Youth to lead environmental change

By Adam Norris, Bellingen Shire News - April 25, 2023

Each Tuesday throughout May and June, young people across the Bellingen Shire will have the opportunity to develop their environmental leadership skills in the Change Makers after-school program.

Developed by OzGREEN and held between 4pm and 5:30pm at the Coffs Harbour Botanical Gardens, this free program is followed by the Youth Leading the World two-day congress held on July 12th and 13th.

19-year-old OzGREEN Youth Activities Coordinator Sam Daykin believes that the best way to encourage environmental stewardship amongst youth is to first forge engaging, entertaining connections with the natural world.

“Young people can know and understand a lot of things, but until we experience it, it’s hard to build that passion for it. I think even though Bellingen is quite green, and a lot of people do care,

“I think building on those connection can really strengthen that passion. That’s the question we’re helping to answer – why do we care about the environment?”

While OzGREEN’s youth programs generally target people aged twelve to twenty-five, the Change Makers program is designed for a slightly younger demographic.

Kids aged ten to sixteen will have the opportunity to develop a range of skills related to conservation, sustainability and leadership.

“Each week has a theme. For example, one week will be the fashion industry, where we work on upcycling some of our old clothes with natural dying techniques.

“You [transform] an ugly t-shirt into something beautiful and with no waste, which is the main reason we’re looking at doing that. There’s also cooking with solar ovens, which is a great way for young people to see there are different ways of doing everyday tasks.”

“The program itself is running in two parts. Stage One of the program, which runs through the second term of school, is focused on building that connection with the environment, and the Second Stage in term three follows into asking, ‘What can you see yourself doing to care for the environment?’”

“So after going through and building these skills together as a group and [deciding] how they want to protect the environment, OzGREEN will then support those young people in doing that or get external people to come in and do courses with them.”

While the Change Makers program is a unique opportunity for youth-driven change, it is not the only local pathway to nature-based education.
There are a variety of hands-on events and workshops OzGREEN will be running throughout the year, including Gumbaynggirr talks, mental health skill-building, bird identification walks, and more.

“We’re doing activities like water-testing kayak trips, because it’s not only fun but you’re learning something as well.

“We’re doing macro-invertebrate studies, looking at these little bugs in the river and playing games around that to see just how much life there is in that river you’re swimming in.

“We’re also looking at doing a tree-planting festival, which is focused on learning about land conservation in a fun way. We’ve got a lot up our sleeves at the moment.”

Sam is hoping to encourage a large number of the Shire’s youth to attend the Change Maker program, and OzGREEN are willing to offer assistance in organising car-pools to the Botanical Gardens for those who might otherwise struggle to participate.

Change Makers is held from May 2nd to June 27th every Tuesday from 4pm to 5.30pm

To find out more, visit www.ozgreen.org/changemakers

OzGREEN’s Thrive Festival : A Heartwarming Success

by Andrea Ferrari, News Of The Area - Modern Media - March 10, 2023

EXCEEDING expectations, OzGREEN’s inaugural Thrive Festival on Saturday 4 March at Bellingen Showground drew hundreds of people in and around Bellingen Shire who came, enjoyed and went happy and inspired.

OzGREEN’s festival headline, Creating Thriving Communities Together, invited and encouraged people to embrace the opportunity to be part of a caring, inclusive and vibrant community.

Organised by Bellingen-based not-for-profit charity OzGREEN, Thrive Festival aimed to bring the whole community together to create a sense of belongingness after the series of disasters that residents have experienced in recent years.

Festival goers were encouraged to choose from a plethora of free activities spread out over the day and the love and kindness extended by participating groups and people in the community was truly remarkable.

“We’re over the moon with how the day unfolded,” Festival Coordinator Alex Moller told News of the Area.

“It was beautiful to see such a broad cross section of our community mingling together in such a happy and joyful way, after the difficult few years we’ve all had.”

In addition to creating a sense of togetherness, another goal of Thrive was to showcase the wealth of local knowledge and skills available within the Bellingen Shire community.

OzGREEN’s Resilient Communities Coordinator Bruce Naylor told NOTA, “We’re very lucky in Bellingen Shire to have so many passionate groups that can help people prepare for future climate related challenges.

“One of our biggest aims for Thrive was to bring lots of groups together to provide them with an opportunity to network and collaborate.”

Another objective of Thrive was to educate people and to role model various actions that we can all take to live more sustainably.

“The waste generated through over consumption is not good for the environment and is also really unnecessary,” Festival Manager Kathleen Hannah told NOTA.

“Because of this, we decided to do everything we possibly could to eliminate festival waste.

“This involved asking all our food vendors to commit to using tableware instead of disposable packaging and asking festival goers to return their tableware to collection stations located throughout the grounds.

“We also asked festival participants to deposit their food waste into strategically positioned compost bins.”

All of this required an enthusiastic team of tableware runners and washing up volunteers who worked tirelessly throughout the day.

“I was so inspired by their energy and am very proud to say that we only generated two 240L bins of waste over the entire day and only a fraction of one yellow bin,” Kathleen said.

