2021 Hunter Region Landcare Awards

2021 Hunter Region
Landcare Awards

      Local people, working together,
        caring for our environment.

 We would like to acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of country on which we work as Landcarers.
     We pay our respect to our elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal
                              and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.

         Through Landcare we strive to work together, learn, and strengthen our connection
                                   to land, sea, and community.

St Mary’s Catholic College

St Mary’s Catholic College at Gateshead has been a
Landcare school for the past 15+ years. They became
affiliated with Lake Macquarie Landcare in 2005 when
teacher Maryanne Murray proposed that the school
partner with Council to rehabilitate a degraded creek
adjacent to their playground. The Kennedy Creek
Landcare site was established, and students and
staff have embraced the opportunity to help out with
removing rubbish, clearing out weeds, planting and
caring for the native trees, shrubs and grasses.

The initiative is currently led by science teacher Katrina
Piper and includes a student environmental group that
runs eight annual Landcare days where the group learn
about native regeneration and practical ways to care
for their local environment. The wider school community
is also invited to these events, with around 30 – 40
parents and teachers joining in too. Each year they plant
over 1000 plants. They also care for 4 native stingless
beehives, a vegetable garden and a bush tucker garden
and have created a dedicated frog garden too.

The program has been extremely successful, and the
school has made significant efforts to further embed
environmental education into their curriculum as a result,
using their treasured Kennedy Creek site as a case study
for ecology and marine studies.

Winsome Lambkin

For the past 20 years, Winsome Lambkin has been
one of Lake Macquarie Landcare’s most active and
committed environmental champions. After studying
bush regeneration at TAFE in the early 90s, she began
her Landcare journey in 2002 when she established
and became coordinator of the Floraville Ridge and
Rainforest Reserve Landcare group, a 10-hectare site in
Eastern Lake Macquarie that includes an endangered
ecological community of remnant rainforest. It is home
to a number of threatened and vulnerable fauna species
and regionally significant plants.

Winsome is always offering a lending hand at other
Landcare sites in the area too, and in recent years she
has established two more new Landcare sites - Cold Tea
Creek Landcare and Fossil Wing Creek Landcare, as well
as being a member of Eleebana Residences Landcare.

Winsome has also been an active member of the Lake
Macquarie Landcare Volunteer Network Committee for
over 10 years. For many years she has helped organise
the Network’s extremely popular “Super Saturday
Session” program to help bring Landcarers together
while also providing valuable learning experiences. She is
a naturally engaging educator, always contributing to
the Lake Macquarie Landcare newsletters.

Brian Hilton

Brian Hilton is a Landcare volunteer with a lifelong passion
for repairing and sustainably managing the treasured
coastal environment in his hometown of Redhead, NSW.
Growing up in the area, he has a deep connection to the
history of the township and has been witness to the rapid
coastal degradation caused by sand mining activities,
invasive weeds, and expanding urban development.
Motivated by a deep respect for native plants and wildlife
and a genuine sense of responsibility to protect them,
Brian decided to take action in 1975.

He started work removing the dense thickets of Bitou Bush
that were smothering the dunes opposite his home. He
later established the Redhead Bluff Landcare site where
he has coordinated several major coastal management
projects such as the very successful Redhead Coastal
Corridor project. The project established a vital wildlife
corridor to link natural coastal areas with the neighbouring
bushland of Awabakal Nature Reserve, Jewells Wetland
and Belmont State Wetland Park.

Over four decades later, Brian remains one of Lake
Macquarie’s most active landcare volunteers to this
day. His vast knowledge and unwavering perseverance
have resulted in immeasurable benefits to the environment
and wider community, and he is showing no signs of
slowing down any time soon.

Hunter Wetlands Centre
Thursday Mob

Thursday Mob Landcare was established in 1991. Members
became involved due to their love for and appreciation
of the natural environment - Australian flora and fauna.
They started restoration of the Hunter Wetlands Centre
which was a degraded 43 hectare site, by removing weed
species and replacing them with Australian flora, followed
by symbiotic fauna, particularly birds. Camarady of
members working together and morning teas continue to
this day.

The key challenge has been the restoration of this
degraded site following decades of neglect plus
inappropriate use (we claim a world first where a football
field has been restored to a swamp). There has been
continual weed infestation from neighbouring residential
properties plus the adjacent closed Astra Street dump.
Our work involves constant weeding and replanting with
local native species to prevent erosion and weeds.

By 2020, 360,000 Australian native plants have been
planted over 43 hectares.

Thursday Mob Landcare over 30 years is an outstanding
example of achievement in environmental restoration.
Many say ‘The Wetlands is a jewel in Newcastle’s crown’.

