M ilestones M emories & M essages Milestones Memories A H Messages& isto ry of Landca re in the Go ulburn Broken Catchment Broken ulburn A History of Landcare in the Goulburn Broken Catchment Print Production: Billongaloo Print Management ISBN 978-1-920742-14-0 MILESTONES, MEMORIES & MESSAGES: A History of Landcare In The Goulburn Broken Catchment Prepared for the Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authority by Carole Hamilton Barwick ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Images supplied by: Ancona Landcare Group, Delatite Landcare Group, Merton Landcare This project began with a proposal by Katie Brown, Regional Landcare Group, Molesworth Landcare Group, Waranga Landcare Group, Coordinator for the Goulburn Broken Catchment, to capture the history Warrenbayne Boho Land Protection Group, Strathbogie Tablelands of the distinct energies and diverse geographies of the 90 Landcare Landcare Group, Sunday Creek Dry Creek Landcare Group, Sheep Pen Groups, Local Area Plan and other environmental groups involved in Creek Land Protection Group, Goulburn Murray Landcare Network, important projects in land protection and natural resource management, Poppe Davis, Tallarook Landcare Group, Dabyminga Landcare Group, as a fitting way to mark twenty years of Landcare. Hughes Creek Catchment Collaborative, Goulburn Broken CMA library, I wish to acknowledge the following people who contributed to the History of Tooborac Group: Nulla Vale Pyalong West Landcare Group. formulation and completion of the project: The many Landcare Groups and members who contributed their enthusiasm, time and personal recollections, and their invaluable records, which included photographs, newspaper clippings, maps, plans, strategies, reports, publications, files and audio tapes. The more than fifty people, listed in an appendix, who told the stories of their personal and professional lives across more than four decades of land, water and agricultural management, have provided a unique window on the interface between government policy, land management practice and economic and social changes to regional environments across the Goulburn Broken catchment. Landcare support staff, one of the keys to the growth of Landcare from its beginnings more than twenty years ago, contributed their knowledge and experience. The project was managed across almost two years by Lilian Parker Executive Officer, Upper Goulburn. I am grateful for her support and that of other CMA staff, who have contributed significantly to documenting the evolution of Landcare in the catchment and its broader context as a program in Victoria and Australia. Poppe Davis, Dryland Community Liaison Officer, worked creatively and energetically on the final shaping of the history for publication. This project was funded by the Victorian Action Plan for Second Carole Hamilton Barwick Generation Landcare. October 2008 FOREWORD The Goulburn Broken Catchment and Landcare have been an effective address the requirements needed for environmental management and regional partnership since the 1980’s. community development adaptation has been the hallmark of Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authority. To celebrate and record the milestone of twenty years of Landcare in 2006, the GBCMA commissioned a project to review the history of their The relationship of Landcare in the Goulburn Broken Catchment association with Landcare in the Goulburn Broken Catchment. To ensure continues to recognise the critical role of community participation. the historical development and political shape of Landcare’s arrival were As anthropologist Margaret Mead astutely said, ‘Never doubt that a recorded with integrity, frankness and openness, the CMA needed to small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world; chose well their historian for this important project. Histories often Indeed it’s the only thing that ever has’. illustrate and furnish the successes, but the CMA wanted their writer This fact has been very effectively demonstrated through the historical to keep to the facts and importantly keep to the relationship of lens of this review. Importantly it also provides the experience and actual events. confidence to go forward. Dr. Carole Hamilton Barwick’s review has brought together a diversity of voices, provided expert examination of well kept documents by community groups, individuals, government departments and non Pam Robinson OAM government organisations and has gone beyond what is often the case Life Member, Warrenbayne Boho Land Protection Group when looking at the past – that of only acknowledging important figures, important group ideas and movements along with important events – thus showing very clearly how interlinked events were, and why and how they evolved. Importantly she