September 2016 saw Landcarers from all over Australia coming together in Melbourne for our biggest knowledge sharing and networking event of the year: the 2016 National Landcare Conference and Awards. There was a strong New England North West NSW contingent, including four of the Regional Landcare Facilitators: Jodi Kelehear and Felicity Steel from the North West and Christine Davis and Karen Zirkler from the New England.
This year’s theme was collaborative communities. It was a fantastic three days jam-packed with presentations, information sharing, discussions, field trips, networking and catching up with peers from near and far, covering everywhere from Bourke to Hobart to outback Western Australia.
We were also very proud to be supporting a whopping FOUR National Landcare Award finalists who hail from the New England North West region. A huge congratulations to Glenn Morris from “Billabong” Inverell, the Watsons from “Kilmarnock” Boggabri, all the team at GLENRAC, Glen Innes and to Amy Hammond from Tamworth’s Galala Rivercare.
Another proud local moment came during Costa Georgiadis’ address to the conference, with Bingara’s Orange Festival and Living Classroom heralded as specific examples of inspiring community projects.
During the conference we had the opportunity to hear from more than 50 speakers who shared their insights, case studies and new ideas on community engagement, collaboration, innovation and responding to landscape challenges and climate change. There were discussions around the future direction of Landcare and calls for a national soils policy. The speakers included scientists, academics, Landcare pioneers and leaders, politicians, government representatives and environment, climate and biodiversity experts. In addition, field trips gave us the chance to venture into the countryside beyond Melbourne, meet local Landcarers and see some Landcare projects in action.
Landcare’s next generation was represented by the Intrepid Landcarers, who brought great energy to the Conference. Intrepid Landcare is all about bringing together young, adventurous like-minded people in conservation projects and fun activities like kayaking, surfing and camping. It was great to hear about their experiences and success in getting young people involved.
The event was a great opportunity to network and to share ideas, knowledge and experiences with other Landcarers and Regional Landcare Facilitators. We were blown away by the passion and infectious enthusiasm of all involved and it was hugely inspiring to hear about different projects happening right across the country. The diversity of projects talked about was testament to just how flexible the Landcare structure is to adapt to the specific issues and needs of each region, while still meeting common goals.
In all, it was an action and information-packed three days and we left invigorated with new ideas, knowledge and inspiration to take back to our Landcare networks, as well as contacts and connections that will allow the networking and information sharing to continue. There’s a lot planned between now and then, but we are already looking forward to the 2018 instalment!
