Staff changes at Connecting Country
Posted on 19 June, 2025 by Bonnie Humphreys
Connecting Country has sadly said goodbye to some fantastic colleagues over recent months – Anna Senior and Hadley Cole.
Anna Senior
Anna joined the Connecting Country crew in 2022 and immediately became a very valuable asset to the team.
With a doctorate in terrestrial ecology, she shared her passion for the conservation of lesser-known species, particularly reptiles. She never shied away from getting involved in the diverse range of things Connecting Country does. She began in an organsiational support role but quickly took on additional projects such as planting out and monitoring climate future plots, engaging in schools education programs, developing community education resources and running events. In late 2023, she took over Connecting Country Monitoring Program running seamless concurrent bird monitoring and nest box monitoring programs.
With a new found passion for birds, she jumped at the chance to help coordinate the inaugural Feathery Festival in 2024 to sell-out crowds and most recently ran a Rainbow Bird Walk with Castlemaine Pride with great success.
Anna brought valuable knowledge of ecology, data analysis and technological skills along with her ability to be flexible and help out wherever is needed.
We wish Anna all the best at her new role as the Threatened Mallee Bird Coordinator at BirdLife Australia and are happy to know that she won’t be gone for good from our community, as she is still keen to help out on the occasional event and with some volunteer monitoring.
Hadley Cole
Hadley resigned from the Mount Alexander Region Landcare Facilitator role in May to set off on a wonderful adventure around Australia with her young family.
Hadley held the role for only four years, but was able to achieve a lot, even during the challenging COVID years and developed good relationships with the many environmental groups and stakeholders in our region. She fostered and helped with the delivery of a range of projects to build capacity of Landcare, increase knowledge, raise awareness of environmental concerns and connect people with nature. This included pollinator education and plantings, seed collection and propagation activities, field days, numerous Landcare link-ups and National Tree Day plantings.
With her calm and democratic nature, Hadley helped many a group through challenges including the challenging new income tax laws impacting on non-profit groups and changes in leadership.
A big passion of Hadleys was to bring the aspirations of Landcare and Traditional Owners together in healing country. She fostered relationships between Landcare, DJAARA and Nalderun through activities such as cultural competency training for Landcare and and walks on country with DJAARA and we hope to continue this legacy.
Hadley was sent off at a lovely lunch in late May, surrounded by a big representation from our local Landcare community highlighting the appreciations and connections she made in the role. Best wishes Hadley.
Leave a Reply