Hunter Aboriginal Riverkeeper Team

HART or Hunter Aboriginal Riverkeeper Team, harnesses
the collective power of the Hunter Valley Flood Mitigation
Scheme, Hunter Local Land Services, Department of
Primary Industry (DPI) Tocal and the Soil Conservation
Service (SCS) to provide on-ground practical professional
experience combined with formal training in conservation
land management.

The project is grounded in the rehabilitation of the riparian
landscape within the Hunter Valley. The rehabilitation
activities provide the practical element required for four
indigenous trainees, an indigenous site supervisor and an
indigenous project manager to connect Country, culture,
education and experience into a viable long-term career
path.

DPI Tocal provides the framework for trainees to attain
first a Certificate in Conservation Land Management, then
if willing - progress to a Diploma and potentially move
towards a degree and graduate program.

The project has been running for two years now - our
first round of trainees were successful in attaining their
Cert III in Conservation Land Management. Two trainees
have stayed with the project to commence their Diploma,
one trainee has graduated and left the project and one
trainee has secured full time ongoing employment with the
SCS working in the lower Hunter.

Earthcare Park

In the 1990’s, a group of innovative “Green” academics
and others secured the 32 hectare site beside Metford
Road Tenambit NSW, on lease from the Crown managed
by Maitland City Council, with the vision of establishing
both a rehabilitated natural forest from the remnant forest
remaining and a sustainable eco-village complex.

The area is zoned Public Recreation however, only the
sustainable rehabilitation Landcare ideal became viable
and so Earthcare Park and the Landcare Group was
born about 1995. Tom Toogood in January 1996 wrote that
we face an urgent global eco-crisis of our quality of
life and our future depends on the complex network of
environment and our respectful stewardship of the land.

We are currently the oldest Landcare Group in the
Maitland region. The once completely degraded land
now abounds with flora of all kinds. Volunteers come
monthly and weekly to lend a hand and have established
a Bushfood Garden, areas of ground cover, canopy plants
and shrubs as well as allowing the Spotted Gum trees
to naturally reproduce. This work over nearly 30 years
has produced an abundance of habitat for native and
migratory birds and animals, an abundance of native
flowering plants and a healthy waterhole ecosystem for
water life. Now, on Council made paths one can wander
or sit surrounded by peace and natural beautiful bushland.

Shoal Bay

The Shoal Bay Landcare Group was formed in 1995 and
currently have 33 members, 20 of which are currently
active. The group was formed to improve the state of
the forest along the foreshore through weeding and
planting, to maintain dune stabilisation fencing, and to
make the bushland accessible to the public to enjoy and
appreciate.

The group are dedicated to the Shoal Bay Foreshore
Reserve, specifically the coastal vegetation between
Shoal Bay Road and the water. This is a precious strip of
Coastal Banksia Smooth Barked Apple Forest.

The group has a strong community presence and
works to balance social needs and environmental
issues. Apart from planting, weeding, and working to
stabilise sand dunes, the group installed a 200 metre
walking path to enable safe access near the beach
through the forest. The path project engaged local
trades people and increased community discussions of
Landcaring and being able to enjoy the environment.
This walking trail is used heavily by the community and
the project, encouraging taking pride in and enjoying
the local environment.

Broke/ Bulga

The Broke/Bulga Landcare Group have been an active
group since the 1980s. They have a small core of
dedicated active members and are increasing their
membership as they progress with projects. They have
been undertaking regular work in a highly popular local
council park on the Wollombi Brook at Broke over many
years, accessing some funding support to continue their
work in McNamara Park 4 years ago.

Their work in the park has since expanded through their
inspiration to develop a 3 year project partnership to
include 15 private properties along 2km of both sides of
the Wollombi Brook downstream of the park area. The
initial aim in mind was to reduce the heavy infestations
of African Olive present on the opposite bank to the
Park area to protect the investment of the work they
had achieved. The project is supported by the NSW
Environmental Trust, Singleton Council, and Bulga Coal.

The Landcare Group has engaged landholders via
Landholder Agreements with the Landcare Group to
maintain areas assisted and worked on into the future.
Broke/Bulga Landcare have also incorporated traditional
cool burns as a trial for McNamara Park vegetation
management with council.

Blacksmiths Beach

The Blacksmiths Beach Dunecare Group formed in June
1990, working to protect the coastal environment in the
area from Awabakal Avenue in the north to the Swansea-
Belmont Surf Club in the south, approximately 1 kilometre
in length and 200 metres in width. The beach was
considered to be one of the most degraded beaches in
NSW as a result of the mineral mining during the 1960’s
and 1970.