has provided an insight into the wonderful juxtapose of empowerment and constructive coercion. Landcare had its origins in the Goulburn Broken Catchment with early projects in the Benalla area. However, no new program comes into being without many forerunners and this is particularly true with natural resource management and community development. This has been rightly recognised and appropriately reflected upon in this review. We live in a time of rapid change, a time of progress. Historical reflection helps show the reasons we are where we are. From the 1980’s to 2006 there was considerable change in the complexity and range of agricultural products and markets. The demography of the communities within the Goulburn Broken Catchment changed significantly, with many properties being managed alongside ‘off farm income’ imperatives and/or with increasing numbers of property subdivisions and ownership. Fortunately for the community a heightened recognition of on-going change and a commitment to CONTENTS Foreword Pam Robinson, OAM Life Member, Warrenbayne Boho Land Protection Group Chapter 1. page1 Eroded hills and scoured land: An introduction to the genesis of ‘land protection’ in Victoria ...introduces settlement policies and land degradation; conservation awareness and water sector reform in Victoria. Chapter 2. page15 Biography of a Program: From Soil Conservation to LandCare and the Decade of Landcare ...examines the ‘genealogy’ of Landcare, from its origins as a Victorian government community land management program, to its uptake as national policy and the implementation of the Decade of Landcare with all the subsequent progress. Chapter 3. page47 Water Table Wells, Weeds, Rabbits … Landscape Change: Landcare in the Goulburn Broken catchment ...provides an outline of Landcare in the Goulburn Broken through a summary of the origins of a representative selection of Landcare Groups & Networks in the diverse landscapes of the catchment. Chapter 4. page91 Investing in the fabric of landcare: The organisational evolution of landcare over two decades...traces the organisational evolution of Landcare in the catchment, from community groupings to collaborative networks and from part-time project coordinators in the 1980s and early 1990s, to the catchment-wide Community Landcare Support Strategy of 2005. CONTENTS Table of Acronyms page140 Profiles: Selected Landcare Groups List of tables page8 Ancona LCG page79 Dookie LMG 1. Victorian political, administrative and environmental developments page95 Muckatah LCG page110 Goulburn Valley of the 1980s Environment Group page10 Bunbartha Kaarimba LCG page42 Delatite LCG 2. National political and environmental measures of the 1980s page60 Warrenbayne Boho LPG page116 Goulburn Murray 3. Landcare Group establishment in the Goulburn Broken Landcare Network Catchment – 1986-2006 page51 Dry Creek LCG page38 Goomalibee LCG 4. 1980s - Chronological context of policy and program responses to land degradation Profiles: Representative Landcare people 5. Landcare 1990s – chronological context of program and [Group members & agency staff] policy initiatives page21 Bruce Radford page87 Geoff McFarlane page56 Cate Cully page76 Janet Hagen 6. Landcare Development – Shepparton Irrigation Region 1984-2006 page28 Ken Sampson page65 Pam Robinson 7. Goulburn Broken Catchment - Indicative numbers of Landcare page84 Bev Day page5 Jock Wallis Groups 1986-2006 page105 David Laurie page35 Fred King 8. Stages in community landcare development and regional page113 Ed Adamson page30 Russell Wealands catchment management page24 Hubert Miller page119 Craig Tuhan Appendices List of figures 1. Changing roles and relationships of social sectors 1980s & 1990s A. page129 Reference listing [including primary source materials, State and Commonwealth Govt 2. Annual numbers of projects funded from the National Landcare reports, Landcare Group reports, Program, National Soil Conservation Program, Federal Water consultant and research reports] Resources Assistance Program and Murray Darling Basin Commission 3. Land Management Units, Goulburn Region Landcare Plan1992 B. page130 Machinery of Government changes, agency titles, dates [based on PRO data] 4. Warrenbayne Boho – salinity recharge and salt affected land mapping 5. Merton Landcare Group - a ‘mud map’ C. page131 Victorian Premiers 1955 – 2007 6. Interrelated aspects of landcare D. page132 Goulburn Broken Landcare Coordinators/ 7. Comparison of the relative levels of program support and Facilitators employment arrangements capital funding E. page133 Goulburn Broken Landcare Coordinators /Facilitators designated LC Groups F. page134 Interviews G. page134 Goulburn Broken Landcare Groups by Year of establishment H. page134 Goulburn Broken Landcare Groups phases of establishment Milestones, Memories