Hello to all of our Landcare Members, Partners, Sponsors, and Friends throughout the Bass Coast Landcare Network and welcome to the September edition of the BCLN Enews.

This month's Enews contains a range of events, with only a few more planting days to go for this season, lots of articles on recent events, general news, resources, grants and more! We hope you enjoy this edition.

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If you haven't made it along to a planting yet and feel like you've missed out on all the fun... don't worry, there is  still time to get out there! Check out the dates below. We'd love to see you there!
September 23rd - Inverloch, 5,000 plants
October 7th - Woolamai, 6,000 plants

Click here  for more information on these planting days.​

Australia’s favourite citizen science event, The Aussie Bird Count, will return between the 16th and 22nd of October. You don’t need to be an expert birder to take part — all you need is a little enthusiasm! 

Click here for more information and to register.​

We are excited to announce that we will be running a special program just for little kids! Join us to explore the natural world in fun guided activities for 3-5 year olds, at the River Garden and Hall in Bass. Over 8x Friday mornings starting October 20th, we will cover themes including, Beautiful Butterflies, Wiggly Worms, Wonderful Water Bugs, Super Seeds and Plants, Australian Animals and more. Children will get to take something home from each session, be it a special hand painted pot, an insect hotel or plants, and a free morning tea is included. Thanks to funding from VicHealth, this is a free program, however bookings are essential to cover our catering and materials needs. Please note that adult supervision and participation is required alongside the kids, so if you are a parent, grandparent or carer and are looking for fun activities to do with the kids we would love to see you at the River Garden Little Kids program. 

Please click here for bookings and more information, bookings will open on Wednesday 27th of September. ​

You are invited to an exciting farm walk to the Almurta property of Janette and Andrew Allen from 10:30am-1:30pm on October 20th. Janette and Andrew took over the family farm in 2012 and have since been integrating a range of new and innovative management practices into their farming system.   ​Most recently they have transitioned 19 hectares of their farm to multi-storey farming, planting 6,000 agroforestry tubestock. Joining us on the day will be Agroforestry Consultant, Clinton Tepper from ‘Just Add Trees’.  Clinton has been advising Janette and Andrew from the start of this project and will be presenting on the project's planning and design. 

Click here for further information and to register.​

Due to the referendum taking place on the 14th of October, we are changing our monthly Blitz date to Saturday 28th of October and welcoming a new speaker, Paul Kirkpatrick from Gardenacious. Paul will be focusing on designing or retrofitting your garden, with great examples from his extensive experience and his own garden in Cape Patterson, as well as correct tool use and maintenance, with a selection of tools available for purchase on the day. A former teacher, Paul’s diverse career in horticulture began as a large block mowing contractor before moving into the design and maintenance of large acreage gardens. Currently he works as a horticultural consultant and garden retail manager as well as writing and lecturing in garden history and design. It will be a great chance to practice our correct tool use on the day by getting hands-on and helping to maintain our great community space at the River Garden.

For all bookings and information please click here.

What is Permaculture? Learn about the history, ethics and principles of Permaculture. Whether you are a complete beginner, wish to refresh your knowledge or just work out if Permaculture is for you, this weekend course will send you home with a head full of new ideas for your own plot.
Course fee includes workshops on hot composting techniques, no-dig gardening workshop, seed saving and a garden design component. For more information and to book, please email [email protected]​ or message via Facebook.

Click here to view the event on Facebook for further information.​

GROUP AND NETWORK NEWS

Late August saw the last of the Victorian Landcare Grant plantings for 2023 for Korumburra Landcare Group members, also being the largest planting for their group this season with 3,000 plants in the ground. Around 25 volunteers ventured down to the site at Brian and Tracey's place, which was very boggy after days of rain, the walk itself becoming a great team-building exercise! The planting only took 2.5 hours, with group facilitator Luke Phillips saying he "loved the commitment of everyone on such difficult terrain." Group secretary Rosemary commented that the event was "really well organised, and the volunteers are getting faster at planting with the practice they've had throughout the season." A delicious lunch was provided by the landowners, including a range of soups, baked goods and sweets. The group would like to thank Brian and Tracey Pepperell for inviting them to their lovely property and having everything very well organised. It was thoroughly enjoyed by all.

