News

News2023-11-23T21:29:34+11:00
1102, 2025

Otways Wetland Revival: A Festival of Restoration and Celebration

February 11, 2025|Categories: Events|

Join us for the Hordern Vale Planting Festival, a community-driven event dedicated to restoring local wetlands and boosting biodiversity. Get your hands dirty planting native species, learn from experts, and connect with like-minded people in a stunning natural setting. Everyone is welcome—come along and make a difference!

Come anytime from Friday and leave anytime Sunday, or anywhere in between. Join us for tree planting Saturday morning and stay for live music and a campfire Saturday evening. You don’t have to help plant but we’d really love (and need) your help. This event is free but if you can RSVP so we have an idea on numbers that would be great!

Click here to book a spot :)

Our project aims to address the degradation of an historic wetland in Hordern Vale, in the southern Otways. Currently, the wetland suffers from drainage issues and is neither productive agricultural land or prime native habitat, resulting in loss of biodiversity. We are restoring the wetland by filling in drains and converting a disused paddock into a biodiverse habitat. We hope our festival will engage young and old in environmental restoration efforts. Participants will camp out, plant trees, enjoy live music, and celebrate nature. Through this initiative, we hope to revitalise the wetland ecosystem, enhance biodiversity, and foster a sense of stewardship among our community for environmental conservation in the Otways region.

Please bring your own stuff, food, water, tents, good vibes, drinks etc. We’ll provide flat ground, trees, music and hapiness. You can swim in the river or go to the beach, but there’ll be no shower :).

When: Friday 25th of April to Sunday 27th of April, tree planting Saturday morning, live music Saturday arvo/evening

Where: 2340 Great Ocean Rd, Hordern Vale

Contact Oliver for more details on oliver.landcare@soln.org or 0412 313 216

2301, 2025

Wahlenbergia stricta or Australian Bluebell

January 23, 2025|Categories: Nursery|

Wahlenbergia stricta or Australian Bluebell is a striking little plant with gorgeous purpley-blue flowers found throughout south-eastern Australia. Growing to only about 30cm tall with diminutive leaves and stems it is covered with colour in spring and summer. Readily self-seeding in bare ground it makes a lovely garden plant and would do well in a pot though will disappear under weeds if neglected in wetter areas and prefers a bit of sun. Wahlenbergia was named after Swedish botanist Göran Wahlenberg, while stricta refers to its upright or “strict” growth habit. Flowers can be eaten in salads and are also an important source of food for pollinators like butterflies and native bees. You can buy Australian Bluebell plants from the Shrub Club Community Nursery for only $3. If you’d like to learn more about local native plants, the Southern Otway Landcare Network (SOLN) runs a weekly plant walk over the summer season, usually departing from the office at 69 Nelson St at 2:30 pm each Tuesday and going somewhere different each week.

1201, 2025

Lobelia anceps or Angled Lobelia

January 12, 2025|Categories: Uncategorized|

Lobelia anceps or Angled Lobelia is a versatile and hardy groundcover commonly found throughout the Otways and across SE Australia, WA, New Zealand, South Africa and South America! Noticeable by its attractive purple flowers it is commonly found growing on the forest floor and even in some lawns and will quickly colonise an area creating a nice colourful mat. The genus name Lobelia honours Matthias de L’Obel (1538–1616), a Flemish botanist while anceps means “two-sided, double or flattened”, referring to the leaves. Interestingly, despite its wide distribution it has no known culinary or medicinal uses. You can buy Angled Lobelia plants from the Shrub Club Community Nursery for only $3. If you’d like to learn more about local native plants, the Southern Otway Landcare Network (SOLN) runs a weekly plant walk over the summer, usually departing from the office at 69 Nelson St at 2:30 pm each Tuesday and going somewhere different each week.

312, 2024

Sambucus gaudichaudiana, or native elderberry

December 3, 2024|Categories: Uncategorized|

Sambucus gaudichaudiana, or native elderberry, is a small, tender shrub reaching about 1 m in height, found in cool, damp forests in the Otways and south-eastern Australia. Belonging to the same genus as the European elderberry (S. nigra), its fruits are edible and can be easily collected or enjoyed by birds. The plant often dies back each season to a perennial rootstock and prefers a shady aspect, flowering mainly in late spring and summer. The name Sambucus is derived from the Greek word sambuke, referring to a musical instrument (likely a type of harp) traditionally made from European elderwood, while gaudichaudiana honours Charles Gaudichaud-Beaupré, a renowned French botanist and pharmacist. You can buy native elderberry plants from the Shrub Club Community Nursery. If you’d like to learn more about local native plants, the Southern Otway Landcare Network (SOLN) runs a weekly plant walk over the summer, usually departing from the office at 69 Nelson St at 2:30 pm each Tuesday.

2911, 2024

Disa bracteata or the South African Weed Orchid

November 29, 2024|Categories: Uncategorized|

Disa bracteata or the South African Weed Orchid is an introduced environmental weed about 30cm tall from South Africa that only arrived in Victoria in 1994 and has started to spread in the Otways. Like all orchids, it produces dust-like seeds that are so tiny they can be carried vast distances by the wind, aiding its invasive spread, but unlike most orchids it is self-pollinating and doesn’t rely on insects. It has an underground tuber that makes it difficult to pull out and rapidly outcompetes native vegetation, including native orchids, by forming dense colonies. Disa comes from a character in Norse mythology often associated with beauty and mysticism, which aligns with the elegant and often intricate nature of orchids. Bracteata is derived from the Latin word “bractea,” meaning thin plate or bract which refers to the plant’s prominent bracts (small, leaf-like structures located beneath its flowers). If you have Weed Orchid on your property, please remove them or get in touch with your local Landcare group to get help. If you see it in the bush or elsewhere, please pull it out and/or record it on iNaturalist so we know where to find it. If you’d like to replace it with something similar, the Shrub Club Community Nursery has just started growing native orchids which should be available soon or if you’d like to learn more about environmental weeds SOLN (Southern Otway Landcare Network) runs a weekly plant walk over the summer season usually leaving from the office at 69 Nelson St at 2:30pm on the first Tuesday.

2611, 2024

Coastcare Week: Join the Station Beach community clean-up!

November 26, 2024|Categories: Events, Workshops|Tags: , |

Coastcare Week is on from the 2 – 8 December and we’d love for you to join us at Cape Otway on Wednesday 4 December for a community clean-up of Station Beach.

Before hitting the beach we’ll meet at Bimbi Park at 4:00pm to learn about the impacts of plastic waste on coastal environments with special guest Colleen Hughson of Beach Patrol 3280. From there we’ll walk down to Station Beach to clean up any rubbish we find with our local Cubs, Scouts and Landcare groups before returning to Bimbi Park for a well-earned feed and a discussion about our beach discoveries.

Please RSVP to help us with catering numbers for our shared meal.

We’d like to thank Coastcare Victoria and the State Government of Victoria for their funding support of this initiative.

For more info and to register your attendance visit: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/otwayoceancare/1481927

Go to Top