When the group formed, the area was overrun with
Bitou Bush, in some areas growing to heights exceeding
3 metres. The group worked weekly to remove this
infestation, having removed almost 80 per cent within
24 months. The removal of the Bitou Bush from the hind-
dune forest region, also allowed more native seedlings to
establish quickly, increasing the biodiversity of the area.

The group has also been proactive in restoring the
damaged dune structure by encouraging the natural
regeneration of native species and planting hundreds
of native species to stabilise the degraded sand dunes.
They have scattered Acacia seed over the dunes, allowing
native vegetation to establish independently. Most new
growth is natural and the group are now working to re-
introduce native trees such as Tuckeroo and Smooth
Barked Apple to increase the diversity of the flora
population, resulting in the return of many species of birds
and reptiles.

Chris Jackson

Chris Jackson has been President of Wollombi Valley
Landcare Group (WVLG) for seven years. During this time,
Chris has initiated and managed a signicant number
of environmental projects in the wider Wollombi Valley.
The success of these projects has been due to Chris’s
leadership and his ability to inspire and motivate members
of WVLG to become actively involved in ongoing care of
the land and watercourses, and the flora and fauna in the
Wollombi Valley.

The Wollombi Valley is a large geographical area. Our
Landcare Group is sometimes referred to as ‘Wollombi
Landcare’ but this is a misnomer as the Wollombi village
locale is only a small, but significant, part of the Wollombi
Valley area. There is an incredibly diverse range of flora
and fauna in the valleys and uplands.

Chris came to his home on the edge of the Yengo National
Park with signicant experience in bush regeneration in
Sydney and an interest in native animals. When he joined
WVLG, we were a small group of people who sometimes
attended meetings and the odd workshop. Chris has
quickly turned us into a group of over 100 members, and
has led by example, encouraging us to be proactive.

Gabrielle Stacey

                                                                                                      Newcastle Herald

Gabielle Stacey is aged 27 and joined Fern Creek
Gully Landcare on 7th September 2019 as part of the
Intrepid Landcare team (where she was part of the team
leadership) which came to help lay 10 rolls of jute cloth
and plant 700 tube stock in 2 hours. Gabrielle at the time
had a TAFE Certificate in Horticulture, was studying for a
TAFE Certificate in Conservation and Land Management
and worked part time in a retail nursery.

Gabrielle joined Fern Creek Gully Landcare because
she learnt on the planting day that the group planned to
restore the habitat of a 9ha creek line valley which was
heavily infested with bitou and other transforming weeds
located in the northern section of the Awabakal Nature
Reserve.

Gabrielle Stacey is a natural communicator who can                            Ninon Meyer/John-Paul King

relate effectively and compassionately with a wide variety
of age groups from teenagers to an older generation.
Through her sheer enthusiasm for the natural environment
and all its marvelous creatures and species, she is able
to engender a long term environmental commitment from
people whose life experience has rarely motivated them
to work to restore our natural environment.

Gabrielle has now been unanimously selected by the 140
                                                             Fern Creek Gully Landcare
volunteer group as Coordinator on the retirement of Peter
Dalton from that role.

Martindale Creek

Martindale Creek Catchment Landcare (MCCL) formed
in December 2014 after seeing a need for communal
education and action in controlling serious agricultural
and environmental weeds. With around 50 members, the
group covers the lower catchment of Martindale Creek in
the Upper Hunter, bounded largely by the north-eastern
section of Wollemi National Park. Martindale Creek runs
for 60 km from Mt Monundilla within the Park to the
junction with the Hunter River at Bureen. The catchment
covers the localities of Martindale, Horseshoe and parts of
Bureen.

While weed education and control is our major focus, we
also work to promote other matters such as sustainable
agricultural practices, environmental awareness and
the benefits of a healthy natural ecosystem to farmers
and all landholders in the community. We advocate on
relevant matters where deemed appropriate, and utilise
our communication network for the greater benefit of the
community, providing an avenue for the dissemination
of information and invitations to events from external
organisations when requested.

We have an ongoing formal partnership with Hunter Bird
Observers Club; we work closely with the Local Land
Services, Muswellbrook Shire Council, National Parks and
the Upper Hunter Weeds Authority, as well as with the
wider Landcare community.

Dungog Commoners

Dungog Commoners Landcare Incorporated have been
working together with the manager of Dungog Common
(Dungog Common Recreation Reserve Land Manager
- DCRRLM), Hunter Local Land Services (HLLS), Dungog
Shire Council and Karuah Local Aboriginal Land Council
to improve and sustain the ecological condition and
values of Dungog Common at Dungog. The group have
been heavily involved in multi-faceted projects addressing
several natural resource management issues across the
Common since 2016.

