As some of you may remember, I was blogging away leading up to Christmas. The blogs will stay on our website for a while. In January I was hoping to re-cap on some of our events held in 2018 and here it is. Right back to the start of the year, a Natural Disaster Declaration was made over an area at Cookamidgera and Back Yamma that was severely hit by a hail storm back in November the previous year. This was announced by Local State Member Mr Philip Donato MP. March saw the Central West Landcare Mud Run Team come together for the TITAN Macquarie Mud Run, which was an experience that I will never forget. I honestly never thought that it would be so intensive and am so proud that we all made it through. 

Our Fertile Ground Celebration Dinner was held in April at the Forbes Town Hall looked, which looked like heaven, dressed in white table cloths and seat covers, with amazing table decorations, created by an amazingly talented man. This was a wonderful opportunity to show case some of our wonderful local produce and events. We were very fortunate to have a wonderful line up of speakers, with our special guest being Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack MP, our Local Federal Member for Riverina.

In May we were fortunate to host Barry Sampson for a biological control weed workshop in Parkes. Barry has a long history working in this area and has a multitude of stories to contribute to an entertaining workshop. Due to the drought, we kept to areas that had access to water for establishment and maintenance purposes for National Tree Day community events and were thrilled with the amazing turnout to both the Forbes and Parkes events in July.

In September we were fortunate to host Rachel Kerin and Narelle Hunter at the Rural Women’s Wellbeing Workshop at Bedgerabong with a focus on health, wellbeing and mindfulness looking at positive ways to increase physical and mental strength. Also in September is my favourite and most exhausting event of the year, Eco Day! Where Stage 3 representatives from Parkes and Forbes Shire Schools join at the Central West Livestock Exchange to participate in learning activities with a focus on the land and our environment.

We were fortunate to participate in Bird Week activities in October with the National Parks Association, the Forbes Wiradjuri Dreaming Centre and Council. Numbers for the children’s activities were down on previous years, but the bird counts and enthusiasm weren’t.

In November, we welcomed a newly appointed Central West Lachlan Landcare Committee at our AGM, lead by Mr Ben Kerin as our new Chairperson. I am fortunate to have this wonderful group of people supporting me and providing direction and guidance. We are fortunate to have a Committee of people from the Parkes and Forbes shires. We have been very grateful to Margot Jolly, who stepped down as Chairperson to Deputy Chair to promote positive succession. We were also very fortunate to have Mr Matthew Burkitt, Farm Manager from NorthParkes Mine as our guest speaker.

We have held several events at PAC Park in Parkes, focussing on re-establishing the Waterwise Garden and also undertaking weeding in the established wetland plantings on the East Street end of PAC Park, where a picnic and BBQ area has not been established by Council. Until next week, happy Landcaring!