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Local Landcare Champions

Two of our local champions will be in the running for this years Victorian Landcare Awards!

5 July 2024

We have two local stars who have been nominated for this years Victorian Landcare Awards. Read on the get to know them, and wish them luck at the award ceremony coming up in a couple weeks!

In the running for the 'Women in Landcare' category is Julie Andrew!

Julie has been an integral player in our region’s Landcares since 2004, as well as environmental conservation more broadly in the upper Wimmera, for decades. According to Julie, “our well being as individuals and as communities relies on us being connected to place and to each other. Working in conservation allows both of these essential needs to flourish”. Julie has been part of the Stawell Urban Landcare group since at least 2004, and has also worked for Project Platypus, providing administrative support and land management expertise since 2017. While she has been involved in innumerable conservation initiatives over the past many years, since I joined this local Landcare community two years ago, the one that has really stood out to me is her "School Ironbarks Walks" initiative. This project has very much been her brainchild and passion, and she has kept it running for nearly 20 years now.

Aimed at grade 3 and 4 students of Stawell, this annual event sees over 100 students from the area attend the walk in the Deep Lead Nature Conservation Reserve each year. The students then follow Julie, and volunteer guides, on a meandering walk through the Reserve and into the ironbark woodland. They stop to discuss different species, habitats, and ecosystem interactions along the way. They look for hidden orchids, discuss how native plants are pollinated and dispersed by native invertebrates and birds, look for evidence of the Reserves history of grazing and logging, and discuss ways that humans can help heal the ecosystem such as through nest boxes. This nearly two-decade tradition has cultivated a deep connection between young students of Stawell and the spectacular and unique local Reserve that sits just beyond their door.

Julie and the students of the 2019 School Ironbarks Walks
Julie and the students of the 2019 School Ironbarks Walks

Julie Andrew's decades long dedication to landcare, sustainable land management and environmental education embodies the essence of the Women in Landcare Award. Her holistic, practical and scientific approaches make her a force to be reckoned with. Her passion project, the innovative "School Ironbarks Walks", is a model for long term educational initiatives that can grow year after year, training up new environmental stewards and ensuring our local kids grow up with a feeling of connection to their local country. Julie is one of our biggest unsung heroes!

In the running for the "Individual Landcarer Award" is Huib Ottow!

Huib is a local Landcare volunteer and an exceptional and valuable ecologist and taxonomic expert for our region. Huib has been dedicated to Landcare and habitat restoration in Concongella, focusing on a methodical plan for restoring a degraded bend of the Astons Scour creek, near to his home. When considering why he focused his efforts on the Aston's scour site, he told me “Not everyone has the resources and privilege to act globally, and most of us just only really extend our influence to our local community. But if everyone takes a small patch, then we will see changes on a wider landscape. That’s what landcare is all about!” I think in that respect, Huib perfectly exemplifies the spirit of landcare, and of empowering each person to protect and care for what they love in their own home area.

Huib leading primary school students in a plantout last winter
Huib leading primary school students in a plantout last winter

Huib’s ecological expertise and extremely methodical approach makes him an outstanding Landcarer. His project stands out due to its holistic approach to restoring the Astons Scour creek area, focusing on removing invasive species, re-establishing indigenous understory, and improving the site as a wildlife corridor. He has a 30 page management plan (!), which details his process for restoring to the site a species diverse and self propagating native community. He conducts regular documented site assessments, and has planned out an annual calendar of activities – alternating focus between preparatory weed control, revegetation, and follow up weed control, as his revegetation area is continually expanded. To ensure he has sufficient sources of seed for his revegetation, Huib has established his own native seed production garden and propagation shade house at his home.

Huib is an invaluable resource of ecological know how and practical revegetation approaches for our region. His passion for educating and sharing natural experiences makes him a local star!

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Elia Pirtle

Landcare Facilitator and Communications Officer