Welcome to the October edition of Bass Coast Landcare Network's E-news. 

It is the season of Annual General Meetings! A great chance to get together with group members and reflect on the successes of the previous year, listen to an interesting speaker or take a tour, of course eat some delicious food and be involved in planning for the future of your group. We encourage members to go along to these great social events, find out what is happening and how you can get involved.

Scroll down for each section including:

• Upcoming events,
• Group and Network news,
• Grants/Training/Information & Landholder opportunities,
• New projects and project updates,
• Staff news.

You can also stay informed at our website 

www.basscoastlandcare.org.au

or on our facebook page at 

https://www.facebook.com/BassCoastLandcareNetwork/ 

and if you haven't already, give us a like and follow our page!

Bass Coast Community Nursery – Leftover plants for sale, priced to clear!​

We are having a plant sale at the BCLN Nursery to move on our excess plants leftover from planting season. We have approximately 3000 plants and various species of grasses, shrubs and trees including: Hop Goodenia, Swamp Gums, Messmate gums, Sweet bursaria, Carex, Lomamdra, Dianella, Swamp Paperbark, Scented paperbark, Saw sedge, Black wattles, Hedge wattles, Snowy daisy bush, Prickly tea tree and some others.

We would like to offer our members a special price of hiko trays at $20 (40 plants) and tubes at $1 each. Sale starts Friday the 19th of October 10am-1pm, 100 Hade avenue, Bass. Get in quick before they go. Planters will be available to borrow on the day as well.

For more information on the Bass Coast Community Nursery click here.

Grow lightly – Starting a market garden

Grow lightly has organized a day on a beautiful property in rural Loch, to help you to put into practice some simple techniques for growing vegetables successfully and efficiently. Whether you want to start a small patch to grow food for your family or start growing quantities to sell, this workshop on Sunday October 21^st from 10.30am to 1.30pm will cover site selection, how to create different types of garden beds, planting seeds, seedlings and how to set up irrigation, using methods to maximise yield and reduce workload. They will be putting some of the techniques into practice from the documentary 'The Market Gardener's Toolkit', so if you can make it to the Film night at the Grow lightly Hub on Thursday 11th October this will helpful.
Afterwards we’ll share in a simple lunch and the address will be emailed before the event. Gold coin donation.

Click here to book your place with Grow Lightly.

Stock up – a guide for small farm owners, free workshop

A free workshop is to be held on keeping livestock for small farm owners at the Nar Nar Goon Memorial Community Hall, 12 Spencer St, on Sunday 28 October, 10:00 - 1:30pm. For more information and to register please call  1300 010 163 or contact the Stock Sense team at [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]

Or you can get more details and register online by clicking here.

Phillip Island 150th year Community Parade celebration

Calling all Phillip Island Landcare members, their family and friends.  We want you!  As part of the 150th year Phillip Island celebrations a community parade is to be held on November 3rd at 11.00am. All ages are welcome, especially kids (and adults) that want a trailer ride down the main street of Cowes.   Our group will join the parade with a tractor pulling a trailer.  The trailer will have haybales for seats.  Those that can’t fit in the trailer will be walking alongside handing out our brochure and a free plant to spectators.

Please diarise this historic event and advise the group your joining in by emailing [email protected] or ringing Bhavani Rooks on 0457 148 921.

For more on the Phillip Island Landcare Group activities click here.

Bass Coast Landcare Network Tour Day at our upcoming AGM in Bass

Saturday November 17th is the date to save to take part in a tour led by Bass Coast Landcare Network Board and Staff members around our Landcare facilities in Bass. From our office to the River garden, Arboretum walk and the Nursery, we would love to show you behind the scenes as part of our AGM tour day. Bass Valley and Three Creeks Landcare Groups will also be holding their AGM’s beforehand on the same day.

More information on this day to come on our website and the November edition of our E-news. We will also be pulling together our annual report soon and calling on all group secretaries for a group update to share with members across the network.

Click here to learn more about the Bass Coast Landcare Network, history, mission, programs and more.​

Plantings, Pizza ‘e Birra’ - Kongwak Hills Landcare group AGM

Kongwak Hills Landcare Group has just completed the last of their plantings and celebrated with pizza and beers at Murray and Susan Pryde’s. To continue the theme, they are holding their AGM at the recently opened Burra Brewery Co on Sunday 18 November located at 12 Commercial St, Korumburra (next door to Kelly’s Bakery). Agenda for the night is as follows:

5:00 pm  Pre-meeting drinks (if you come along earlier there may be live music)

5:30 pm  Kongwak Hills Landcare Group AGM

6:30 pm  Pizza dinner after the meeting

Cost: Purchase own drinks; pizza & dessert included for financial KHLG members; non-members $22

Everyone is welcome including our new members, potential members and friends. If you would like to join us, please RSVP to Marg at [email protected]

For more on the activities of the Kongwak Hills Landcare Group click here.

