James Reyne, G's editor Carolyn Barry, and Tracey Spicer stop for a quick photo and a tour of a regenerated area along Sydney Harbour. They were part of a group of kayaks who paddled from Lane Cove to Hunter's Hill for Landcare week.
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A video about the work by a local Landcare group in Boronia Park in Sydney.
Last week I had the privilege to join a group of kayakers on Sydney Harbour on a trip that was part of the annual Landcare week.
Landcare has been around for about 20 years now and has on the order of 4,000 groups across the country.
Most of these groups consist of about a dozen or so local residents who volunteer their time to clean up a bit of bush/body of water and help take it back to what it once was.
They do some amazing work.
On the day, the group (including musician and entertainer James Reyne and journalist Tracey Spicer) set off from Lane Cove and headed out into the harbour, finishing up at Hunter's Hill.
Along the way, we stopped off a couple of places to meet the local Landcare groups who have been working hard to regenerate particular areas.
Without volunteers like these, such projects would take a decade to complete, rather than a couple of years, if left to local councils. This is simply a product of having the people-power on the ground.
It was a great day for being reminded of just how impressive it is when people can come together to volunteer their time for a good cause.
If you're interested in getting a group started near you, you can download a copy of the starter kit here.
Below is an image of a regenerated area in Boronia Park (and a Landcare volunteer), which was not too long ago a barron wasteland from a stormwater drain pipe runoff. Now it's almost back to normal.
Comments
The Mt Taylor Park Care group has been in existence since August 1989, and has a fluctuating membership, with many of the core members still very active. The members’ ongoing enthusiastic responses to the programs over the years have given us all much fun, guts to keep going, and keeping our long term view firmly in place. We have had many of our young members working on the mountain, and then continuing to help during their university studies; today we have a new group of youngsters with their families.
Over the years we have removed some 45500 woody weeds (mainly briars and Hawthorns) and are continuing to do so, as well as tackling some of the millions of soft weeds such as thistles, verbascums, St John’s wort, etc. We have also planted about 1000 trees and understorey species. Our members, linking to our Buddhist members, the Australian Conservation Foundation, and Greening Australia, grew most of the trees and shrubs. The plantings over one and half decades were very successful despite some erratic weather conditions and fire damage; however, with reduced seasonal rainfall, the later plantings have been slow to grow, and thrive. In fact the last two years have been very difficult, and we have reduced our plantings, mainly with Brachychiton populneus found on other hills of Canberra; we hope they may survive the climate changes that are appearing over Canberra.