Past Events

In 2017 Watershed Landcare is organising and hosting its 9th annual Green Day environmental expo for year 5 and 6 students from the Mid-Western Regional Council area and beyond. Green Day will be held on Thursday 7th September 2017 at Mudgee Showground.



The aim of Green Day is to provide a positive event where students have the opportunity to learn about various environmental topics. Students are encouraged to think about issues associated with soil, water, biodiversity, sustainability and climate and how they can make changes to the way they live. Green Day is also an opportunity for students to learn about various organisations and businesses and their roles in environmental management.

This year, 580 students from 14 schools will be participating in the event.

Each year Green Day has a different theme, and a special guest presenter.

We have been fortunate to secure the services of Ruben Meerman, a.k.a the Surfing Scientist!, as keynote speaker for our 9th annual Green Day event.

Ruben is a passionate science educator, who travels extensively throughout Australia running exciting and engaging science sessions for primary and high school students. He has featured on popular television shows including Catalyst, Sleek Geeks, Studio 3, Sunrise, Roller Coaster, and was the first ever resident scientist on Playschool. He recently authored Big Fat Myths, which explores common myths around weight loss and dieting.



Ruben will run three, one hour sessions focusing on our key themes of water, waste, biodiversity and energy, and focus particularly on the science behind the problems and solutions for key environmental challenges, including plastic pollution.

The theme of this year’s event is GoMAD, an acronym for Go Make A Difference, the theme aligns with a popular environmental education program undertaken by the NSW Department of Education.

At Green Day students learn how science, technology, industry, environment and community can all work together and achieve suitable outcomes for all concerned.

A total of 19 workshop presenters from a number of different local businesses and organisations will take part in this event. Students will learn about managing pest species, water quality, habitat protection and waste reduction.

This year we have workshops from staff at Central Tablelands Local Land Services, Mid-Western Regional Council, Red Hill Environmental Education Centre, NetWaste, Niche Environment and Heritage, Barnson Pty Ltd, Royal Agricultural Society, Crave Natural and Rosby Sculptures in the Garden.

Green Day would not be possible without the support of Mid-Western Regional Council, Office of Environment and Heritage, Central Tablelands Local Land Services, Peabody Energy, Moolarben Coal, Red Hill Environmental Education Centre and Niche Environment and Heritage.



These important sponsors and supporters mean that Watershed is able to plan and execute Green Day with no costs to schools and students. All aspects of the day including transport and lunch are provided.

For further information, or to be involved as a sponsor, presenter or participant please contact Vivien Howard, Green Day Coordinator, on 0488 224 025 or at vivien@watershedlandcare.com.au

 

After a successful tour last year, Watershed Landcare's Grazing Group will be heading off on another bus trip to explore various production systems in our region and beyond.

The tour will visit Rob Lennon at Gundooee to see the impacts of the fire earlier in the year and the management strategies put in place for livestock and vegetation recovery.

Next on the agenda is Bob Freebairn's property where the group will be looking at winter fodder crops, a newly established winter legume in a new tropical grass pasture, and incorporating serradella and sub clover into native and tropical grass pastures.

Discussion will cover gross margins for the enterprise, grazing management, species selection, working out the balance between natives, tropical grass and winter fodder crops. Acid soils, soil fertility and sound soil management will also be discussed.

The group will also be taking a tour through the 23,500 head capacity, 1,390 hectare JBS Caroona feedlot. The feedlot is situated 35 kilometres west of Quirindi, in the centre of the major cattle and crop-producing area of the fertile Liverpool Plains in New South Wales.

This is a great chance for people to see other properties, share stories with like-minded growers and gain inspiration or reinvigoration to bring things back to their place. The Grazing Group would like to invite anyone interested to attend.



The Grazing Group but trip will be held on Tuesday 29 and Wednesday 30 August, with overnight stay in Qurindi.

Travel and speaker costs will be covered through Watershed Landcare's Pimp My Paddock project, through funding from the Central Tablelands Local Land Services. Participants will be required to pay for accommodation and own meals.

For further information or to register your interest contact Claudia Wythes, Watershed Landcare Coordinator, on 0412 011 064 or claudiawythes@watershedlandcare.com.au by Thursday 24 August.

