Intrepid Landcare get their hands dirty at sandy point retreat

This article is contributed by the Gippsland Intrepid Landcare team. 
On the last weekend in April, Gippsland Intrepid Landcare held their first ever Landcare retreat down at Sandy Point. Gippsland Intrepid Landcare are a volunteer based organisation and believe that we are all lucky to live within such a precious and beautiful region.
Gippsland Intrepid Landcare aims to connect young people (aged 18 to 35) to the incredible Gippsland environment, through real environmental projects and adventure. The weekend gave the opportunity for 23 young and inspiring individuals from all over Gippsland to get their hands dirty and make their ideas a reality.
Read on or click the read more link below to find out what they got up to...

On the Saturday morning the volunteers headed out for 2 hours to remove sea spurge, blue bell creeper and dolichos pea along the Sandy Point beach. These invasive weeds are extremely bad along the foreshore as they choke the native vegetation.
After lunch Gippy Intrepid Landcare had organised a surfing lesson with Offshore Surf School which was so much fun and we all got our shakkas out! After our surfing lesson Ash from the Phillip Island Nature Parks presented on the history of penguins on Phillip Island and the development of the Summerland Peninsula.
That evening Tim Silverwood who is a co-founder of Take 3 for the sea came and spoke to us. He raised some collaborative discussions within the group which got everyone talking about plastic pollution in our oceans. On the Sunday we were all exhausted from the weed removal and surfing lesson but we still went for a stroll down the beach. At 10am we had Belinda from West Gippsland Catchment Management Authority come and do a presentation on “how to make your idea your idea, a reality.” This was very engaging and helpful for the volunteers to encourage them to get out into their communities and promote their ideas.
We’d like to thank the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning for funding our great retreat, Offshore Surf School, West Gippsland Catchment Management Authority, Phillip Island Nature Parks, Sebastian Emanual and all the committee members of Gippsland Intrepid Landcare for making this retreat happen. And finally a big thank you to all the attendees for coming down for the weekend.
For more information on this group follow on facebook at:  
​https://www.facebook.com/gippslandintrepidlandcare/