Gippsland Intrepid Landcare – Island beach clean up weekend

Gippsland Intrepid have partnered with Sea Shepherd Australia, Plastic Free Phillip Island & San Remo and other local organisations to bring together an awesome weekend full of inspiring activities involving plastic! 
Sooo... if you are between the ages of 18-35 years old and want to make a difference, grab yourself ticket and come join like minded people! 
The weekend of December 1^st/2^nd will comprise of: A beach cleanup, sorting and counting rubbish, plastic free picnic (bring your own lunch that's single use plastic free), An Indigenous guided tour of Cape Woolamai, Presentations from Sea Shepherd, Plastic Free Phillip Island & San Remo and a special screening of ALBATROSS, all while camping out under the stars at our private venue on Phillip Island! Dinner and accommodation are included in the ticket! 
*Beach clean up and plastic free picnic is free and open to anyone of any age!! However, for the rest of the afternoon you'll require a ticket and need to be between 18-35 yrs. 
If you have any questions please don't hesitate to email [email protected]

Click here for more information on Gippsland Intrepid Landcare and to book your spot.

Phillip Island Landcare Group AGM

The Phillip Island Landcare AGM is on Sunday 2^nd of December and will be held at Jenny and Barry Jackson’s property ‘Comblewy’ from 11.00am. Note, this is a change from the previously advertised location, Churchill Island. Address supplied on booking.

After the AGM we will be walking on their property viewing previous plantings.  The purpose of the walk is to educate ourselves and members on the best type of plants to grow in different locations on our Island.  These walks form part of our desire to improve the success of our revegetation works.  After the walk we’ll be providing a superb BBQ lunch.

For catering purposes, please email [email protected] or ring Bhavani Rooks on 0457 148 921 if you’ll be attending.

For more on the activities of the Phillip Island Landcare group please click here.

A perfect day for planting on French Island​

Friday the 21st September was a perfect day for tree planting on French Island.  There were 21 volunteers, 15 from ESSO with the remaining made up of Friends Of French Island (FOFI) members and French Island Landcare Nursery staff.  The day started early with the Nursery staff placing out the tubestock and our Nursery Manager setting up the Camp Kitchen on the property, some 1.2 km away.  Volunteers arrived and were greeted with a cuppa and morning tea prepared by one of our island caterers.  After introductions, it was down to business.  With tree planters in hand, off we went to plant 650 tubestock.  Most were in the ground by lunchtime, guarded and staked.   After lunch we finished planting and then it was back on the ferry to Stony Point.  It was a great sense of achievement to stand back and see all those little trees with their white guards dotted around the planting site.  French Island Landcare Group would like to thank the employees of ESSO, FOFI and the Nursery Staff for their hard work.  Many hands make light work.

For more information on French Island Landcare Group activities please click here.

There was a spring in their steps at the Springtime Bush Dance!

Held on Saturday 6^th of October at the Cowes Cultural Centre, it was a full house with 93 adults and 18 children having a great night. The band was ‘Maggie Duncan &the Chestnut St Orchestra’ consisting of 5 fiddlers, 2 mandolin players, 2 guitarists, a double bass player and an Irish boran drum. Led by dance caller Maggie Duncan, dancers stepped and turned, circled and sashayed to the music of polkas, strip the willow & many other dances.

There were lucky door prizes of lovely boxes of plants, prizes for the youngest dancers and for those having their birthday at the event. Everything stopped at 8.45 for an old fashioned 'bring a plate to share' supper. Music resumed and continued till 11pm.

Thank you to everyone at Landcare who supported the event. We hope there will be a small surplus to be donated to Phillip Island Landcare once all expenses are paid.

Article and photo contributed by organiser, Mary Whelan.

Commencement of Climate Change project with a successful launch day

Earlier this month we launched our recently funded project, The Climate Change Land Capacity and Capability Project. 30 people attended representing Southern Gippsland landowners, universities, industry groups and government representatives, clearly demonstrating the collaborative nature of the project. A big thank you to Gurneys Cider who held the launch on an amazing spring day and our guest speaker, Dr. Luke Shelley from the Agricultural Department of the Bureau of Meteorology. A great day celebrating the commencement of this exciting project.

A lot a hard work over the next two years will bring the activities in this project to fruition, including 12 property case studies on capacity to innovate and diversify in response to changing climate, field days and events to showcase findings, then culminating in the development of a web-based decision-making portal allowing farmers and industry support organisations to make informed decisions about their responses to climate change and sustainability.

