A terrific week launching Mulloon’s brand-new Professionals Intensive
The group gathers to brainstorm the reach of Sandhills Creek they've surveyed at Birkenburn Farm.
In the second week of November, Mulloon Institute hosted more than 30 professionals and delivered the first iteration of our new course: a 4-day intensive for professionals, landcare leaders and others who engage directly with landholders and communities to improve landscape health and resilience. Attendees came from far and wide, bringing considerable expertise and experience to the event. They included partners from our Communities of Practice Project in Victoria, NSW and Queensland, and practitioners from Landcare, Rivers of Carbon, Local Land Services, Melbourne Water, Water NSW, RCS and many others.
“An extremely dedicated team who worked hard to facilitate an informative and interesting course”
The course blends the scientific, technical and social dimensions of landscape-scale restoration, reflecting the multi-faceted nature of the Mulloon approach. We spent a day surveying a 1000-metre reach of Sandhills Creek at Birkenburn farm, a regenerating, biodiverse landscape resonating with the deep stewardship values of Martina Shelley and Tom Gordon. We also visited Hazelwood, the market garden property of Wayne and Sarah Merriman to see a terrific example of major gully repair and landscape rehydration achieved through small scale, inexpensive actions over many years. The indomitable Cathy Harrison and Penny Hayman shared the admirable outcomes of the Araluen Creek Restoration Project, achieved despite multiple natural disasters and other obstacles that too-frequently impede grassroots projects in rural communities. Many lessons emerged around the barriers that need to be addressed so that more such projects can take place, some of which we were able to brainstorm during David Hardwick’s valuable sessions on the social dynamics of capacity building.
“Good things were created that will benefit everyone and ripple out for a long time. The level of effort and creativity that went into making the week was fabulous.”
Assessing landscape trajectory on Sandhills Creek.
Healing Country in the context of farming requires many tools and tactics, as well as intricate, supportive connections between land managers, government agencies, custodians, conservation organisations and community groups. The Mulloon team are immersed in this challenge every day, as we, alongside many others, try to progress projects that can greatly improve water cycling and storage in our fragile catchments. Designing a scientifically-grounded curriculum around these goals isn’t easy! We were blessed with this pilot to share that journey with an astute and passionate group of practitioners and presenters from the local community. To all of them, way say a heartful thank you!!
“I love what the Mulloon Institute is doing and look forward to mainstreaming the landscape function restoration philosophy in the Bass Coast”
Wayne Merriman at Hazelwood Farm describes the small but effective steps taken over time to return this gully to health.
“Mulloon Institute and MCC are clearly a bunch of passionate professionals hellbent on helping the landscape and the people that live in it”
The Professionals Intensive curriculum has been developed with the support of the NSW Government, through its Environmental Trust. The delivery of this pilot was supported by the Federal Government’s Future Drought Fund, through the Communities of Practice Project (CoPP).
Gavin Tinning brings artistic flair to landscape observation.