Transcript for Seachangers and Treechangers

I'm Sophie Small,facilitator of Bellarine Landcare Group.

Every activity often needs volunteers to help out our ideas,so we're always thinking about how we can get the word out about who we are and try and encourage new volunteers and members to join us.

With COVID, we've seen something of a population explosion here.

There's a whole lot of people who've escaped Melbourne during COVID.

They've been through the pandemic.

They've realised the mental health benefits of connecting with nature and being outdoors.

Since COVID, we've tried to come up with some activities we thought would appeal to a whole lot of new people who are coming to the Bellarine from the city.

We've held an art show, which was a great success.

We also found out that so many of our newcomers are really wanting to learn more about the Indigenous plants.

So we've been busy promoting our Indigenous plant nursery here, which we run in collaboration with the local high school, the Bellarine Secondary College.

This nursery is just an absolutely fantastic place for people to come because they step inside the gates and they really feel welcomed and there's a great sense of community and connection.

I've volunteered with Landcare because I came here looking for plants, local native plants to plant in our backyard and so when we came here to buy the plants, it was just really friendly, really inviting.

What I do here is I'm basically in the propagating room where I get little plants and put them into pots.

What I like about being part of Landcare is you're part of a bigger program.

You know that there's a lot of people out there planting local plants in the local area and that really makes my heart sing.

And knowing that I'm helping just a little bit in that process is great.