Our Community Links will be closing at 12noon on Tuesday, 24 December 2024.Our Lilydale Community Link will remain open throughout the Christmas and New Year period except for on public holidays.Our Healesville, Monbulk, Yarra Junction and Upwey links will reopen on Monday, 6 January 2025.
The Yarra Ranges Gardens for Wildlife program assists residents to develop a garden (or an area within their garden) to support local wildlife. The program is run by Council and a team of local volunteers who are passionate about wildlife gardening.
If you have interest and/or knowledge on wildlife gardening that you would like to share with others, consider becoming a volunteer Gardens for Wildlife Garden Guide. Training and support are provided, and you can specify how much or how little time you want to dedicate to being a guide.
Garden Guides visit private properties in the Yarra Ranges and provide suggestions about how the resident can enhance their garden to attract and support wildlife. This may include identifying weeds and advice on weed management, suggest indigenous plant species to plant, adding habitat features to entice wildlife and more. Guides also provide residents with a weed identification and treatment booklet, a Yarra Ranges indigenous plant booklet, a dabber bottle to aid weed removal, and a voucher for free plants from one of our participating nurseries.
Our garden guides are required to obtain police and working with children checks. There is no cost associated with obtaining these checks and we will help you through the process.
Expert knowledge is not required to become a guide. Full training and support will be provided. A guide is not expected to be able to answer every question on the spot and can defer to providing an answer at a later date.
Garden guides are asked to provide their availability one to two months ahead allowing Council to offer appointments to participants. It is up to each guide how much time they want to spend being a guide and many guides will take time off to travel and for family or work commitments.
Garden guides choose when they are available, and the timeslots provided by a guide are offered to the community. As some residents work full time, we hope to be able to offer both weekday and weekend timeslots.
Garden visits are up to one hour.
Council takes care of the garden visit bookings and our dedicated Gardens for Wildlife Officer will be in regular contact with you.
You will be teamed up with an experienced garden guide when you join the program. Once you’ve built up your confidence you can choose to attend visits on your own or with another guide
.
You will be required to fill in a report for the resident. Council provides the template for you to do this and other guides can support you if required.
Guides are not compensated for costs associated with volunteering; this includes petrol.
Guides are allocated ‘zones’ within the Yarra Ranges ensuring they won’t need to travel large distances.
Our guides come together for regular meetings, participate in group activities, attend festivals and community events to promote the program and are given training opportunities. You'll also find you learn about flora and fauna along the way and most likely experience a sense of personal satisfaction that you're helping people and wildlife alike.
If you’re interested in becoming a Gardens for Wildlife Garden Guide you can fill out an expression of interest and we’ll be in touch.
If you want more information about becoming a guide contact us via gardensforwildlife@yarraranges.vic.gov.au
Stay up to date with all relevant information by visiting our webpage.
https://www.coronavirus.vic.gov.au/book-your-vaccine-appointment