“The compostable material has also been sent to North Bank Community Gardens to be broken down and eventually used to grow more food.”

With the favourable response to Thrive, OzGREEN is already thinking about ways in which it might be able to secure future funding to run this much-loved event again.

“Thrive was inspiring and uplifting because it demonstrated what we can do when we work together as a collective,” Partnerships Manager Anna Juodvalkis told NOTA.

“So many different people across the community contributed to the day and this is what made it such a success.

“We really need to come together like this more often because it’s such a wonderful way to appreciate and activate some of our finest universal values including love, respect and goodwill towards one and all.”

Thrive 2023 was funded by the NSW State Government via Bellingen Shire Council through the Reconnecting Regional NSW – Communities Events Program.

As a charitable organisation that is committed to working with a wide variety of groups and government agencies, OzGREEN is very grateful and appreciative for this support.

Time to Thrive

Bellingen Shire community comes together to hold a festival aimed at showcasing the skills, knowledge and talent across the region.

Thrive is a free one day festival at Bellingen Shire Showgrounds on Saturday 4th March with bonus tours and activities on Sunday 5th March.

Organised by the not-for-profit charitable organisation OzGREEN, this highly inclusive event is designed to bring everyone together to build community belonging and connectedness.

Running at the same time as the regular Bellingen Growers and Poultry Market, Thrive Festival will involve all sectors of the Bellingen Shire community including, community groups, emergency services, food producers, Gumbaynggirr elders, health professionals, musicians, renewable energy experts, weather watchers, environmentalists, performance artists, and government.

Thrive Festival was envisioned by a group of passionate people living in Bellingen Shire at a weekend workshop run by Bellingen Shire Council in November 2020. Mid pandemic and not too long after the bushfires, local residents were given opportunities to discuss ways to build community resilience. One of the recommendations resulting from the workshop was to run a shire wide community event that would strengthen networks and provide people with access to skills, tools and resources to prepare for future disasters.

"Community resilience means different things to different people. At OzGREEN, we believe that community resilience is about linking people together so that they can share local knowledge and take personal and collective action to prepare for future disasters that may affect them".

- Kathleen Hannah, Resilient Communities Program Manager, OzGREEN

The festival program is jam packed with a variety of unique and exciting activities that cover a holistic range of important topics such as water, food, energy, ecosystem and economic security. There will also be a focus on how to prepare for future disasters, such as, fire and flood, as well as, a variety of hosts on mental health and wellbeing activities.

"We've worked really hard over the last few months to make sure there's something for everyone at Thrive. There's interactive skill building workshops, talks and demonstrations by emergency services, visioning sessions, mental health activities, panel discussions, Gumbaynggirr storytelling, entertainment, stalls and lots of fun activities for kids.

We're really looking forward to bringing so many people across the community together"

- Alexandra Moller, Thrive Festival Coordinator, OzGREEN

A key objective of Thrive Festival is to rebuild community following a series of disasters and to prepare for future challenges that lie ahead. Another important aspect of the festival is to bring new and long time residents and community groups together in an all inclusive way.

"Bellingen Shire is full of talented people. Collectively we have everything we need to sustain a beautiful, happy and healthy place for many generations to come, but to do this, we all need to all work together. I'm really hoping that Thrive will enable and empower many different people living in Bellingen Shire to become involved in their community".

- Anna Juodvalkis, Partnerships Manager, OzGREEN

Thrive Festival is funded and supported by Bellingen Shire Council via a grant from the NSW Government.

See Thrive Festival to keep updated, or to book into one of the Sunday tours and activities here.

Bellingen Riverwatch receives national award

Amy Denshire, Bellingen Riverwatch Program Manager, OzGREEN, and Anna Juodvalkis, Partnerships Manager, OzGREEN, very excited to represent the Bellingen Riverwatch partners at the awards night and to receive recognition for the 5-year-long leading-edge citizen science program that operates in the Bellinger and Kalang catchments.

Bellingen Riverwatch, one of the largest citizen science water quality monitoring programs in NSW, and the largest citizen science macroinvertebrate monitoring program in Australia, recently received two National awards at the River Basin Management Society Awards Gala. 

Competing with projects from all around Australia and capital cities, this impressive program from the small town in Bellingen won the people's choice for and was a finalist in the 'Involving Community in Waterway Management' category. Their people's choice category got 50% more votes than any other category, which indicates the high level of support this community has for the program.

This recognition helps to propel Bellingen Riverwatch forward. 

“We aim to be an exemplar of best practice citizen science and are very much on the journey to becoming this. These awards help shine a light on the work we are doing - supporting the recovery of the critically endangered Bellinger River Snapping turtle and helping to protect our waterways - and strengthening our community while we do it!” 

- Amy Denshire, Bellingen Riverwatch Program Manager, OzGREEN

Bellingen Riverwatch’s water quality monitoring citizen science program sees 40 volunteers and 4 schools work together to test our rivers at 20 sites every month. Here, Andy Core, Teacher, Bellingen High School, demonstrates techniques to his students. 

