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# Forty years on, and the best of it was the people
- URL: https://www.earthtoseanews.com/landcare-forty/
- Published: 2026-08-22T21:58:22.000Z
- Updated: 2026-08-22T21:59:28.000Z
- Description: Australians joined Landcare to look after a creek or a paddock. A new national survey asked what actually kept them coming back.
- Author: Nicole McMahon
- Tags: Global Good News, All stories

It began on 25 November 1986 at Winjallok, near St Arnaud in country Victoria, when the first Landcare group in the country was launched. Joan Kirner, then the Victorian Minister for Conservation, Forests and Lands, had asked Heather Mitchell, then president of the Victorian Farmers Federation, to run it with her, and between them they put farmers and conservationists on the same side of the fence. Forty years later Landcare is one of the largest community environmental movements anywhere in the world, and to mark the anniversary more than twelve hundred landcarers were asked what it has given them. Eighty three per cent said they regularly help care for their local environment, which you would expect. Ninety three per cent said they had made friends or new social connections through it, which is the part nobody puts on the poster. Eighty eight per cent felt more connected to their community, and sixty four per cent said their physical and mental health was better for it.

Costa Georgiadis, who is a Landcare Australia ambassador, put his finger on it. People often arrive because they want to help nature, he said, but before long they are part of a community, and looking after nature is something we can all do together. Peter Garrett, who chairs Landcare Australia, said the survey shows Australians volunteer because they care about nature and they value being part of their community. The groups were clear about what would help them most: sixty six per cent said steady funding or small grants, and fifty nine per cent said more hands. Which makes this the easiest good news in the paper to do something about. There is a Landcare group near you, whatever your postcode, and turning up once is the whole ask.

Our short take: the survey findings were reported by **Australian Geographic** on 4 August 2026, from the **Landcare Australia** National Landcare Week survey. Photograph: Unsplash.