Hello Members, Staff, Board and Associate Members,
Thanks to all those who attended the AGM on Sunday. The governance of the organisation is an essential part of any not for profit organisation and we thank those for giving up the time to come along to this important event. In exciting news we have Julie Hind returning as Chair, Kate Sleeman returning as Treasurer and Peter Staley returning as Secretary as well as Sharleen Sharp and Sam Hagen returning and three new Board members joining us.
Rhiannon Khoury:
A committed conservationist with a background in ecology and program delivery, Rhiannon brings a genuine passion for biodiversity preservation and enhancement, strong project coordination skills, and a deep understanding of the importance of not-for-profit organisations. Rhiannon has a Bachelor of Natural Science and an Honours degree focused on conserving upland swamp ecosystems.
Angelina Siegrist:
Angelina is excited to give back to the community. Wodonga is her long-term home so she has a keen interest in helping shape it to be the best it can be. A love for the abundance of greenspace, Angelina has always admired WULN’s efforts to improve them so would love to help however she can. Angelina is an ecologist with Sustainable Farms, an ANU-based research group focused on biodiversity conservation in agricultural landscapes.
Maheema Rajapakse:
A motivated and dedicated HR professional with a strong passion for human resource management and administrative work. Currently pursuing an MBA at RMIT University, majoring in Human Resource Management. Experienced in recruitment, learning and development, internal and external communications, HR documentation, employee engagement, and general administration.
Julie, Kate and I also presented our reports. These are available in the WULN Annual Report along with a summary of groups and project officer achievements for 2025/26. I encourage you to have a read and marvel in the enormous amount of work undertaken across this network. The latest annual report (and previous reports) can be found here.
In sad news we will farewell Gervaise Gaunt at the end of this year. Gervaise has delivered the Healthy Hectares Program since 2022 and built it into a well respected program in the north east and across Victoria. We wish Gervaise well for the next chapter!
We have funding, thanks to the North East CMA to deliver another round of Healthy Hectares in the King Valley and following recruitment activity we welcome Edith Peters as our new Healthy Hectares Project Officer. Edith brings a sustainability science degree, experience managing a regenerative dairy farm, and is keen to bring people together through workshops and peer learning and about helping landholders feel confident managing their land. Please, when you cross paths with Edith give her a warm Landcare welcome.
Our Native Garden Nursery has secured their planning permit for Baranduda Fields and are now working on more detailed designs and funding for the move. There will also be new shade houses erected soon at Kane Rd thanks to a grant through the Foundation for Rural and Regional Renewal. These shade houses have been installed so they can easily be relocated to Baranduda Fields in due course.
We have been very successful of late in obtaining grants with VLG funding for Gardens 4 Wildlife – from Garden to Habitat, VLG funding for Habitat, waterways and resilience, Project SPROUT III, VLG support grants to cover insurance costs for our unincorporated groups, Next Generation Extension, funding for a new Defibrillator and aprons for ONG and funding for First aid training for staff and volunteers! It looks like there is no rest for the Network as we launch into our next round of projects!
As previously mentioned, I am heading off on leave from the 1st of October to the 1st of November. I look forward to catching up with you when I return!
Jo
Next Operations Meeting for Coordinators – Sunday 15th November 2027 at the Ecohub
Please come along to discuss planning, plant orders and events for 2027 and organise patch visits with Council and/or the Facilitator!
Plant orders for 2027
An email has gone out to all coordinators about plant orders. Please have these in by November 22 so that Dom and I can collate them and ensure we have sufficient funds to cover the purchase of plants. If you can’t find the link (which was also sent previously) please check out ONG’s new web page and ordering system here.
WULN Landcare Service Awards
This year we chose to mirror North East CMA’s approach to celebrating 40 years of Landcare with ‘service awards’. Many thanks for Lily for doing an enormous amount of legwork on this, liaising with groups and reaching into the archives to try and determine the number of years of service for each of our groups members. Some groups have chosen not to participate and some data was a little sketchy so please note: if your name is not on the attached list and you believe you are eligible for a ‘Years of Service Award’, or your name is listed but you believe you have been a member for longer, please get in touch with lily@wodongalandcare.org.au to discuss. We have done our best to create a comprehensive list that recognises everyone that is eligible, however we understand that some people may have been involved with Landcare longer than WULN’s records indicate.
Certificates will be emailed out to those on the list in the coming weeks. Congratulations to all our volunteers for the many years of commitment to Landcare!
View the Awards List here.