Bellingen Riverwatch sees more than sixty volunteers come together across two citizen science programs, to test our rivers for water quality and monitor macroinvertebrates (waterbugs).

The Bellingen Riverwatch partnership would like to thank the community for the support they have for this program, and would like to extend a massive congratulations to the incredible, dedicated Bellingen Riverwatch volunteers.

“We also host events to foster connection between volunteers, the community, and the environment. With the support of partners, the program is set to expand in 2023, with riverbank repair work at Gordonville Crossing, which our volunteers are very excited about!”

- Sam Daykin, Bellingen Riverwatch Coordinator, OzGREEN

Bellingen Riverwatch is set to launch a new riparian program arm in 2023, starting with a riparian restoration project at Gordonville Crossing. Here, volunteer, Toni, plants trees with her granddaughter at a Bellingen Riverwatch event at Thora.

Bellingen Riverwatch could not do this important work without the support of its partners and would like to thank the NSW Department of Planning and Environment, Bellingen Shire Council, Healthy North Coast, Vendart Diagnostics, NSW Waterwatch, Bellinger Landcare Inc, EnviroComm Connections and OzGREEN.

If you are interested in joining the Bellingen Riverwatch family of volunteers, please contact Sam on sam@ozgreen.org.au.

Bellingen Riverwatch releases 5-year data report

“Are our rivers healthy?” is one of the most commonly asked questions of Bellingen Riverwatch volunteers and partners. Bellingen Riverwatch is a local citizen science program that sees 60- volunteers and 14 steering committee partners working together to test our rivers health - this program has become one of the largest citizen science water quality monitoring programs in NSW and the largest citizen science macroinvertebrate monitoring program in Australia.

This month, Bellingen Riverwatch is releasing it’s 5-year data report. The overall condition of rivers across NSW is moderate, according to NSW State of Environments website, however, Bellingen Riverwatch data (2017-2022) indicates that the condition of the rivers in the Bellinger and Kalang catchments is far from moderate, and are in very good health. It supports BR partner’s understanding that these are very unique rivers and some of the healthiest rivers in Australia.

“With water quality data, the Bellinger catchment scored 90% and the Kalang scored 94%; our macroinvertebrate (waterbug) data indicates relatively healthy to very healthy macroinvertebrate communtities, our Platypus eDNA data tell s us that this region is a stronghold for the platypus, and our pesticide data tells us that no pesticides were detected in the seven sites sampled.”

- Sam Daykin, Bellingen Riverwatch Coordinator. 

“Despite these fantastic results, there are four main areas of concern arising from this data: 1) Upper Bellinger River; 2) Summervilles Road; 3) Caratti Creek; and 4) Spicketts Creek.”

- Justine Elder, River and Biodiversity Officer, Bellingen Shire Council, Bellingen Riverwatch Steering Committee member.

The first recommendation in the report is to protect what we have. Caring for the environment doesn't only look like improving areas of poor health.

“In terms of stream health it is usually more effective to protect (preserve) reaches of stream that remain in good condition, than to spend huge amounts of money trying to rehabilitate reaches that are already damaged. Similarly, it is usually more efficient to stop a stream deteriorating than to try to fix it later.”

- Rutherford (1999)

“There are opportunities to protect Australia’s most important aquatic areas so that future generations do not have to pay the high costs of rehabilitation (e.g. as has happened for the River Murray)". 

- Kingsord et al (2005)

The Bellingen Riverwatch Steering Committee believes that the residents of this area, and the tourists that visit these river systems are facing this opportunity here now. 

They ask all residents and tourists to work together to protect these special river systems. For the diverse species that rely on these rivers now (such as the critically endangered Bellinger River Snapping Turtle), for the ecosystems downstream, and for future generations.

The three key takeaways of what we can do to help, as outlined in the report, are:

1. Continue collecting data - an important aspect of protecting pristine rivers includes long term data collection.

2. Continue regenerating the riverbank - The report recommends 20 metres of good quality riparian zone along all rivers in both catchments (with the exception for where structural works are required). 

3. Undetake further investigation - Three areas of further investagation are recommended: 1) The origins of high phosphorous at Upper Bellinger sites (B1, B2, B2.1, B3, B3.1); 2) The potential sources of elevated levels of phosphate and turbidity and lower levels of dissolved oxygen at B7.1 (Caratti Creek).; and 3)The cause of these continuing poor water quality results at S1 (Spicketts Creek).

Read Bellingen Riverwatch’s 5-Year Data Report here.

Bellingen Riverwatch would not be possible without our incredible family of volunteers and partners. Bellingen Riverwatch would like to thank the NSW Government and its Saving our Species Program, Bellingen Shire Council, Healthy North Coast, Vendart Diagnostics, Vincent Fairfax Foundation, NSW Waterwatch, Bellinger Landcare Inc, EnviroComm Connections and OzGreen; as well as the volunteers who have contributed to the data included in this report: 

If you are interested in joining the BR family of volunteers, please contact Sam on sam@ozgreen.org.au.