We can’t wait to work with everyone involved. This project is managed by Bass Coast Landcare Network in partnership with Federation University Australia, RMIT University, South Gippsland Landcare Network and Bass Coast Shire Council.

Keep updated with the progress of this project on our News and Events Page by clicking here.

Bass Coast Before and After - at Roger Lee's!

Our new feature on our Facebook page, ‘Throwback Thursdays” has been getting a great following but we are still looking for more great stories and pics from you! We would love for you to send in your before and after shots from your Landcare projects to be featured on Facebook and our Enews. Help inspire others who are just starting out, those that are unsure of starting a new Landcare project or those who have decided they would like to do something more on their property. Be part of our great Landcare community, learning from and sharing with each other.

This edition’s pictures come from Roger Lee's property where in 2010, 5000 plants were planted around the dam, all with the help of 3 Creeks Landcare Group Volunteers. A great example of community action for the environmental benefits of clean water, shelter for stock and biodiverse landscapes.

What’s your story? We’d love to hear it send your pics and info to [email protected]​

Click here to see our facebook page, like and follow us to keep in the loop.​

Oh Deer the next big pest...

The Draft Victorian Deer Management Strategy has been released for public comment. The draft strategy has been developed by the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning and the Department of Economic Development, Jobs, Transport and Resources.
The objectives of the draft strategy are to maintain hunting opportunities while managing the impacts of deer on environmental, social, cultural, economic and agricultural assets.

Improving Phillip Island revegetation outcomes

The Phillip Island committee is currently working on ways to improve the success of the re vegetation projects they undertake.  One of the ways is to monitor and seek feedback of the site in the months / years after the planting day.  We will do this via a visit to the site and completion of a simple survey.  

We are looking for 2 - 4 volunteers to complete the surveys.  A great opportunity to be outdoors on local farm land, amongst recently planted trees.  Volunteers would work as a team of two when visiting the sites.  Training and support will be provided by the committee and staff.

Please email [email protected] or ring Bhavani Rooks on 0457 148 921 if this volunteer work interests you. 

Click here to find out more about the Phillip Island Landcare group including their newsletter.

Did you know you can request a quote for our Works crew directly from our website?

The Works Crew is the on-ground arm of the Bass Coast Landcare network, assisting in on-ground Landcare project work, as well as offering traineeships in the environment field. Our highly skilled Works Crew staff are all qualified in Certificate III Conservation and Land Management, with trainees studying the same course.  They offer a wide range of services including weed spraying, pest animal control, planting, vegetation assessments, surveys, mapping, identification, weed management plans and more. Any profit generated by the Works Crew is used to support the Network's activities.

Grant assistance may be available for works on your property, please click here to take you to our Works Crew Website page to get in contact or request a quote.

You can now offset your car emissions with BCLN

We are excited to announce our new program to encourage people to offset their car’s emissions. The way the program works is members of the community can make a donation which varies depending on the size of their car, and in return, BCLN will plant a number of native plants which will offset the emissions of that size car.

Participants will receive a sticker for their donation, which states ‘We’ve Offset our Car Emissions with Bass Coast Landcare Network’ which they can proudly place on their rear windscreen to show off their commitment to the environment. We hope to gain lots of interest and see these stickers out on the roads soon.

To offset your car emissions with BCLN click here.

Bass Coast Arc – Public Fund making projects a reality - Donate today to make a difference

The Bass Coast Landcare Network Public Fund is a regional charitable organisation focusing on conserving biodiversity in Bass Coast. We need your tax-deductible donations to help fund small projects by local community groups working with the relevant Land Managers to improve public spaces and create community access.

Under the banner of “Bass Coast Arc – Community Access to Public Space” the Public Fund aims to support local community groups doing things like: Managing pest plants and animals, surveying vegetation, repairing and upgrading infrastructure, including public tracks and fences.

Be a part of this important work - Click here to donate today!​

Congratulations to Lisa Wangman for 15 years at Landcare!

This week will mark 15 years for staff member Lisa Wangman who first started working for first the Phillip Island Landcare Group in 2003, then transferred over to the Bass Coast Landcare Network. Lisa has managed a myriad of projects and worked in different aspects of Landcare since starting as the Wildlife Corridor Project Officer, including revegetation, Group facilitation, Urban Landcare programs, Communications and most recently Training and Education. In an environment where funding is never secure for our staff from one year to the next, this is a great achievement, congratulations Lisa and we hope you are with us for many more years to come. Lisa is pictured sitting down with Clare  Landry handing over the reigns back in October 2003.

To meet the rest of our staff team, click here.​

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

We especially can't wait for you to send us in your before and after shots from any Landcare works you have done on your property.

We also look forward to meeting and catching up with you at some of the events coming up around Bass Coast, 

Until next month, 

From the Bass Coast Landcare Network.