Landcare

North Harcourt & Sedgwick Landcare Group

Our Landcare Area

The North Harcourt/Sedgwick Landcare Group (NHSEL) sits astride the main north – south ridge dividing the Loddon and Campaspe catchments, 20 kilometres south of Bendigo. The town of Harcourt is 8 km to the south., on the old Calder Highway (A79). The NHSEL covers approximately 12,500 ha. Surrounding Landcare Groups include: Ravenswood LC, Sutton Grange LC, Axe Creek LC, Sheep Wash Creek LC and the Harcourt Valley LC Group.

A Brief History

The North Harcourt-Sedgwick Landcare group was among the first 20 Landcare groups established in Victoria, forming in 1988. Early activities were focused on rabbit control as the most pressing problem. It then moved to assisting landholders with general landscape restoration works.

The group ran information sessions and field days for landholders on all topics related to Landcare (e.g. vermin and weed control, water catchments, tree planting and biodiversity), held tree planting days and a number of social activities to foster networking and shared learning between members.

Achievements

One key aspect has been to support landholders with revegetation efforts. Since the early 2000’s for more than a decade NHSEL was involved with the “Tree Project”. Local, indigenous seed was collected, propagated by volunteers and then returned as tube stock seedlings to our group members. This saw in excess of 24,000 trees being distributed up until 2015.

In 2015 NHSEL was one of three Landcare groups initiating the “40,000 Trees” planting day. Sparked by a surplus of several 10,000 trees at the Loddon Valley Prison, this tree planting initiative saw 33,000 seedlings being planted across our Landcare area in one single day by more than 500 volunteers, many of them from Melbourne.

This year’s Pledge-to-Plant recorded 1,800 seedlings planted by our members.

This brings the total recorded number of seedlings planted in our area to around 60,000.

Results are increased number of bird species and numbers. As well as the return of Echidnas, wallabies and wombats to our Landcare area! Truly a change at landscape scale!

Going Forward

After a several years inactivity, the NHSEL reactivated in late 2019.

Now in our 32^nd year, our group objectives are:

To care – for the beautiful landscapes of North Harcourt and Sedgwick
To share – our knowledge, our passion and our efforts
To restore – by working towards increased bio-diversity in times of climate change

Our Committee

Karoline Klein              President
Roh Potter                  Vice President
Kathie Stirling              Treasurer
Eliza Alford                  Social media
Peter Dingle                Events Coordinator
Jan Savage                  Communications secretary
Helen Jordan               Committee Member

Activities

Our activities for 2020/21 include

Local walks
Guided tours of a properties
Tree planting activities as part of National Tree Day and Pledge-to-Plant (nearly 2,000 plants were pledged for our area).
Nesting Box workshop
Photography Competition
Highlighting relevant webinars + podcasts.
Providing advice to our members

Contact

Please contact us for any Landcare questions; and please join our group!

Find us on on Facebook: facebook.com/groups/northharcourtsedwicklandcare/