2014 National Landcare Awards winners announced

The National Landcare Awards gala dinner, held last week in Melbourne’s Royal Exhibition Building, celebrated 25 years of Landcare and the outstanding individuals and groups who are excelling in their delivery of a range of different landcare projects.

The night’s awardees were drawn from 69 finalists, representing every state and territory, in nine diverse categories. In addition to the category awards, the People’s Choice and Bob Hawke Awards were also presented.

Minister for Agriculture Barnaby Joyce said the 11 awardees were “a great mix of individuals and groups working on a range of different projects - all in support of better land management across Australia”. The winners include:

The 2014 Bob Hawke Landcare Award - Colin Seis, NSW

Seis invented and developed ‘multispecies pasture cropping’ (pasture cropping), helping produce food for the growing human population while restoring grasslands and soil - and thereby the sustainability of farms. Pasture cropping is now internationally recognised by leading crop scientists.

The 2014 National Landcare People’s Choice Award - Mallee Sustainable Farming, SA

Mallee Sustainable Farming delivers research and extension services for low rainfall dryland farmers in the mallee cropping regions of South Australia, NSW and Victoria and operates over 7 million hectares.

Australian Government Individual Landcarer - Russell Fry, Qld

Fry often has to deal with the misconception that Landcare is essentially about planting trees. His strong belief is that Landcare is about the sustainable use of natural resources to build sustainable farms, supporting communities and the environment.

Australian Government Innovation in Sustainable Farm Practices - Lakefield Station, NT

By producing food in a best-practice fashion, Lakefield Station is ensuring it will remain a resilient primary producer, able to deal with climatic and market variations, and remains a productive enterprise. The family cattle station also has approximately 1200 ha under conservation.

Australian Government Landcare Facilitator or Coordinator - Louise Hufton, NSW

Hufton has spent more than 20 years driving change in the Harden Murrumburrah region of NSW. Using her role as coordinator for the Harden Murrumburrah Landcare Group, she has inspired members, facilitated change and achieved ambitious on-ground projects such as the Community Stream Monitoring Project.

Australian Government Partnerships with Landcare - Goolwa to Wellington Local Action Planning Association, SA

Contracted to deliver for the Murray Futures program, the Goolwa to Wellington Local Planning Association has engaged volunteers from more than 54 community groups (in excess of 3000 volunteers per annum), planting almost a million seedlings on a total of some 100 sites since 2010.

Indigenous Land Management - Yurung Dhaura Aboriginal Land Management Team, ACT

The focus for the Yurung Dhaura was to train and skill Indigenous people in environmental regeneration and traditional land management, which proved a great success in helping the trainees and local Aboriginal community with environmental and social outcomes.

Junior Landcare Team - Lansdowne Crescent Primary School, Tas

Lansdowne Crescent Primary School’s Land to Sea team created a bilingual interpretive trail of Hobart’s Knocklofty Reserve, allowing visitors to access information by using their iPhones to scan QR codes which directly link to the Land to Sea website developed by the team.

Qantas Landcare Innovative Community Group - Roleybushcare, WA

Roleybushcare formed to conserve the bush from phytophthora dieback, recognised by governments as a major threat to the biodiversity of the country. They designed and manufactured hydraulic tree injectors, injected over 18,000 trees to protect them and ensured every local bushland reserve had a registered custodian with council.

Westpac Agribusiness Innovative Young Landcare Leader - Kate Sputore, WA

Sputore is adept at encouraging new generations to join the Coastcare and Landcare movement, while also building on and attracting recognition for the invaluable work of volunteers. She coordinated the first Coastcare for Singles event in WA, among with other major events.

Coastcare - Tangaroa Blue Foundation, WA

The Australian Marine Debris Initiative was created by Tangaroa Blue Foundation in 2004. Since then, there have been over 26,000 public volunteer opportunities and over 2.4 million items of marine debris have been removed from the Australian coastline, including 907,000 items from sites in the state.

“Landcarers have made a real and positive difference to the way we manage our natural resources and the long-term productivity of our agriculture and fisheries sector,” said Joyce.

“Recognition for this hard work is well deserved but rare, and I would like to thank everyone who has made a contribution to the Landcare movement, big or small, and I look forward to the bright future ahead for Landcare.”