You would think that being the Barker’s Creek Landcare & Wildlife Group, restoration of the creek would be a priority. And so it is. But it would have to be said that for many decades prior to the commencement of our Landcare activities the creek was no one’s priority. For our original members removing all the Broom and Blackberries

What I remember was Bonnie Humphreys, a staff member at Connecting Country, who was working on the Yellow Box Woodland Project saying to me one day – ‘Hi guys we’re just wondering what you’re doing for the next five years and whether you’d like to look after a Bushland Reserve … it is only 35.5 Hectares and its right

– PROJECT COMPLETED 2022 – “Mount Alexander Shire Council has a funding agreement with the Department of Environment, Water, Land and Planning (DEWLP), for priority roadside weed control works – the Roadside Weeds and Pests Management Program (RWPP). Council desires to ‘plan and implement control activities for the long-term management of ‘regionally prohibited’, ‘regionally controlled’ and ‘restricted’ weeds on

– PROJECT COMPLETED 2022 – Until about 20 years ago this area was used as the Harcourt Tip. When the Mt. Alexander Shire consolidated to one major refuse site in Castlemaine, this area was capped and left. Because it sits right beside the Bushland Reserve that we have been working on for the past six years, we asked Council

Did you know that Barkers Creek was the site of the first ever GOLD found in central Victoria? It’s true … apparently, shepherds (employees of Mr Barker) who clearly were not watching their flocks by night but doing a little bit of prospecting on the side made the discovery. As a result over 30,000 miners descended on Barkers Creek

Starting in 1998, this was the first major project tackled by the Barkers Creek Landcare and Wildlife Group. At that time this Reserve was an almost impenetrable wall of English Broom as far as the eye could see (which doesn’t really make sense). The group started on the left side of the bridge pulling broom but pretty soon there

The Little Red Apple is the home of the Award Winning – Harcourt Apple, Pear and Dry cider. (There is no harm in a free plug). The owners Simon and Vicki first came on board when we did the Big Barkers Creek Blackberry Blitz. Yes, along that section of Barkers Creek there were plenty of Blackberries but even more

For years we could see the potential. Just to the right of White Gum Road this gully meandered through a property and joined Barkers Creek at the bridge beside the Little Red Apple. However, for many years the property was for sale and obviously the current owners weren’t interested in doing anything to clean up the enormous amounts of

One of the most interesting things about our section of Barkers Creek is that it is primarily private property with small sections of public land e.g. McManus Rd Reserve.  Both sides of Creek at the School Road Bridge are privately owned so as part of our Blackberry Blitz we organized with the property owners to help them get it

How often do we hear about people who do not want things happening near where they live?  Well our I.M.B.Y. project is the opposite. It is all about members of our group who want to take responsibility for areas where they live. It could be pulling a few weeds or collecting rubbish at one of our Bushland Reserves. It could

The Idea 40,000 Trees – 1 day, 1000 volunteers, 40,000 seedlings. (Across multiple planting sites within an 8km stretch of Harcourt North). A grand and somewhat crazy project captured the imagination of the Barkers Creek Landcare Network. The aim was to save 40,000 seedlings with only 8 weeks to make it happen. 40,000 seedlings of local provenance to the