Click here to learn about Korumburra Landcare Group.​

A big thank you to the 20+ Bass Valley Landcare Group members who braved the rain to plant 2,000 plants at Ric and Mez Oldham's farm in Archie's Creek. The ground was wet and boggy, but that didn't slow down this enthusiastic bunch. A delicious lunch was provided by Mez, which is always a great way to finish a planting! Thanks to the Victorian Landcare grants and the BCSC biolinks project for funding the project.

Click here to learn more about the Bass Valley Landcare Group.​

For a third year, Turosi has sponsored a planting day at the farm of one of their Bass Coast suppliers in West Creek. It was a lovely Spring Day and Turosi staff arrived from as far away as Brisbane to lend a hand! Staff worked together to get a massive 2,000 plants in the ground along a Biolink, creating more habitat for our native fauna. Many thanks to Turosi and their staff for their assistance and ongoing partnership.

Click here to learn more about sponsorship opportunities with Bass Coast Landcare Network.​

15 volunteers from Korumburra Landcare Group banded together to get 1,400 plants into the ground at Bill and Jane's lovely property in Bena, late in August. They started the day off with Mark Brown from the Bunurong Land Council Aboriginal Corporation with a Welcome to Country, where he helped set the mood for giving back to the land. The planting plot joined 2 older plantings together to make one large corridor. It is inspiring to see landholders wanting to make the wildlife corridors, as they too get a kick out of all the wildlife around once the planting establishes, just as much as the wildlife enjoy it. The planting went smoothly and was well organised, finishing up with a warm lunch and dessert. Thanks to all who were involved in this great planting day!

Click here to learn more about the Korumburra Landcare Group.​

Have you seen a Lace Monitor (Tree Goanna or Varanus varius) on the Bass Coast?! Lace Monitors are listed as a threatened species in Victoria and are particularly rare on the Bass Coast. Gippsland Threatened Species Action Group (GTSAG) and Bass Coast Landcare Network are working on a project to protect threatened species in the local area, and the first step is to identify their whereabouts! They can usually be found in Messmate Stringybark trees in woodlands or bathing in the sun.
If you have seen, heard of or taken a photo of a Lace Monitor locally, please help us by sharing the following information: Year, Address, Description of location on property, Other observations (in tree, crossing road, dead or alive etc.): Please screenshot a map on your phone and mark the location to attach and send to: [email protected]

Click here to learn more about the Gippsland Threatened Species Action Group.​

Dave (Executive General Manager), Paul and Ken (Board members) recently participated in the West Gippsland Catchment Management Authority (WGCMA) Regional Landcare Strategy Session and tour of the Maffra and Districts Landcare Network. The tour entailed visiting some significant public land sites including the Heyfield wetlands and Knobbs Reserve near Stratford. They gained an insight into the Maffra and Districts Landcare Network's activities and had the opportunity to get to know Landcare Board members and facilitators from across the WGCMA region. The focus of the tour was on the improvement of public land reserves and working with Landcare group members to lobby council and other stakeholders to protect and enhance public land. One of the big take-aways from the session was a common interest of the Networks to work together on a region-wide Biolinks mapping and implementation project to attract large-scale funding, potentially through the Landcare Victoria New Futures Fund. Dave will be following up with our neighbouring networks and the WGCMA to see if we can get this happening in the near future.  

Do you have a Cherry Ballart (Exocarpos cupressiformis) on your property? This is an important native plant that we don't plant in our plantings – do you know why? It’s a semi parasitic plant that needs a host plant to successfully start life. It's thought for the most successful germination, the seed must first pass through a bird. This is a very unique plant and we should foster those we see in the hope they will spread. Photo credit John Tann.

Click here to read an interesting article about this fascinating species.​

GRANTS, TRAINING, INFORMATION, RESOURCES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR LANDHOLDERS

This webinar with Sustainable Farms and Landcare Australia covers the latest research results and resources on enhancing farm dams.
Hear from Michelle Young - Director Sustainable Farms, Dr Ben Scheele on how enhancing dams can provide habitat for biodiversity, Dr Shane Norrish - CEO of Landcare Australia, and Dr Helena Clayton on the stacked benefit for biodiversity and productivity.

