Muckleford Catchment Landcare pay tribute to David Griffiths

Posted on 19 December, 2023 by Hadley Cole

On Sunday 19 November 2023, Muckleford Catchment Landcare Group held a memorial for long time Landcare member and landscape restoration specialist David Griffiths. The group rallied together with other community members and friends of David to pay homage to the legacy that he has left. Beth Mellick secretary of Muckleford Catchment Landcare has shared the below tribute.

David Griffiths planting in Muckleford. Photo by Beth Mellick.

Muckleford annual general meeting and memorial to David Griffiths

We decided to go ahead with our planned annual general meeting in November, but to also make it into a memorial day for our good friend David Griffiths.

Dave died of cancer recently. Although we knew he was ill, his death still came as a shock and for many of us, we still can’t believe he is actually gone.

He left a huge legacy across central Victoria, having planted hundreds of thousands of trees on private property. He really knew all about this landscape restoration stuff – his favourite phrase was ‘landscape function’.

We were so lucky that Dave was willing to share his knowledge and expertise with Muckleford Landcare. The amazing success of our plantings is because of his famous yeoman’s plough!

During the AGM we decided to leave Dave in the Vice President role. His dying was still too new, it was (and is) too soon to move on. He can’t be replaced. Members of our Landcare group and the Muckleford community got up and spoke about Dave, our comrade, and how he affected their lives, and their properties. We then planted a tree in his honour down at the Muckleford train station.

Thanks to the Goldfields Victorian Railway for being so amenable to our request for this memorial.

People say “gone but not forgotten”, and in Dave’s case this is so true because wherever we look, we see his work, and some of us believe if we look closely, we can see Dave.

Words by Beth Mellick

The Connecting Country team send deepest condolences to the friends and family of David.

Photos below show Muckleford Catchment Landcare members and community members paying tribute to David Griffiths. Photos by Beth Mellick.