Synergy in our community

Volunteering Australia has used ABS numbers to publish that more than five million Australians formally volunteer in some capacity.

A further six million are estimated to volunteer ‘informally’.

My attention is drawn to Landcare and the effort put into the more than 600 groups in Victoria alone that comprise between them thousands of people.

It may be a very small fraction of the volunteer army in Australia but the task to take on threats to the health of our environment is still quite considerable.

I have visited enough Landcare groups and functions to see the diversity on every plane, from recruitment, to their specific problem to the range of public speakers brought in for raising awareness.

Every conversation I have with them, whether it be about fencing paddock trees, cleaning up a waterway or explaining pragmatically the challenges of getting younger people involved (and not complaining about it), I have come away enlightened and somewhat excited to know the frontlines are being manned.

In addition to Landcare there are are other taskforces at play with naturally a lot of overlap between themselves and with Landcare.

What I consider the ‘big four’ have recently been awarded funding that is well deserved for the effort these groups have put in.

The four groups cover — individually — blackberries, gorse, serrated tussock and rabbits.

And of course they have their own overlap of members.

It has been interesting to see how these taskforces operate within each problem and their development.

The efforts of King Parrot River locals from two Landcare groups in controlling blackberries have been outstanding, and the before-and-after photos and, sadly, photos of boundary lines where one neighbour won’t get onboard, highlight the group’s success.

Warren ‘ripping’ was explained to me last year, complete with photos, as a successful means to control rabbits.

Recently I spoke with Lyn Coulston who chairs Victoria’s blackberry taskforce and, despite being a very busy person, you can hear in her voice the serious determination with which she approaches her work with the pest plant when you pin her down for a phone call.

The lateral thinking of the group and willingness to keep on learning has seen a collaboration with a Melbourne researcher who suspects that blackberries could also be contributing to the harbouring of Queensland fruit flies during their off season.

Victorian Gorse Taskforce chair Ron Cosgrave is another case in point, equally as driven with his own runs on the board with how he has dealt with his specific weed on his own land.

These groups would naturally welcome further funding for frontline groundwork, but they channel funding wisely to maximise recruitment of locals through workshops and field days, demonstrating to landholders where success can be found on their own land.

Joan Kirner founded Landcare in 1986 when she was Victorian environment minister, in collaboration with then VFF president Heather Mitchell.

The first group was formed in central Victoria in the wheat zone of St Arnaud, and that seminal group came about because farmers saw value in collaborating rather than working alone on environmental protection.

The NFF’s Rick Farley and Phil Toyne from the Australian Conservation Foundation took the movement nationwide in 1989, with support from the Hawke Government.

From all accounts, that initial cooperation between landholders has produced not only synergy in tackling environmental issues, but also relationships between neighbours and groups that can only be good for regional communities.