2024 National Tree Day Community Planting

Posted on 13 August, 2024 by Hadley Cole

This year Connecting Country teamed up with McKenzie Hill Action & Landcare Group and Mount Alexander Shire Council to host a community planting to celebrate 2024 National Tree Day. The event was funded by community donors, businesses and Mount Alexander Shire Council, which is a wonderful credit to our local community! We clearly value biodiversity restoration and providing community members with opportunities to contribute to healing Country.

The day was a huge success with approximately 60 people in attendance. McKenzie Hill Action and Landcare Group (MHALG) worked tirelessly in their planning of the event and made sure there was a hot free lunch at the end of the planting for all participants care of Rotary Castlemaine.

Happy community members.

Maisie, Connecting Country work experience champion!

Fury friends were welcome.

Mount Alexander Shire Council worked with MHALG volunteers to coordinate a kids activity area which included badge making, seed ball making and colouring, all of which had a pollinator theme providing opportunities to learn about the regions local insect pollinators.

Participants enjoying the kids activity area. Photo by Connecting Country.

Amelia and Olive from McKenzie Hill Action & Landcare Group and Sally from Mount Alexander Shire Council coordinating kids activities.

Participants of all ages came along, from young toddlers to grandparents and everyone in between, including fury canine friends! Everyone was keen to get their hands dirty. The species chosen for the planting included a variety of lifeforms (grasses, shrubs, trees, ground covers etc,) including species such as, Matted Bush-pea (Pultenaea pedunculata), Kangaroo Grass (Themeda triandra), Tree Violet (Melicytus dentatus) and Bushy Needlewood (Hakea decurrens).

The planting was held at the Langslow Street Old School Site, a long standing site MHALG have been working on for over ten years. The focus of the planting is to increase the number of pollinator attracting plants to the area and is part of Connecting Country’s Bee Line project, a pollinator corridor project carried out in partnership with local Landcare Groups funded through the 2023 Victorian Landcare Grants.

MHALG have big plans for the Langslow Street Old School Site, including promoting the plantings across the site as educational resources to encourage biodiverse plantings of indigenous species in our region. The community planting day resulted in 400 pollinator attracting plants going in the ground, which will add enormous value to the groups’ long term plans and bring a diversity of pollinators to the local area.

If you would like to learn move about McKenzie Hill Action & Landcare Group you can contact them via Facebook – click here

If you wish to learn more about attracting native insect pollinators to your garden, check out Connecting Country’s guide to pollinator attracting plants of the Mount Alexander region – click here

Lori, Bonnie and Hadley from Connecting Country. Photo by Connecting Country.

The Connecting Country team send a big Thank You to all the collaborators involved in this event and to all the wonderful participants who helped to get plants in the ground!

Thank you also to the local event sponsors including, The Good Op Shop, Shed Shaker Brewing and Mount Alexander Shire Council.

We look forward to watching these plants grow!