Roving Restorers to help enhance resilience of Noosa’s Hinterland Parks.

Late last year Noosa launched our monthly Saturday Roving Restorers working bee at Yurol State Forest, supporting the transition of Yurol and Ringtail State Forest into National Park. This working bee is in addition to our regular fortnightly Friday working bee. This monthly working bee is supported by the Queensland Government’s Community Sustainability Action: community engagement on Queensland’s National Parks and State Forests grant program and is in partnership with the team from Queensland Parks and Wildlife.

These working bees have been focusing on weed control within the existing high biodiversity remnant vegetation and revegetation areas within the State Forest to help improve its resiliency and safeguard its valuable biodiversity into the future.

The Roving Restorers program has been operating in the Sunshine Coast for over 10 years. Initiated on the Blackall Range by Hinterland Bush Links in 2012, roving working bees powered by passionate volunteers, have occurred across most of the Sunshine Coast region supporting both private and public landholders with environmental weed control and revegetation on their properties. In 2021, Noosa Landcare, Noosa Council and Hinterland Bush Links partnered together to start the Noosa Chapter of the program.

We have been blown away by the support this program has received from our community and the impact it has made to people we visit and the many wonderful volunteers that join us each fortnight. We strongly believe that we cannot achieve a healthy environment without a strong and healthy community behind it. Programs like this give space for people to connect with one another, forge friendships and transfer knowledge and skills. When we are immersed in nature, hands-on in helping restore its health, we are given this sense of stewardship and when shared with a group it is hard not to feel the bonds made between one another, a mutual connection and share love of our natural world.

Thank you to all the committed and passionate volunteers that have been part of the Roving Restorers so far. And a huge thank you to Project Officer, Tamara Kubica, for her care and passion in running the Noosa Chapter. Together we are transforming landscapes and connecting community for a more resilient future.

As part of the same Community Sustainability Action grant funding project, Noosa Landcare will also be undertaking Glider surveys within the Yurol and Ringtail State Forest and Tewantin National Park. We will be hosting an information session about Noosa’s Gliders and this project for our April Landcare Linkup. More information out soon.