In collaboration with UNSW, UTS, Sydney University and the Mudgee Microscope Group of Watershed Landcare, the Landholder Collaboration Project presents:



 

You are never more than about one metre from a spider as they go about their business of consuming insects and other creepy crawlies. Having a healthy spider community on your farm means you have a healthy biodiverse ecosystem.

This workshop will cover:

• How to identify and monitor spiders on your property


• How spiders respond to good land management


• Why working together on spider monitoring is beneficial


• How to upload the information onto an online collaborative tool


• How to use this data to make more informed land management decisions

We are very lucky to have a special guest speaker coming to the event. Dr Mary Whitehouse is a CSIRO scientist who has spent many years researching spider biodiversity particularly in crops.

Mary will be happy to identify spiders if anyone wishes to bring some along in a glass jar.

We will look at a cost-effective and easy-to-use method of monitoring spiders by using spiders' webs as a substitute (the Web2Spider guide and supplementary material provided by the Australian Museum).

Workshop details
When: Tuesday 8 August, 5:30-8pm.
Where: Burrundulla Room, Mudgee Golf Club
21 Robertson St, Mudgee

The workshop is free to attend and dinner is included.

Please RSVP for catering purposes by Monday 31 July to Agness Knapik, Watershed Landcare Coordinator, on 0435 055 493 or info@watershedlandcare.com.au.

See more about the Landholder Collaboration Project on their website and Facebook page

The Landholder Collaboration Project is funded by the NSW Environmental Trust.

 

Are you interested in growing your own fruit, learning, or refining, grafting skills or preserving heritage fruit varieties?

Watershed Landcare and the Heritage and Rare Fruit Network will be hosting a fruit tree grafting workshop in Mudgee on Saturday, 22 July.

This is the last year that experienced grafter and lynchpin of the Heritage and Rare Fruit Network, Neil Barraclough, will be coming through the district and we are thrilled to have the opportunity to learn from his extensive knowledge and skills.

A perfect affordable way to propagate your favourite fruit and preserve heritage varieties. All equipment and a selection of rootstocks and varieties for grafting will be supplied.

• The workshop will cover topics such as orchard design and techniques for selecting various rootstocks in order to produce trees in a wide range of sizes suited to a range of different situations.


• Learn how to graft your own tree.


• Take home a new tree, personalised by you!

Red apples, green apples, for cooking or dessert, sour or crisp, flavourful plums, sweet juicy pears, early mid season or late ripening - through it's members the Heritage and Rare Fruit Network have access to a very wide range of fruit tree varieties and can provide varieties more suited to people’s needs, or varieties they can’t access anywhere else. This is a fantastic opportunity to get your hands on some rare fruit varieties, often not available anywhere else.

If you wish to propagate from or share your own favourite tree, please bring along a selection of freshly-cut twigs, at least 45cm long.

The cost for the workshop is $40 for Landcare members and $45 for non members and includes morning tea and lunch, grafting talks and demonstrations, and a free grafted fruit tree.

There'll also be an opportunity to buy additional rootstocks and scions at close to wholesale prices.

Booking are essential as places are limited. For more information or to RSVP contact Agness Knapik, Watershed Landcare Coordinator, on 0435 055 493 or info@watershedlandcare.com.au.

 

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This event is supported by the Heritage & Rare Fruit Network and Watershed Landcare and is a part of the NSW Government’s Local Landcare Coordinators Initiative, supported through the partnership of Local Land Services and Landcare NSW.

Information available all day –

Watershed Landcare Waterwise Garden (L9)

• Learn about Landcare projects and field days as well as equipment for hire. Sign up and become a member!


• Plant identification from your paddock/bushland – bring along a specimen to the Watershed Landcare botanist/grazier Christine McRae (bring a GOOD sample, including leaves/roots/stems/flowers/seeds if possible).


• Waterwise Garden – come and see a beautiful display garden of waterwise and salt tolerant plants for the Mudgee district, including a native Microlaena lawn sample.


• Locally grown native tube stock for sale.

 

• Mudgee Bee Group display – Learn about keeping your own bees including the different types of hives. Members will be on-hand to answer your questions and share their experiences.