Click here to watch it now.​

Join horticulturist Daniel Fuller and learn about horticultural, ecological and landscape gardening with featured experts, industry professionals and enthusiasts. Be informed and inspired with weekly episodes to help you become an unstoppable plant whisperer.

Click here to listen to Ep.166 Natural resource management: Creating ecosystems that last.

Or here to browse through other episodes.​

Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA) has launched an online, web-based greenhouse gas (GHG) calculator based on the Sheep and Beef Greenhouse Accounting Framework (SB-GAF) tool for Australian sheep and beef producers. The digitised version of the SB-GAF tool is based off the freely available excel version of the tool available on the Primary Industries Climate Challenges Centre (PICCC) website to ensure consistency across the sector. According to MLA’s Managing Director, Jason Strong, completing a carbon account is an important first step for producers to increase their carbon awareness and determine what their net GHG emissions position is, so they can identify strategies to reduce these emissions and improve carbon storage on-farm.

Click here to read more about the calculator or to give it a try.

The On-Farm Emissions Action Plan Pilot is part of the Victorian Government’s commitment under the Agriculture Sector Emissions Reduction Pledge to provide practical information, tools and services to support farmers to understand and reduce emissions. The Pilot will work with up to 250 farm businesses across the state to estimate their on-farm emissions profile and identify potential actions to manage and reduce emissions while maintaining productivity and profitability. Participants will then be eligible for grant funding to co-fund recommended actions from a total pool of up to $5 million.

Click here for further information.​

Thanks to assistance from students from Bass Coast College, including  FLO campus students, a work experience student and Junior Science classes from the San Remo campus, we have been able to weed some of our swale areas and plant seeds for our spring/summer crops in the past few weeks leading up to the end of Term 3. It’s been great working with the students, who have enjoyed getting their hands dirty and contributing to this great community space. We took a break in September for our monthly River Garden Blitz days, we will be returning in October with a changed date and new speaker, please see the events section above for all details. We look forward to our students returning in term 4 to plant out their seedlings, and a new Community Corrections Crew to help with the garden maintenance as well.  

Click here for all things River Garden and to sign up as a volunteer for this great community space. 

Capturing Carbon for a Biodiverse Bass Coast - In local planting projects!

If you feel passionate about the environment and want to contribute to action on climate change by reducing the impact of your car on our planet, why not consider becoming a part of our ‘Capturing Carbon for a biodiverse Bass Coast’ program? Head to our web page at the link below and simply click on your car's size to make a tax-deductible donation, so we can plant indigenous plants in biodiverse plantings across Bass coast on your behalf. These plantings will increase habitat and important wildlife corridor connections while capturing carbon from the atmosphere. All your friends and family will also see your complimentary car sticker showing your commitment to the Bass Coast environment and climate action.

Landcare Public Fund making projects a reality – Donate today to make a difference!

The Bass Coast Landcare Public Fund is a regional non-profit organisation focusing on conserving biodiversity throughout Bass Coast.​ We do this by supporting community groups to work in their local area to add value to their conservation efforts, encourage broader community ownership and participation and by working in partnership with other land managers. We work to help protect native plants and animals in Bass Coast’s most ecologically important landscapes. Your tax-deductible contribution, no matter how small, helps to protect native plants and animals in Bass Coast’s most ecologically important landscapes. ​

What's your story?

We would love to hear from you and your Landcare group with stories and photos of what's been happening in your area and any suggestions of things that you would like to see in your E-news.

We look forward to meeting and catching up with you at upcoming events and activities around Bass Coast.

Until next edition, 

Happy reading, from the Bass Coast Landcare Network.

The Bass Coast Landcare Network would like to acknowledge and pay our respects to the Traditional Land Owners within the Network area, The Bunurong and Boon Wurrung people. We also recognise the contribution of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and organisations in Land and Natural Resource Management.