Close to ninety WA landcarers enjoyed presentations and networking at the 2018 WALN Members and Stakeholders Forum.
From all accounts the WALN Members and Stakeholders Forum held at the Cockburn Wetlands Education Centre on Friday 20 July was a resounding success. The day was filled with high calibre, informative and engaging presentations and a fantastic landcare networking buzz. The WALN Executive Committee and staff all enjoyed themselves and we hope other participants did too.
For WALN the highlights of the Forum were:
Hon. Allanah MacTiernan, Minister for Regional Development, Agriculture and Food opening the Forum. WALN loved the fact that the Minister sincerely assured participants that she gets landcare, is on our side, and is prepared to go in to bat on landcare’s behalf on major issues such as salinity. WALN will be following up with her to further discuss key landcare issues and how she might help.
From Marie Taylor’s heartfelt Welcome to Country, to the impressive work being undertake by Oral Maguire at Avondale, and the inspirational programs being run by Junior Bully and the team at Woolkabunning Kiaka (Roelands Village Academy), the Aboriginal focus was exceptional. WALN is very pleased that we are now seeing true Aboriginal inclusion in landcare and that Aboriginal groups are already engaged in on ground action and the rest of the landcare community is now truely listening.
The networking atmosphere at morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea and afterwards at the Sundowner. This networking is what really makes landcare work and WALN was please to provide opportunities for people to share information and form relationships.
The high calibre of onground, research, engagement and fundraising presentations that were brought together on the day was fantastic. WALN wishes to thank all the presenters and believes that if this is the calibre of landcare into the 2020’s we have a lot to look forward to.
Stephen Johnson, President of Canning River Residents Environment Protection Association (CRREPA) provided the following informal feedback on the day after the event – ‘Congratulations to all those at WALN who organised the conference. It really was outstanding – from all the good communication with registrants beforehand, development of the program, choice of venue, catering and very smooth running throughout the day. And the speakers really performed – no reading of endless PowerPoints but very interesting and engaging talks that all kept to time – what a rarity!!’
WALN Committee and staff would like to thank all those who attended the Forum. We are lucky to have such a wonderful group of landcarers caring for our environment in WA. A special thank you to Hon. Allanah MacTiernan, Minister for Regional Development, Agriculture and Food for opening our Forum and to all the presenters who provided wonderful insights into their work to inspire us all. Thanks also to the Cockburn Wetlands Centre and their volunteers, Chris from Organic Productions, Hayden, the audio visual guru and Elegant Touch Catering for making it such an easy day.
Here’s a selection of photos from the day. Videos of presentations from the day will be available in the coming weeks.
