A group of dedicated volunteers supporting the Regeneration Reserves around Broken Hill and increasing community understanding of the benefits and needs of local endemic flora species through workshops and community events. We have been working in Broken Hill since 2008 and are driven by passion and innovation. We are always looking for new members who are interested in learning about our local environment and lending a hand to protect it.
Landcare Broken Hill’s enthusiastic new committee was elected on 17 April 2019. At that meeting a new initiative, Greening the Hill Mk.2, was adopted. Greening the Hill Mk.2 is a holistic environmental initiative intended to embrace the entire Broken Hill community to work on a diverse range of exciting projects which are intended to “green’ the district and encourage people and organisations across the City to get involved. The initiative is identified as Mk.2, as Mk.1 refers to the work from the mid 1930s to mid 1950s when Broken Hill demonstrated to the rest of the country how a district could ‘regreen’ itself by revegetating public spaces. We are also raising awareness in the community as part of the Greening the Hill Mk.2 initiative with a weekly slot on ABC Radio and follow-up local newspaper articles. Partnerships are being struck across the City, including the City Council, local businesses and associations, all who commit to support the initiative in whatever way they can.
As for the projects, although in the earliest stages of planning, Landcare Broken Hill will continue to assist in the care and maintenance of the Regeneration Belt. A Landcare nursery is to be re-established to propagate indigenous plants for replanting in degraded areas. Street and neighbourhood communities are to be encouraged to adopt nature-strips and return them to a vegetative state. A proactive schools programme is to be launched to encourage students to adopt an existing tree or be responsible for a new tree. The carbon footprint of tourists is proposed to be offset by visitors voluntarily buying a tree to plant in reserves in the City. Aboriginal traditional knowledge of medicinal plants and edible native plants is proposed to be a focus of educational field trips and possibly the creation of a reserve dedicated to the propagation of plants valuable to Aboriginal traditions. Projects focusing on the most efficient and responsible use of water; encouraging a deeper understanding of different characteristics of plants, such as thirstiness; and on waste recycling to turn it into valuable raw material for gardening, are all being considered.
If you would like more information on the group, please check out their website at www.landcarebrokenhill.com