The Common is a significant 240ha area with a creek
system (Common Creek) running through the site.
Threatened species have been recorded at the site such
as Cynanchum elegans and Eucalyptus glaucina and
there have been koala sightings. Currently the group
have been focused on enhancing and protecting an area
identified as high conservation value on the Common
known as ‘Hungry Hill’ with funding and support from
the NSW Environmental Trust and HLLS. As the Common
is a recreational reserve used by the public the group
recognised the need to educate people about the
significance of the site and protect its ecological assets
for the wider community to appreciate.

The group feels a strong connection to the Common which
is shown in their dedication in their work.

Pauline Sykes

Pauline’s drive and enthusiasm brought almost her whole
community along with her on her local Landcare journey
after leaving her nursery work and moving into land
management.

Beginning by seeing a need and wishing to be involved
by using her knowledge and skills, and starting with a
public meeting in August 2014, Pauline has brought her
professional experience and expertise to the community,
enthusing them with the need for communal action on
local environmental issues. The community formed a
steering committee to research forming a Landcare group,
of which Pauline was secretary. Following extensive work,
the group formalised in December 2014, electing Pauline
as President, a position she still holds today.

Pauline is the major driving force behind Martindale Creek
Catchment Landcare (MCCL), and spends a great deal
of time volunteering her professional skills managing
projects, applying for grants and seeking other funding
opportunities, and promoting Landcare and MCCL’s work
across the region. She is the main administrator of MCCL’s
social media. She provides interviews to local media
outlets and is always finding ways to promote MCCL, their
work and the greater need for weed control across the
wider region.

Clean4Shore

Clean4shore commenced in 2010 as a small group of
young Surf Life Savers, engaged in a Duke of Edinburgh’s
Award expedition, initially cleaning litter from the
Hawkesbury River, progressing into Brisbane Waters,
Tuggerah Lakes and the Hunter River in 2019.

The program engages school, youth, community, disability,
indigenous and corporate groups to remove litter during
organised field trips operating from a large barge.

Following a survey on the Hunter River in 2019, extensive
litter within the Hunter Wetlands was sighted. During 2020
a chance sighting of litter on the Northern foreshore of
the Hunter River, within the Tomago mangroves, revealed
staggering amounts of litter that was mostly unseen from
the waterway. All very old litter and deposited high on the
tidal marks. The vast abundance of plastics suggested an
urgency for stakeholder action to address what
Clean4shore described as five kilometres of Australia’s
worst litter deposits, in the heart of the Hunter Wetlands.

Clean4shore was selected for the launch of the Return
and Earn scheme in 2017 with recent collected data
utilised by the State Government to demonstrate the
positive trend in the reduction of plastic bottles, cans,
glass and shopping bags ending up in our waterways.

Eric Huber

Eric Huber for over 30 years, has been a driving force,
willing volunteer, diligent, motivated, devoted, and
thoughtful Leader, knowledgeable, innovative, networker
and organiser of sustainable Landcare. Since the
1990’s, Eric has given many hours to caring for the
environment, not only on organised work days, he has
watered diligently, removed fallen trees, liased with
other people who use our Park, and, he is President
and Treasurer of Earthcare Park, Maitland.

His friendly nature has meant he has built a network
of individuals that has enabled the Landcare Group
to source people, ideas and materials to enhance our
work on the 32 hectares we are rehabilitating.

“I achieve much personal satisfaction watching the
transformation of the land back to its original state. I
feel that it is my responsibility to pass on to my children
and grandchildren a better place. Being able to create
habitat and see fauna returning in greater numbers is
personally rewarding. On an interpersonal level, I am
fortunate to work closely with individuals who bring
various skills to the table and who collectively have
similar ideals and desires. These shared environmental
values and similar ethics keep us united and this is
personally rewarding.”

Barbara Weatherstone

Barbara Weatherstone is not inclined to publicity in what
she has been doing in the reserve. For at least three
years she has worked to remove lantana and other weeds
and nurture the regeneration of a significant area of the
reserve. She mostly works by herself, several hours a week
(occasionally with husband’s help) to remove the lantana,
privet, mickey mouse bush and other weeds from the site.

The location is in the reserve at the rear of our property at
Cleverton Close, Warners Bay with the area immediately
adjacent to our property originally covered by dense
lantana.