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Workshops –

Watershed Landcare Waterwise Garden (L9)

 

Workshops
Friday 11am Saturday 2pm	Serrated Tussock and the Innocent Native Bystanders – learn how to identify key features which will help you to spot the difference with display plants at Watershed Landcare.	Christine McRae & Vivien Howard – Watershed Landcare
Friday 2pm Saturday 11am	Native Bee Motel Workshop - Learn about our native pollinators and how to provide habitat for them in your backyard. Join Watershed Landcare for an active workshop building bee motels. Workshop numbers are limited so book in early at L9. If you can't make the workshop, we will have information available for you to make a Bee Motel at home.	Liz Davis - Central Tablelands Local Land Services

 

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Field Days Lecture Series

Speakers organised by Watershed Landcare

Straw Bale Lecture Room (L8)

FRIDAY
Time	Topic	Speaker
10.00am	How do I eat sustainably in the modern world? - Agro-ecologist David Hardwick will de-mystify the modern food system and show how your choices impact on the environment, farmers and your health.	David Hardwick – Soil Land Food
11.30am	Solar Passive Design & Building With Natural Materials - The secrets of designing a home that's warm in winter and cool in summer using natural local products.	Sam Vivers - Strawbale Building Assoc & Viva Homes and Chris Nance - Traditional Timber Frames
1.30pm	For the love of pigs and good bacon - free ranging pigs on a small farm, the Power Pork story of paddock to plate.	Danielle Littlewood - Power Pork
3.00pm	Backyard Beekeeping - Keeping bees on a small scale is easy and something most people can do. Keeping bees is a rewarding pass time that helps the environment by providing pollination and as a bonus you get your own honey! Doug will walk through the types of hive, the basic equipment and the do and dont's of backyard beekeeping.	Doug Purdie - The Urban Beehive

SATURDAY
10.00am	For the love of pigs and good bacon - free ranging pigs on a small farm, the Power Pork story of paddock to plate.	Danielle Littlewood - Power Pork
11.30am	Solar Passive Design & Building With Natural Materials - The secrets of designing a home that's warm in winter and cool in summer using natural local products.	Sam Vivers - Strawbale Building Assoc & Viva Homes and Chris Nance - Traditional Timber Frames
1.30pm	Basics of stockmanship - Bruce will show entertaining examples of how stockmanship can change animals, including weed eating and grazing management. Helping the animals, and you, have less stress.	Bruce Maynard - Stress Free Stockmanship
3.00pm	Regenerative Agriculture – Adon will cover water-harvesting methodology, minimal and controlled disturbance soil management for perennial, annual and animal systems, soil-food-web-structures and how all these factors interrelate and influence one another.	Adon Bender - Hazelcombe Farm

Join us on a Field Trip to local properties to look at some common erosion issues, their causes and solutions. Learn how to implement these solutions and improve the soil health on your own place.

The 'Digging Deeper into Watershed Soils' workshops will be presented by Agricultural Ecologist David Hardwick and will be held over two days, Thursday 11 and Friday 12 May.



Programme: Friday, May 12th

“EMMATTLEA”

655 Hill End Road, Mudgee
Hosts: Matt & Emma Kurtz

Our morning session will visit Matt and Emma Kurtz’s property where historical contour banking has been compromised resulting in a concentration of water, with sheet and channel erosion and scalding occurring as the water moves down-slope.

8:30am for a 9:00 Start until 12:00 noon
Morning tea provided

"Karabool Olives"

408 Botobolar Road, Mudgee
Hosts: David Sargeant & Judy Rogers

Then follow us out to the lovely Karrabool Olives on Botobolar Road where David Sargeant and Judy Rogers hope to reduce the runoff which is causing sheet and rill erosion through their olive grove. Here participants can get their hands dirty and learn how to construct small rock structures to slow and spread waterflow.

12:45pm for a 1:30 Start until 4pm
Lunch provided

The field day is free ‐ please register early as places are limited.

Please bring some protective clothing (hats, boots, rain jacket) and water.

For more information, or to register, contact:
Beth Greenfield
Phone 6373 2114 or 0438 090 525
Email: info@watershedlandcare.com.au

This event is supported by Watershed Landcare through funding from the Jaramas Foundation & Landcare Australia and is a part of the NSW Government’s Local Landcare Coordinators Initiative, supported through the partnership of Local Land Services and Landcare NSW.

