2008 Port Phillip and Western Port Landcare Awards
Category: Caring for Waterways Winner: Friends of Chinaman’s Creek Inc.
The 2008 Port Phillip and Western Port Landcare Awards were held on Saturday 6 September at Zinc in Federation Square and the 11 winners announced in front of 250 guests.
The Awards celebrate Landcare Week’s Landcare Heroes and focus on the thousands of volunteers making a difference by tackling some of the big issues in Melbourne’s landscape and catchment environments. Friends of Chinaman’s Creek were presented the Caring for Waterways award for their work on the creek and contribution to the catchment as a whole.
The Friends of Chinaman’s Creek was formed in 2004 to protect and enhance Chinaman’s Creek, near Rosebud on the Mornington Peninsula. The creek has significant remnant vegetation and forms an important habitat for the vulnerable Swamp Skink.
The group has undertaken a number of activities including: development of a waterway action plan, planted more than 30,000 indigenous plants, controlled five hectares from weed invasion, stabilised and revegetated banks, and fenced off the creek to promote habitat and natural regeneration.
They consult and work with many partners and produce regular newsletters, brochures and educational materials about the local flora and fauna, as well as organising “walks and talks” and installing interpretive signage along the creek. Through the work done on the Group’s Skink Link fproject, the Swamp Skink’s population has increased from 12 in 2003 to more than 60 in 2008, which provides demonstrated and quantified evidence of resource condition improvement
All winners of the Port Phillip and Western Port Landcare Awards will go on to be nominated for the 2009 Victorian Landcare Awards.
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