Restoring landscapes across the Mount Alexander Region

Getting to know our local weeds

Posted on 7 December, 2017 by Asha

Christine Brooke from the CC Committee welcoming everyone to the ‘Get to know your local weeds – Sutton Grange & surrounds’ workshop

Getting to know our local weeds was the focus of three workshops run by Connecting Country as part of our recent Landcare Network Grant. Bonnie and Asha partnered with 17 local Landcare and Friends groups to organise the workshops in Sutton Grange, Newstead and Chewton. A fourth workshop in Maldon focused on both native and invasive plants (you can read about the Maldon workshop HERE). The workshops were a great opportunity for Landcare and community members to learn more about their local weeds, and share their work, experiences and existing knowledge.

Following an opening by members of Connecting Country’s Committee of Management, we asked each participant to share where they were from and what they hoped to learn. Representatives of local Landcare groups also introduced their group and the work they do to manage weeds. This was personally one of my favourite parts of each workshop, hearing everyone’s weed stories and everyone chatting about their shared experiences. It was fantastic to see some members of neighbouring Landcare groups meeting for the first time.

Bonnie led an interactive talk covering ‘what is a weed?’, legislation governing invasive plants in Victoria, different lifeforms of plants, methods of weed control, and other things to consider when conducting weed control.

Bonnie helping a team with the ‘Who am I?’ weed matching activity at the workshop in Newstead

Based on feedback from Landcare groups,  12 noxious weeds were selected for our ‘Who am I? game. Each team received a set of cards with a ‘Who am I?’ description of a weed, and their job was to match it with a corresponding card with the name and picture of the weed. Everyone also received a template to record how and when to treat a few choice weeds, and take home to stick on their fridge.

We finished up with some quiz questions to test what everyone had learned during the workshop. Over a cuppa and some snacks, Bonnie helped identify weeds and other plants from samples or photos that people had brought. Feedback from the workshops was overall very positive: ‘I really enjoyed meeting others and learning new stuff ‘,  ‘It is a truly informative learning experience and introduced me to a number of local natives which I thought were weeds’, ‘I came away with renewed vigour and new resources ideas’.

A big thank you to everyone involved in the success of these workshops, especially to our presenters, helpers, and partnering Landcare groups.

This workshop is part of a Landcare Network project funded through the Victorian Landcare Program.

One response to “Getting to know our local weeds”

  1. Eliza Tree says:

    Im so sorry I missed all of these amazing workshops on Weeds! Hopefully more in 2018! Cheers, Eliza

Leave a Reply to Eliza Tree Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

« | »