Join us on a Field Trip to local properties to look at some common erosion issues, their causes and solutions. Learn how to implement these solutions and improve the soil health on your own place.

The 'Digging Deeper into Watershed Soils' workshops will be presented by Agricultural Ecologist David Hardwick and will be held over two days, Thursday 11 and Friday 12 May.



Programme: Thursday, May 11th

“Lue Station”

Lue NSW 2850
Host: Tom Coombes


Lue Station will host a workshop on Thursday 11 May looking at an incised gully in a 3rd order stream. This poses a landscape scale problem with the surrounding floodplains draining quickly and becoming drier. David will explore solutions to rehydrate the landscape with participants and suggest methods on how to reduce the speed and volume of water runoff.

Participants will also have an opportunity to meet members of Bingman Landcare, find out what they do and how to get involved.

9am for a 9:30 Start until 3pm
Morning tea and lunch provided

The field day is free ‐ please register early as places are limited.

Please bring some protective clothing (hats, boots, rain jacket) and water.

For more information, or to register, contact:
Beth Greenfield
Phone 6373 2114 or 0438 090 525
Email: info@watershedlandcare.com.au

This event is supported by Watershed Landcare through funding from the Jaramas Foundation & Landcare Australia and is a part of the NSW Government’s Local Landcare Coordinators Initiative, supported through the partnership of Local Land Services and Landcare NSW.

Have you got a Bushfire Plan for your property?

Watershed Landcare will be hosting a Bushfire Planning Workshop next week. This will be a hands-on workshop with plenty of opportunity to ask questions and bounce ideas off others. The intention is that you will walk away with a bushfire plan for your property, or at least a draft.

Jayne Leary from the RFS will run the workshop. We will also be joined by Brett Littler and Nigel Gillan from CT LLS who will talk us through considerations for livestock in bushfire planning. They will also discuss what they saw at the recent Sir Ivan fire. Nigel will also cover companion animals.

All welcome so please bring along your family and tell your friends and neighbours.

When: Thursday 30 March
Time: 9:30am-12:30pm (aprox.)
Where: Lecture Room, Small Pavillion AREC
(Opposite the AREC office)

Please RSVP by Monday 27 March:
info@watershedlandcare.com.au or 0435 055 493

The Friends of Putta Bucca Wetlands are inviting members of the community to help them clean up, fix up and conserve the environment of the Putta Bucca Wetlands.

Why not come along and do your bit to conserve the biodiversity in this little piece of wilderness right in Mudgee's backyard?

The Clean Up Australia Day event at the Putta Bucca Wetland, Putta Bucca Rd, will be held on Sunday 5 March. We will meet in the car park at 9am and finish around noon.

Fully covered shoes or boots are essential. Please also bring gloves, hat and drinking water. Children are welcome but must be accompanied by a responsible adult.

For more information contact John McCrea jsmccrea@hwy.com.au.

This workshop will be an introduction into pasture cropping, looking at principles, practical implementation and the benefits of pasture cropping with multiple species.

Watershed Landcare have invited local landholder and inventor of Pasture Cropping, Colin Seis, to run a workshop on this innovative technique.

Unlike conventional techniques where crops are sown into bare soil or stubble, Pasture Cropping allows sowing directly into a dormant pasture.

This produces an annual crop, either for grazing or harvest, with multiple added benefits to soil health. By avoiding the need to kill the competitive pasture, soil structure, biological health, nutrient cycling and water retention are not only maintained but improved and there is a reduction in wind and water erosion and cost.

Utilising multiple species in a pasture crop also has the added advantage of minimising risk, if conditions are not ideal for one of the crops.

Watershed Landcare have invited Agricultural Consultant and Journalist, Robert Freebairn to be our guest speaker on the day. Discussion topics will include ground cover, various pasture types, the logic for each, establishment, management, soil quality and other relevant aspects. Native pastures will be included as well as the role of tropical, annual legumes, Lucerne and winter forage crops.

Do you have some native grass seeds to harvest? Come along to our Farm Walk and Grass Seed Harvester Demonstration and find out more about native grasses and how you can harvest your own. Join us for morning tea afterwards at the woolshed.