Mulloon joins the Gumbaynggir Good Koala Country Knowledge Exchange

Peter and Ciaron, centre top left, lead conversation in the Levenvale barn.

In August, Mulloon’s Peter Hazell and Dr Laura Fisher attended a special event in Bellingen hosted by Ciaron Dunn, Koala Officer and Horticulturalist at Coffs Aboriginal Land Council. The context was the Gumbaynggir Good Koala Country Knowledge Exchange, a series of gatherings to ‘align river health and connectivity with effective communication’. The Gumbaynggirr Good Koala Country Plan has been established to contribute to the NSW Government’s commitment to doubling koala populations by 2050.

Ciaron has been exploring the linkages between river morphology, custodianship, and social and physical wellbeing for some time. He organised the gatherings around three concepts: Head of the River, Body of the River, and River Connectivity. Each provided an opportunity for different community members in the Bellingen Valley, and guests, to share knowledge of water, fire, ecology, language, heritage, art, biosecurity and other topics.

At this event hosted by the beautiful market garden/paddock-to-plate enterprise Levenvale Farm, Mulloon’s Peter Hazell was invited to share knowledge of landscape rehydration. There was rich conversation about how such principles applied to the landscapes and waterways of the Bellingen Valley.

A bluebird day for the event on the regeneratively managed, organic Levenvale Farm. *(Pic L. Fisher)*

The event was also an opportunity for Peter and Laura to meet members of the Darrunda Wajaarr Rangers and celebrate the recent awarding of the First Nations Water Stewardship Skills Certificate grant. Ciaron played a big part in the formulation of this co-design project. He recognised that if the DW Rangers’ current skills with cultural burning and bush regeneration could be expanded to include accredited skills in water stewardship, more employment could flow to them caring for waterways and other hydrologically significant sites, including in agricultural contexts. Out of this aspiration the idea of a Water Stewardship Skills Pathway, co-designed by First Nations groups with Mulloon Institute, was born!

Thanks to Ciaron for hosting Peter and Laura in beautiful Gumbaynggir Country, and to the inspiring Levenvale Farm! Thanks also to artist Natalia Baechtold for her wonderful photographs.

In early 2025, the first of a series of On-Country skills camps with Darrunda Wajaar Rangers will take place – we can’t wait.