“North Belconnen Landcare Group”Geographic focus: Ginninderra Creek Corridor from Lake Ginninderra to Copland Drive. Our usual meetup site is in Evatt.
Photo (right): The Evatt scrape and sow site (see Betty Davis Wildflower Patch below) soaking up the rain.
Regular Activities and Working Bees: We have Landcare each Saturday (Winter: 10am-11am. Summer: 9am-10am). This is a broad group of families with young kids, retirees and those between 20 and 40. We have several projects that are at different stages of completion at the moment, and always welcome the extra help. We do ask that you please bring your own water, gloves and hat. Our activities range from weed management, planting native vegetation, erosion control and community awareness-raising and education. Please contact us to be notified of upcoming activities or join our Facebook Group for the latest updates.
We also run Landcare for Littlies on Wednesdays (Winter: 10am-11am. Summer: 9am-10am) for the very little ones and their parents. Please contact Lenore for more details.
For all our regular sessions, we meet near the Evatt footbridge. After parking in Canaway Place, Evatt, walk about 100m downstream.
Contact: Convenor Lenore Hodgkinson, hodgkinson12@bigpond.com or visit our Facebook page “North Belconnen Landcare Group” or our Instagram page “northbelconnenlandcare”
A special patch: The Betty Davis Wildflower Patch is larger than an Olympic swimming pool and located beside the Evatt Footbridge. The plot was scraped down to a depth of 10 cm and sown with seeds of over 50 varieties of native plants by a seed drilling machine in a a joint venture of Greening Australia, the ACT Government and the Ginninderra Catchment Group. The area, once infested by African Love Grass and Chilean Needle Grass, is now truly beautiful with an abundance of native grasses as well as native wild flowers. It can be viewed from above by looking down from the Evatt Footbridge, which spans the Ginninderra Creek below Spain Place, Evatt . For closer examination of the plants it is worth walking down from the Footbridge and getting amongst the lovely wild flowers.
The patch has been named after a precious landcarer who was actively involved in our landcare group until a couple of days before she died at the age of almost 92 years in 2018. It seemed a fitting tribute to call the patch after this hard working and regular Landcarer.
About Us: The North Belconnen Landcare Group was established in 1994, by local residents concerned about land management issues along the Ginninderra Creek corridor, stretching from the Lake Ginninderra dam wall to Ginninderra Drive, Latham. Since its establishment, the Group has held regular working days, where members participate in weeding, mulching and planting activities.
Membership of the Group has fluctuated over the years, but currently includes 10 active local residents, plus regular activities with Joey Scouts and other community groups. In the past, the Conservation Volunteers, and later the Green Army teams (all of which has since ceased) made a huge contribution to the work of our Landcare group and we would like to acknowledge this.
We have a sister Landcare group in Africa in Uganda and they post things on our Landcare pages. Opposite to our challenges here, their issues are usually too much rain washing villages away. Their work focuses on digging trenches by hand with many willing workers and just basic hand tools or sticks.
How it all began: On-ground work starting in 1994 initially focused on Hawthorn removal along the creek at Evatt, which became an ongoing activity for the next 3 years. The Group later had support from Canberra Urban Parks and Places (CUPP) in 1996 for further Hawthorn removal upstream and downstream from Evatt footbridge, north of Ginninderra Creek. In 1996 the Group developed the ‘North Belconnen Landcare Group – Revegetation Plan’ which detailed a plan of activity, focused on five main areas:
- engaging with the public
- water quality testing
- weeding
- clearing of rubbish from the creek and
- planting of native vegetation.
Another major focus in the early years was the Flynn stormwater drain, where a number of gabion weirs were installed in about 1997, to prevent erosion of the drainage line, and improve its habitat values. Over the years, these weirs have been very successful in holding back significant amounts of sediment from reaching Ginninderra Creek.
Initial revegetation efforts attempted to establish large numbers of trees and shrubs in the creek corridor and riparian areas, with limited success. In more recent times, the Group has focused on the establishment and management of native grasslands in the creek corridor area between the Lake Ginninderra dam wall and Copland Drive.