Do you have a small property in East Gippsland? Are you looking at your property and wondering what you can do with it? Do you have big dreams but need help knowing where to start? Are you asking where to spend your time and money to get the best results for your livestock, pasture, and soil?
Suppose you are interested in answering some of these questions.
In that case, you might want to be involved in the Small Properties Project being run next year by Landcare.
Landcare is looking for expressions of interest from 20 people interested in being involved. If successful in joining the program, you will be contacted to determine the best time to run these workshops. Possibly an evening session or during the day.
The participants will decide on the timing and the location of the events. The aim is to keep things central to reduce travel time. Landcare is aware that small property owners have many commitments and responsibilities and it will try its best to match the course to suit your needs. Expressions of interest need to be in before January 2025.
Starting in February or March 2025, the Small Properties Project will run in East Gippsland for seven to eight months. Twenty individuals will participate in six four-hour sessions (one session a month). Each workshop will have a specialist presenter teaching different themes. These themes include how to take a soil test and understand the results, healthy soils, pastures, animal nutrition, biosecurity, and property design.
Additional workshops can be designed around building specific skill sets, such as fencing, dung beetle nurseries, stock handling, etc.
The program’s cost is $110 per person. By the end of the project, participants will receive an aerial property photo map, current soil test results, and resource books and guides. You will also get to learn with a group of like-minded individuals.
The Small Properties Project 2025 is following an extremely successful Small Properties Project that was completed in August 2024. Twenty-one people were involved with 97 per cent of participants stating the workshops exceeded expectations. Participants found the Project ‘fabulous’ and ‘loved every bit of the course, so helpful’. As one participant stated, ‘forward management can save us an enormous amount both in money and enjoyment’.
‘Small Properties’ has many definitions and can be very broad. For this project, organisers describe it as a couple of acres to a large bush block with a small amount of cleared land for farming. You can be just starting out or be a thriving cottage industry. All we ask is that you have ‘big dreams’.
Small Properties Project is being run by Regional Landcare East Gippsland, Southern Farming Systems, the East Gippsland Sustainable Agriculture Facilitator, and the East Gippsland Catchment Management Authority through funding from the Victoria Landcare Grants Program.
To get an Expression of Interest Form don’t hesitate to contact Emma Orgill from Far East Victoria Landcare in Orbost.
