Several Macedon Ranges groups were successful in receiving a Victorian Landcare Grant, which aims to assist environmental volunteer and Landcare organisations across the state.
Grants of up to $20,000 were offered for a range of projects, including those that provide community education or works that benefit native vegetation, native fauna, waterways, wetlands, and soils.
There were also support grants of up to $500 provided to assist with operational costs for environmental volunteer and Landcare groups, such as insurance, meetings, events, newsletters, websites, and other communication activities.
In the Macedon Ranges, five groups received project grants and seven groups received support grants.
Project grants were received by groups including Deep Creek Landcare Group, Ashbourne Landcare Group, Campaspe River and Land Management Group, Threatened Species Conservancy, and Malmsbury District Landcare Group.
Malmsbury and District Landcare Group received a grant towards its ‘A turn in the right Direction – Giving a waste site a new future’ project in Kyneton South, which will enable the group to manage weeds and begin the execution of their revegetation plan of the former waste site.
Malmsbury District Landcare Group president John Walter said the project is about converting a waste site into a public asset and providing a stop-off point for local fauna.
“It’s not an interesting looking site at the moment, but having spent a lot of time looking and understanding and working with the local flora, I can see in my mind what … I hope it will look like in … twenty years time,” Mr Walter said.
He said the site could act as a guide for nearby residents to inform which types of vegetation and plant species they could plant on their own properties.
Oscar Parry
