Strategic Plan 2024-2029 Launch
On the 3rd of March we launched our new strategic plan and were joined by volunteers to do a cleanup along the Yarriambiack Creek for Clean Up Australia Day!
A big thanks to volunteer Fred for bringing a long-handled net and grabber tool.
Clean Up Australia Day
Clean Up Australia Day is an annual national event that encourages communities to clean up and remove rubbish from local parks, waterways, and public spaces to improve the environment.
Yarrilinks hosted a cleanup along the Yarriambiack Creek, from the Creekside Hotel up to the Rainbow Road bridge and back on the other side. At first glance, the lovely creekside walk looked pretty tidy, but we ended up filling about 4 large bags with all kinds of rubbish!
Here are some of the things we found:
A fire extinguisher
A single sports shoe
A broken piece of a roadside sign support
An e-cigarette
Many cigarette butts and single use plastics
Thanks to Yarriambiack Shire Council for providing bins for the event.
On the same morning the Warracknabeal Scout Group hosted a cleanup along the creek south of the Creekside Hotel. Through this collective effort, a significant section of the creek in Warracknabeal was tidied up! Thanks and great work to the Scouts and parent volunteers who joined them!
Our new Strategic Plan
Back at the Hotel, Alicia presented a brief overview of the plan and the group discussed environmental issues of interest, including environmental water in the Yarriambiack Creek. Over the next 5 years, Yarrilinks will focus its work towards the following objectives:
Resilient native ecosystems
Sustainable agricultural production
A thriving, inclusive Landcare community
A healthy Landcare Network
A number of actions have been identified to work towards these goals, and some have already been completed or started, such as launching the Yarrilinks newsletter and website, and the upcoming mini-plantout at Boolite later this year.
The development of the 2024-2029 Strategic Plan was underpinned by the results of our Landcare Priorities Survey. Both can be found on the Resources section of our website.
Alicia presents an overview of the 2024-2029 Yarrilinks Strategic Plan.
We finished off with a quiz game all about the ecology and history of Yarrilinks and the region. This was won by La Vergne Lehmann (with 14/15 correct), with Yarrilinks president in second (11/15). La Vergne won a beautiful big box of fresh produce from Lagom Farm.
This event was funded by a Victorian Landcare Grant.