Excellence Award for Quorn Community Landcare Group

A Southern Flinders Ranges project that brought together a wide range of partners to educate the community and develop innovative ideas to achieve on-ground biodiversity outcomes has received a Landscape SA Excellence Award.

Quorn Community Landcare Group’s Reviving Biodiversity in the Ranges project received the inaugural award in December.

The award seeks to recognise individuals, community groups and projects that achieve whole of landscape outcomes, emphasise and exemplify the importance of partnerships to deliver great results for our landscapes and communities. To be considered, the project also needed to demonstrate partnerships and collaborations across multiple sectors, Industry or community leadership or innovation and adaptation.

A partnership between Quorn Community Landcare Group, Flinders Ranges Council, Nukunu Wapma Thura Aboriginal Corporation, Upper North Farming Systems Group, the SA Arid Lands Landscape Board and local landholders, Reviving Biodiversity in the Ranges successfully established a Bush Food Garden and Thutha Native Grass Patch in Quorn, re-vegetated Yellow-footed Rock-wallaby habitat at Warrens Gorge and undertook cactus control with the biocontrol cochineal on a number of properties in the area.

The Bush Food Garden involved the Nukunu Nation with the designing, planting and signage and is now a source of cultural knowledge on and an opportunity to experience local bush foods, tools and medicines for both the Nukunu Nation and the general public.

The Thutha Native Grass patch acts as a seed bank of eight local native perennial grass species, significant in an Indigenous, pastoral and ecological context. It was designed so seeds can be easily harvested for trails and restoration activities on local properties.

The project provided four community planting days, six seed collection events and two native grass workshops on identification and grassland restoration. These, regular newsletters and increasing awareness of the importance of native and endemic plant species through social media platforms created much interest and led to the development of several successful on-ground projects.

The Quorn Community Landcare Group has 25 members, engaged more than 50 participants, including those interested from a pastoral, cultural and ecological perspective and contributed more than 280 volunteer hours.

“We have had a great few years – breeding cochineal for Engelmans Cactus, Clean Up Australia days, weed ID for farmers, seed collections, tree planting, bus tour, erosion control, working bees, information barbecues and slight crazy Christmas pageant floats,” secretary Andrea Tschirner said.

“Congratulations and thanks go to all our Landcare volunteers.

“This award certainly puts a spring in the step and we’re looking forward to some great activities for 2022.”

SAAL Landscape Board member Sanchia Treloar presented the award to president Tim Connell and secretary Andrea Tschirner on behalf of the Minister for Environment and Water David Speirs. It included $5000 that will be invested back into the work of the Quorn Community Landscape Group.