Riverina Highlands Landcare

Riverina Highlands Landcare nursery upgrade plans are becoming more concrete with a start made on new irrigation, shedding, and slabs. The Foundation for National Parks has made much-needed infrastructure improvements possible through a Bushfire Recovery Grant.

Compliments to the nursery such as new irrigation piping and a water tank will improve the plant irrigation and the capture of irrigation runoff, saving hundreds of thousands of liters per day. In addition, the solar array will power the pump, which will save electricity costs and decrease the environmental footprint.

This compliments funding the nursery and wider landscape have received to help stimulate the local economy and recover wildlife and habitat values after the fires. These infrastructure upgrades were not part of the criteria in other grants but were the missing piece of the puzzle needed to increase the nurseries’ production. The Foundation for National Parks contribution will allow the nursery to rise to these challenges and meet demands for replanting the links lost in the landscape, creating new wildlife corridors and animal food sources such as nectar, berries, and seeds.

The Riverina Highlands Landcare Nursery runs a thriving volunteer program which has always been integral to its operation and part of local wellbeing in this sector. It is also a potential place for healing for those who wish to take positive action after the fires and the help would be welcome in the coming two years as the nursery is upgraded and busy delivering plants across our region for Landcare volunteers. The nursery has been run successfully for many years now by volunteers from the Riverina Highlands Landcare Network as a not-for-profit venture and supported by Snowy Valleys Council.

Riverina Highlands Landcare Nursery provides a wide range of revegetation stock that is sourced from local seed and will therefore thrive in our local conditions and suit wildlife. You can find trees, shrubs, and more importantly a range of grasses and small groundcovers that make up a healthy understorey ground layer locally. These different layers provide a healthy and weed-free environment that is needed by the wide range of birds, reptiles, and mammals in this area and particularly those special creatures we have all worried about after the fires wiped out vast areas of habitat in one go, two years ago.

Riverina Landcare Nursery is also available 5 weekdays for home garden plants, with many of the local native plants suitable for the suburban block sizes and a great thing to plant to encourage local special foragers like colorful King parrots who love to visit backyards around here.