Two awards for friends
Friends of Mount Worth State Park has capped off three successful years with two awards.
The group has won the Parks Victoria eastern region “Kookaburra Award” in the category of “Connecting People and Parks”, while president Merrin Butler and member Paul Strickland have been awarded one of six statewide “Best Friend” awards. Following three years of hard work delivering successful projects the awards give the members encouraging recognition.
“We have made great progress as a result of achieving some major grants,” Ms Butler said, “but the whole group has put in many hours of hard work to make the Park more accessible and enjoyable for a wide range of people.”
The Kookaburra award citation noted that the Friends of Mt Worth SP has restored a deteriorating wheelchair track to a level where it can once again be enjoyed by all members of the community, irrespective of their age, fitness level or mobility issues.
They have developed and installed 12 new interpretation signs covering the natural and human history of the area, including for the first time, information on indigenous activity.
They have engaged local primary schools in educational activities and tree planting, and engaged the local Landcare group and bushwalking groups in renovating damaged tracks.
The Best Friend Award noted that Merrin Butler and Paul Strickland have been members of the Friends of Mount Worth State Park for more than 14 years, since 2002.
Merrin Butler has been president of the group for the past six years. Amongst their activities, Paul and Merrin have been responsible for the group securing three significant grants enabling the planting of hundreds of trees, the replacement of a severely degraded vehicle bridge, the upgrading of a walking track to make it suitable for wheelchairs, and installation of 12 new interpretation signs along the two most popular tracks in the park.
Both Paul and Merrin regularly speak to various local groups, making the work of the Friends widely known and successfully recruiting new members and volunteers for the group’s activities.
Paul and Merrin are also involved with the West Gippsland Seedbank Association and Darnum-Ellinbank Fire Brigade and have planted more than 20,000 indigenous plants on their own property.