15 July 2024
Project Platypus is launching a four year vision as part of Agriculture Victoria's new "Partnerships Against Pests" Program, which is designed to build government, industry, and community capabilities, strengthen relationships, and facilitate greater cooperation on established weeds and pest animals. Our project was one of 16 funded across the state for an initial year of work.
The Grampians National Park is a crown jewel of Victoria's natural heritage, containing one third of our state’s plant diversity. It is also fully encircled by highly productive agricultural land. This puts its at risk from invasive species from all sides. The Landcare networks of the Wimmera have teamed up to holistically combat weeds and feral animals in a buffer around the Park - across a mosaic of public and private land used for primary production and tourism to conservation and lifestyles. The backbone of our project are a series of workshops/field days, where landholders can share learnings and coordinate with representatives of the many agencies that share responsibility for good IPA management in our region
The project will be led by Project Platypus, and partners directly with our neighbouring Wimmera Landcare Networks: Horsham District Landcare Network and Yarrilinks Landcare Network. We have also assembled a comprehensive team of supporters to ensure all land tenures are involved in our coordinated approach, including Parks Victoria, Northern Grampians Shire Council, The Centre for Invasive Species Solutions - Fox and Cat Program, the Wimmera Catchment Management Authority, the Weeds at the Early Stage of Invasion (WESI) Project, Trust for Nature, the Wimmera Biodiversity Seminar team, the Barengi Gadjin Land Council, Friends of Gariwerd/Grampians, Horsham Rural City Council, and more.
Leading the team is our field operations manager Lachlan, who has been facilitating an important regional invasive plant and animal network that brings together representatives from DEECA/AgVic Biosecurity/Parks Vic/Local Gov/Wimmera CMA/VicRoads/Trust for Nature. Here reps come together at quarterly meeting to discuss invasive plant and animal work in the area to identify opportunities work in partnership and collaborate sharing expertise, knowledge and resources to deliver work in a cross-tenure approach. . This project is letting us build on that solid collaborative foundation and bring in Landcares and landholders into the conversation. "I've been working at Project Platypus for over 11 years delivering invasive plant and animal programs with public and private land managers. Over this time I have learnt that the secret to any success on controlling invasive species is to collaborate and work in partnership. In recent years we have seen increased engagement from agency representatives to the Upper Wimmera IPA committee, and stability in their roles. This, along with some really strong partnerships within the Wimmera Landcare network, the excellent skills and professionalism from the Local Lancare Facilitators (Elia Pirtle - Upper Wimmera/ Annie Hobby - Horsham/Alicia Merrim - Yarrilinks) and reinvigorated membership, we can see a real opportunity to set up partnerships for the future."
We are getting started with Landcare group IPA priority setting sessions. These sessions are designed based on research with help from a local expert from Agriculture Victoria, Mark Farrer. The session aim to help our Landcares reflect on the IPA work they have been doing, identify new threats, and apply a consistent and objective standard for directing their time and funds. More importantly, the sessions are built to pair scientific research with the expert knowledge of locals, who are managing pests on the ground, to give us the best possible information on where to focus our efforts.
Elia Pirtle
Landcare Facilitator and Communications Officer