Join Woodend Landcare volunteers 9am-noon, Sunday 31 August at Ruby Mac Park for a morning looking after the indigenous habitat along Five Mile Creek. See flyer for details.
Spring Working bee season begins (a day early!)
Working Bees
Planting Day- Sunday 25 May 2025
We hope to have many hands helping at our Planting Day on Sunday 25 May 2025. There are around 800 grasses to plant in the revegetation sites along Five Mile Creek. The sites are located between the northern end of Jeffreys Street and the Heritage Walk near the tennis club. Importantly, our efforts will help protect the existing Black gum trees and create habitat for local birds and animals. Arrive at 9 am with your gloves and eye protection. Morning tea and planting tools are provided. Park at the tennis courts. Hope to see you there!
Local Landcare News and Events
Newham Landcare’s Autumn 2025 newsletter. Wildlife is a major feature following a recent evening with ecologist Tanya Loos, plus articles by guest writers David Cheal on Blackwoods, Stephen Murphy on Wombats and Olivia Hedge on Electrify 3442, plus other news and regular features. Click here to view.
Healthy Land, Healthy Horse – Equine Landcare information session. Macedon Ranges Shire Council is hosting a session in Macedon on the 30 May 2025. Click here to find out more.
Hepburn Gardens for Wildlife – Native Plants Screening Workshop – 10 May 2025
27 April Working Bee and more…
Working Bee – 9am, 27 April 2025, Ruby Mackenzie Park
This month we return to the bushy area behind Ruby Mackenzie Park. We will undertake important woody weed control using the cut and paint method. Our efforts will help the Black Gum and the occasional Swamp Wallaby visitor. Please join us at 9am Sunday 27 April 2025.
Calendar Update
The committee recently updated Woodend Landcare’s calendar of activities. Please be sure to mark these dates and locations in your diary…
Biolink Planting Thanks
Some images and a note of thanks to those who attended out planting day on the 6 April 2025 from Woodend Landcare President, Peter Yates:
Thank you for your help with our Biolink Planting. Congrats on all your work and hopefully we will be rewarded with some decent rain soon.
It brought home to me what a great band of people we have, each helping in their own particular ways. We have a wide range of expertise and experience to draw on and we don’t always agree on the way to do things, but we always manage to tie it all together and produce a great result.
I won’t mention names, but I want to thank everyone, including those that did the planning, managed the funding, the sorting of plants, the publicity, the manual work on the site, the watering, the catering crew and of course my chauffer!
I think this was the trickiest planting we have done for a long time. We tried to plant a much wider range of species over a much more scattered range of sites, each with it’s own planting layout, and at the end of an incredibly dry period. The soil in some areas was so hard and dry that without the two augers and a steady supply of batteries, we probably wouldn’t have got there.
We have some things to learn in terms of the timing and nature of future plantings. But that is the case with all our projects.
Thanks again to everyone for a big effort.
Peter
Working Bee – 6 April 2025
We have 360 seedlings to plant at our next working bee on Sunday 6 April 2025. In the reserve behind the Woodend Tennis Club, we will be looking to protect the rare Black Gums of Woodend. In time, the plants will create important habitat for local birds and animals. We would love to have many hands to help with the planting day. Morning tea is provided!
Creekside Clean Up – Litter and weeds
On Sunday 2 March, Woodend Landcare volunteers gathered along Five Mile Creek. We worked between Jeffreys and Campaspe Park for Clean Up Australia Day. While some folk went hunting for litter, others focused on weeds. The low water levels meant we removed rubbish from areas that have been difficult to access in recent years.
Over 3 hours, 16 volunteers collected 6 large bags of litter. An inventory of the rubbish was undertaken to report to Clean Up Australia. This important step enables data to be shared including how much rubbish was collected and waste trends identified. A snapshot of our Woodend Landcare collection includes:
- Total number of items collected – approximately 650
- Most common item – soft plastic (261 items including about 120 chip wrappers/lolly packets)
- Aluminium cans – 39
- Glass bottles – 13
- Disposable coffee cups – 8
- Paper – 247 items, almost half of which were takeaway food paper bags.
The use of the area for recreation was recognisable from the rubbish collected:
- 28 dog poo bags
- 6 tennis balls
- A frisbee full of dog tooth marks
- A small pink tennis racket broken into 8 pieces
Happily, we did not find any soy sauce fish, syringes, vapes, cigarette butts, nappies nor other hazardous items.
We collected some plastic plant guards used by Woodend Landcare or properties that were flooded in 2022. Since 2022, Woodend Landcare has changed its plant guarding practices. We are now using biodegradable cardboard plant guards and weed mats for all plantings within creek flood zones. We have committed to not purchasing any more plastic plant guards. We will use plastic guards that are already in stock or are being reused. However, these are only to be used above the flood zone. If you are undertaking seedling planting on your property, you might like to do the same. Contact us if you would like to know details of the guard and mats we use.
All rubbish collected has been disposed of appropriately, including recycling and composting where possible.
A huge shout-out and thanks to everyone that lent a hand for the day. Enjoy these few happy snaps from the morning…
Woodend Landcare 