is highly valuable from a biodiversity conservation perspective for both flora and fauna.