Urban Wildlife Gardens is a community engagement program providing a resource and service for urban landowners wishing to create native gardens that will increase biodiversity values on their property, promote enjoyment, awareness, and provide opportunities for citizen science monitoring.  We want to thank you for joining the program and help in making a positive contribution to our natural environment

Running for nearly 3 years now, this year has seen the program funded outside of Council’s Grants Program under an MOU which will potentially see it funded for the next 3 years, and NICA is most appreciative of Council providing us with that facility.

One of the things offered to participants through their membership is the free workshop program, organised by the UWG Working Group.

So far, we have presented workshops on;

  • Native Bees
  • Horticulture and Propagation
  • Insects in your garden and the Pandanus leafhopper pest
  • Landscaping with Native plants
  • Attracting birds to your garden
  • Miniature Lives – Insects and their amazing lifecycles
  • Biodiversity resilience
  • Pruning native plants

The working group includes Michelle Newall who is responsible for member liaison and carrying out property visits, and Council representative Ryan Heeney.  Volunteer members are Desire Gralton, Kay Southam, Suzanne Bloomfield (who designed our property sign), Stephanie Haslam, and Tony Haslam, and just recently we have been joined by Keron Hilton.  During the year Jan Green had to resign from the WG because of pressure of work and time demands, and former Council rep Jan Maddin took long leave from Council and was replaced by Ryan.  The contribution that WG members make to the success of the program should not be under estimated and they deserve our heartfelt appreciation.

A key driver of UWG has been the desire to attract and engage with people who are not the converted.   Newcomers to Noosa may not know what they can do to help Noosa’s environment.  So, it has been gratifying to see UWG member numbers steadily increase standing now at 113.

We are fortunate to have people like Stephanie who uses arts and crafts to attract people’s interest, and Desire Gralton who put together a number of welcome kits which a Real Estate Agent purchased to present to their clients who are moving into Noosa, and we will continue to do this.

Member for Noosa, Sandy Bolton, was impressed by the program and has offered to include our brochure in her mail outs to new constituents, and we are seeing this bear fruit.

In the coming year we will increase our efforts to engage with members and residents through Citizen Science, and help meet some of Noosa Council’s environment strategies through targeted recruitment efforts in specific areas to improve green corridors between conservation areas.

By Tony Haslam