The Greater Eastern Ranges Initiative & Wybong

Focus and Direction
A focus area for initial on ground activities and investment has been identified and refined over the past two months. This focus area or ‘Upper Hunter Link' takes in the Wybong and Halls Ck Catchments west of Muswellbrook and Scone. It extends from the Goulburn River National Park in the south to the Liverpool ranges in the north. It provides a range of opportunities for increasing connectivity conservation and landscape resilience across the upper hunter. See attached maps showing location and potential links for further detail.


A range of conservation mechanisms, voluntary contributions, industry partnerships and community engagement activities will be utilised going forward to achieve a lasting improvement and increased connectivity in the Hunter Valley.



On Ground Projects
The Hunter Central Rivers Catchment Management Authority (CMA) is currently drawing up projects with a number of landholders in the region and seeking expressions of interest for on ground projects. Projects will include activities such as fencing of remnant vegetation on hill slopes and ridges, riparian fencing and planting, off stream watering and improved grazing management. Contact Jon Thorne on 65424426 or Joe Thompson the the CMA on 65424431 for further information.

Voluntary Conservation
The Conservation Partners program will be offering opportunities for landholders in the region to take part in biodiversity management training early next year. They also offer opportunities for landholders to undertake voluntary conservation in the form of Conservation Agreements or Wildlife Refuges. If you are interested in further information contact Brynley Walters on 02 9995 6761 or http://wag.org.au/admin/Brynley.Walters@environment.nsw.gov.au

GER Website
The NSW Great Eastern Ranges website was launched on the 15th of December. This is a great resource and will include pages on each partnership area and stories from across NSW as well as a much anticipated Google fly over of the Great Eastern Ranges. Increased functionality will be built into the site over time to allow local groups and partners to contribute information and content - for example for the Hunter Valley page. See it at: http://www.greateasternranges.org.au/
The Hunter Valley page is at:
http://www.greateasternranges.org.au/partnerships/partnership-areas/hunter-valley
Electronic versions of the fact sheets (as well as links to some great video stories) can be found at:
http://www.greateasternranges.org.au/site-information/website-policies/resources
Don't watch the video's or view the flyover if you don't have Broadband.

Engagement, communication and fundraising
The GER Steering committee is putting into place a range of strategies for communication and ongoing engagement including producing a newsletter and a prospectus and running further stakeholder meetings field trips and events. Planning is now underway for:

Related Links