Woodend Landcare welcomes new committee members
The Woodend Landcare AGM was held on the 25 October 2026 with guest speaker, fauna ecologist, John Harris. John provided us with an update on the wildlife surveys he has been undertaking along Five Mile Creek, using high-tech equipment to record birds, marsupials, bats, frogs, and more.
We also held our annual committee nominations. Huge thanks to those continuing in their roles – Nicole, Peter, David, Jessica, Anthea, and Michael. A very warm welcome to new committee members Misba, Rachael, Bart and Katie. Thanks also to outgoing committee members Mark Horner and Sarah Frankland who are continuing on as members and attending working bees. Mark is also helping Peter as the Equipment Coordinator.
The 2026-27 Woodend Landcare committee consists of 10 members:
- President – Nicole Middleton
- Vice President – Peter Yates
- Operations Manager – David Gossip
- Treasurer – Jessica Parker
- Secretary (Compliance) – Anthea Ryall
- Secretary (Memberships) – Michael Sutton
- Secretary (Meetings) – Misba Jumana
- General Committee Member – Rachael Hook
- General Committee Member – Bart Spence
- General Committee Member – Katie Scott
2025-2026 Annual Report
2025-26 was another productive year for Woodend Landcare. Our three biggest achievements of the year included:
- Woodend Landcare’s highest number of members ever – 52 families/households!
- Awarded a $20,000 Landcare Victoria grant to undertake a Fauna Discovery of Five Mile Creek.
- Featuring in an article in Landcare Victoria’s 40th Anniversary magazine – Slow and steady story of change.
The Annual Report provides a great summary of everything we have achieved. Download a copy here:
None of this could have been possible without our dedicated committee, our behind-the-scenes helpers, the volunteers who pull up their sleeves at weekly and monthly working bees and our financial supporters. THANK YOU everyone!
Scouts and venturers collaborate for evening of discovery
On Friday 9 October, 1st Woodend Scouts, Macedon-Woodend Scouts and Venturers, and the Macedon Ranges Venturer Unit came together for an evening of discovery and citizen science. As part of Woodend Landcare’s Fauna Discovery of Five Mile Creek Project, fauna ecologist John Harris taught us about direct (old school) and indirect (new technological) ways of assessing biodiversity. We learnt about modern tech devices that ecologists use to detect animals such as motion sensor cameras, a thermal imaging camera, anabat, audiomoth & other sound and ultrasonic recorders.
After the high-tech ‘show and tell’, we went for a walk along Five Mile Creek to see the tech devices in action and try to find some nocturnal animals. Before leaving the car park the thermal imaging camera discovered a Brush Tail Possum hidden in a tree. In total, we found four Ring Tail and six Brush Tails Possums, including a cute mother Brushy carrying her baby.
John showed us a baited wildlife camera in a tree that he had set up earlier to record nocturnal animals, and how to use apps on our phones to record frogs (we heard four types of frog, including Pobblebonks).
One of the highlights of the evening was discovering a 3cm long Little Forest Bat in the harp trap John had set up at the start of the evening. Little Forest Bats are one of the smallest mammals in Australia, and can eat 2 grams of mosquitos each night. That’s a lot of mozzies! Although we weren’t allowed to touch the microbat, it was amazing to see as some of us had never heard about microbats before, let alone seen one. When John has finished telling us about the microbat it flew off into the night.
Thank you to John Harris (Wildlife Experiences) and the Victorian State Government’s Landcare Victoria grant program, who all made this night of discovery possible.
