Christmas Hills
Landcare Group
Contact details
Chair - Doug Evans
pipdoug@bigpond.net.auTreasurer - Nicole Noy
nicole@iddesign.com.auSecretary - Tina Keene
t_c.keene@bigpond.com
About
The Christmas Hills Landcare Group is a neighbourly network of people who care for the place we live in. We aim to provide a friendly forum for all residents of Christmas Hills to learn about, and care for, the natural values of our place, whilst getting to know your neighbours.
Whether you have lived here for a few months or a few generations, whether your property is one acre or a hundred, whether it is bushland or pasture, you are welcome.
Location
The group covers the area bounded by the Kinglake National Park to the north, to the west the Warrandyte-Kinglake Nature Conservation Reserve and Watsons Creek west of Simpsons Road, Sugarloaf Reservoir Park to the south, and Skyline Road to the east.
Christmas Hills is rich in natural values, with extensive areas of remnant vegetation,
high quality creeks and a diversity of native plants and animals.
History
Christmas Hills Landcare Group was established in 2006. Its membership has steadily grown to currently about 50 private properties covering over 715 hectares in the Nillumbik and Yarra Ranges shires. The group plays an important role in bringing the widely dispersed community of Christmas Hills together.
Helping landholders learn
Each year the group runs a program of events designed to help landholders learn about the natural environment they have in their care, and what they can do to help. These typically feature a variety of guest speakers presenting on a range of topics.
The group also has a number of motion-sensing cameras that are used to help landholders discover some of the native fauna that call Christmas Hills home.
Supporting projects
The group also seeks funding, usually by applying for grants, to conduct projects that directly help landholders with works that may be beyond them, or that demonstrate actions that they can take. To date this has included a long-running program of woody weed control within remnant vegetation, fox and rabbit control works, installation of nest boxes (for Brush-tailed Phascogales, Slender-tailed Dunnarts, and Eastern Pygmy Possums), and demonstrations of cultural burning.
Building social connections
With the residents of Christmas Hills so widely dispersed, the group endeavours to bring people together and strengthen the social connections between each other by designing in social components to all our events.
The group also strives to build strong and ongoing relationships with the Christmas Hills Fire Brigade and Christmas Hills Primary School, as well as the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people, Nillumbik Shire Council, Melbourne Water, and Parks Victoria.
Vision
“All Christmas Hills landholders working together in a coordinated and collaborative way
to care for and sustain the environmental assets we value in Christmas Hills.”
Strategic pathways
Understand what our environmental assets are, why we value them, what threatens them, and what needs to be done where to protect and sustain them.
Engage all the landholders that have a role to play in protecting and sustaining these assets.
Help each landholder understand what needs to be done and work out how they can integrate this with their own aspirations for their property.
Coordinate and support landholders to take action on their property.
Integrate our efforts and collaborate with others who have a shared interest in the environmental assets of Christmas Hills.