Dedication and perseverance in the quest to remove
invasive weeds from the reserve and joy in observing
natives reappearing is deserving of recognition.

Wendy Lawson

As president of the Broke Bulga Landcare Group for
the past 20 years, Wendy has been the driving force
of keeping environmental issues at the fore of the
community. The group has dedicated countless hours of
work to improving McNamara Park and in securing funding
for weed control and restoration of native vegetation
along the Wollombi Brook.

Wendy’s involvement across a range of environmental
organisations has created linkages between environmental
groups including the Broke Bulga LandCare Group,
Singleton Landcare Group, Wollombi Catchment Water
Users Association, Singleton Shire Landcare Network and
Upper Hunter Irrigators Committee.

Her passion for the environment also aligns with her
passion for tourism and viticulture, forging sustainability
and economic partnerships. She has been heavily involved
in the promotion of the Broke Fordwich wine region and
has organised numerous community events, including the
long-running Little Bit of Italy in Broke festival that draws
people from across NSW and Australia.

“I feel close to the land and local people of the
communities of Broke, Bulga, Fordwich and Milbrodale,”
she has said. “Anything I have done to advance this region
has been with all my heart and soul.”

Fern Creek Gully

Fern Creek Landcare Group has been operating for 20
years, initially headed by Peter Dalton and recently in
combination with Gabrielle Stacey. The project located
at Fern Creek at Dudley had been overtaken by noxious
weeds and non-native vegetation, which significantly
impacted the native flora and fauna (in particular squirrel
gliders which are currently endangered) of this area.

That parcel of land that is Fern Creek site forms a
connective corridor between Glenrock National Park
and Awabakal Nature Reserve. The noxious weed
invasion removal and subsequent gradual plantings
of native flora supported the movement of squirrel
gliders between neighbouring bushland and provided
habitat. Restoration of an old mine site and installation
of nest boxes had further enhanced the viability of the
environment for squirrel gliders.                             Ninon Meyer/John-Paul King

Fern Creek Landcare Group’s great work resulted from
consultation with an ecologist, John-Paul King;
Awabakal Education Centre, Kahibah Primary School,
Dudley Sustainable Network, National Parks & Wildlife
and local businesses.

Purple Pear Farm

Mark Brown and Kate Beveridge are the owners of
Purple Pear, a productive 14-acre farm on the outskirts
of Maitland. The pair moved to the property in Anambah
in 2006 where they set about developing a small-scale
farm system guided by permaculture principles. Prior to
this Mark was operating a market garden in Dungog,
as well as supervising community gardens and teaching
permaculture design. Kate was a mother and pre-school
teacher with a passion for feeding children nutritious food
and educating them to lead a healthy lifestyle. Together,
Mark and Kate felt it was their mission to look after the
land by building resilient, sustainable farming methods
that would provide their local community with nutrient-
dense food that does not cost the earth.

They started off by designing a Mandala Market Garden
and planting as many trees as they could afford while also
developing permaculture systems that would regenerate
the land, gradually transforming the barren property
into the thriving farm it is today. They have been very
successful in producing organic and biodynamic fruit,
vegetables, nuts, honey, and eggs that they sell through
their Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) food box
system. The farm has developed beyond food production
to become a valuable education centre that offers
diverse learning opportunities to the community through
workshops/classes, internships, tours, and children’s
activities.

Central Rankin Park

Central Rankin Park are one of Lake Macquarie longest
serving Landcare groups. Formed in 1995 by a small
group of residents, the group adopted the Superb Blue
Wren as their mascot in hope that their rehabilitation
efforts would see the bird return to the area. Not
only have the birds now returned, but the group has
also successfully completed several major projects
to rehabilitate the remnant bushland and stabilise
the creek bed and riparian zone. The groups active
and engaged volunteer base, dedicated program of
regular working bees and grant funded projects have
yielded amazing results for the local environment over
the past 26 years.

The site is in Rankin Park NSW, straddling the border
of Lake Macquarie City Council (LMCC) LGA and City       birdlife.org.au
of Newcastle Council LGA. It consists of a riparian
corridor on the upper reaches of Ironbark Creek
catchment and includes a mix of bushland and open
parkland zones.

The Nest Box Project is one of their most recent
undertakings. Funded by LMCC’s Environmental
Sustainability grant program, the project aimed
to increase available habitat for a range of fauna
species.

Thank you to the wider Landcare community for their continued efforts
               to care for our land, sea, and community.

                 Hunter Region Landcare Network
                    www.hunterlandcare.org.au
                 E: contact@hunterlandcare.org.au

These awards made possible by the support and funding from Local Land Services under the
                              National Landcare Program.