The Mulloon Institute - Enews

The Mulloon Institute - Enews - January 2018

From the Chairman, The Mulloon Institute

A belated Happy New Year to all followers of The Mulloon Institute and I trust you had an enjoyable festive season and a break away from your normal routine. As I did a year ago, I held off doing a December update and so now combine it with January to get 2018 off to a start.

Demonstration December & Jobs January

You will recall November was a big and "nascent" month with Mulloon Consulting Contracting & Certifying (MCCC) getting going. Plus, we received approval to commence the on-ground works for the first stage of the Mulloon Community Landscape Rehydration Project (MCLRP). So, I've called December a "demonstration" month as we "demonstrated" our intention to take landscape rehydration and repair to other communities through MCCC and we were "off and running" on our major "demonstration" project, the MCLRP.

So with those big decisions behind us, January was all about "jobs" - "getting on with the job" with MCCC staking out its first project; and getting ready for the big "job", the MCLRP.

Nundle site visit

Late in December, Carolyn Hall, Peter Hazell, Cam Wilson, Peter Andrews and Scott Middlebrook headed up to Nundle, NSW to spend a couple of days inspecting the property Wombramurra. It lies within Nundle Creek catchment and the broader Peel catchment. Our MCCC crew took a close look at various aspects of the catchment and the property and then during January put together a comprehensive proposal for the owner and farm manager to consider to improve landscape hydration including short term, medium term and long term solutions.

Carolyn is following up with a number of other potential MCCC clients and "jobs" and is scheduled to accompany Cam Wilson to another property on the South Coast later in February. You can read much more about MCCC via its website www.mulloonconsulting.com.au which is now live.

Mulloon Community Landscape Rehydration Project

Peter Hazell has been flat out getting everything ready for the start of on-ground works of the MCLRP. Logs and rocks have been resourced for the many in-stream interventions that will need to be constructed as part of the first stage. Monday 12 February will see the commencement of the works on Mulloon Farm.

Read more!

Green Army

Green Army participants, under Cam Wilson's supervision, have continued their work, including vegetation planting, to complement the MCLRP plans. We have the Green Army crews until the end of March so they will have had a substantial contribution to our major rehydration project. It is a pity the Green Army has been brought to an end by the Federal Government as the work they have been able to achieve over the past couple of years in the Mulloon Catchment has been incredibly beneficial for the environment and the agricultural enterprises operating in the catchment.

National Youth Science Forum

One of the many January "jobs" for our science coordinator, Luke Peel, was hosting the students participating in the National Youth Science Forum (NYSF). This is something The Mulloon Institute has been involved for many years and we look forward each January to taking these budding scientists on a tour of our work and explaining just what is happening in our landscapes. The feedback is always very positive, great job by Luke, hopefully helping to encourage more students to continue on to a science career.

Read more!

Education and Training

We are getting ready for another four day workshop in Natural Sequence Farming with Tarwyn Park Training, taking place from 12-15 March. You can sign up for that course here.

As part of that training we are continuing to improve our how-to-guide: 'Landscape Rehydration - Theory and Practice'. Thanks to the various people who have provided valuable feedback after reading the first 'draft' of the guide. Kelly Thorburn is now incorporating additional content from Peter Hazell, Cam Wilson and Luke Peel into the next edition. While there is so much more that can be added to this guide it is already proving highly beneficial to workshop participants.

During December Luke also led our whole team in preparing a very detailed application for funding from the National Landcare Program. This is one of the major sources of Federal Government funding for repairing and caring for our environment. Just getting together a grant application is onerous in itself but with all our team's involvement we believe we have submitted an excellent proposal. If successful, the MCLRP could be accelerated and we would be able to extend our work and education so much more broadly. Here's hoping!

World Wetlands Day

A timely reminder about the importance of the work that we are doing.