First bootcamp for Western Australia!
L-R: The Mulloon Institute’s Lance Mudgway, Erin Healy, CEO Carolyn Hall and Shane Hunter.
Lots of smiling faces, warm greetings and a cuppa kicked off our first Western Australian Bootcamp in late March 2023. Hosted by Warren and Lori Pensini on their ‘Paraway’ farm in Boyup Brook, the Mulloon Institute’s Lance Mudgway and Erin Healy delivered a half day landscape rehydration workshop followed by a two day bootcamp to more than 40 participants.
‘Paraway’ was a fantastic demonstration site with a range of recently completed landscape rehydration work, and other areas where future works will be implemented. This gave us the opportunity to both illustrate how various techniques work, as well as teach participants how to identify and design solutions for existing issues such as salinity, surface erosion, gully formation, poor water recharge in the upper landscape and waterlogging in the lower landscape. This project is part of a wider demonstration project where the Mulloon Institute has developed Landscape Rehydration plans which will be implemented on four farms across the Wheatbelt and South West regions of WA.
TMI’s bootcamps form part of its Learning Programs and are aimed at giving land managers the confidence and skills to plan and implement their own small scale landscape rehydration interventions. The broad range of techniques that have been implemented at ‘Paraway’ – including contour earthworks, pin weirs, brush matressing, mulching, perennial pasture establishment and revegetation – really demonstrated the theoretical components of the program in a very tangible way.
With a focus on practical learning opportunities, the bootcamp took participants back to school days as they designed landscape models using a variety of materials and a lot of creativity. Participants also got their hands dirty constructing small scale intervention techniques in the paddock, and then watched as water was released to observe how these methods work. The many lightbulb moments were wonderful to witness, as participants were able to grasp the complex processes and proudly shared their newfound insights and enthusiasm to implement what they had learned on their own land.
This Bootcamp was supported by funding from the Western Australian Government’s State Natural Resource Management program.