A bit of rain kicked off The Planting and, while it left the new Bunya stage a wee bit boggy, it prepared the soil beautifully to receive the approximately 2,500 plants our attendees placed lovingly in the ground. Sure, there was mud, but secretly, we all love a good squelch, as evidenced by all the dancing that took place each night.
The Jinibara Dancers kicked off the weekend with dance and ceremony, a beautiful welcome to country. To honour them, the site team put down some lovely white sand so they didn’t have to squelch as they danced us all in.
Across 14 environmental projects, people removed weeds, boosted soil, and planted 180 species—including 46 new varieties, 6 of them rare and endangered. The effort was staggering: 230 cubic metres of mulch spread, 30 cubic metres of weeds removed. Woodfordia is looking all the more beautiful for it. For a full report on the environmental projects, see below.
Beyond planting, the daily Talks & Ideas programme lit up minds. Native Australian bees, lungfish, renewable energy, sustainable living and more; you could see the lightbulb moments, feel the energy lift, sense the empowerment among those in the audience. It’s why ‘plant seed, grow ideas’ remains The Planting’s unofficial rallying cry.
And then there was the joy: dirtgirl, scrapboy and Costa the Garden Gnome reminding us that we’re all connected, we are nature, and that a mud kitchen is absolutely the bestest place to start your culinary journey. Belly laughs with Mandy Nolan, Troy Cassar-Daley’s storytelling, Mario’s hilarious return, and the final show of the Festival of Small Halls tour with Joe H Henry and Tullara were just a few of the highlights from the evening programme.
During the day, the Forest of Goodwill was packed for Radio Woodfordia’s live podcast. People sang and played together in the Kingfisher while others got their craft on in the Crafty Tent. We’re grateful to every talented soul who shared their art.
Walking the Butterfly Path and seeing what past plantings look like after 30 years inspired attendees as they made their way to the Hilltop for Sunday’s tree planting ceremony at sunset. After winding up the hill along the Goodwill Way, people solemnly planted the Foundation tree to Paul Kelly’s From Little Things Big Things Grow, honoured our Forest of Goodwill Fellows, and cast their hopes and dreams into the twilight sky. A fitting way to end a weekend such as this.
All in all, organisers are pretty darn happy, knowing the outcomes aren’t just plants in the ground and a good time, but that people left with fuller hearts, greater optimism, and the knowledge that from little things, big things grow.
For a great pictorial view of the weekend, visit our Flickr account. Special thanks to all the photographers who captured it so beautifully. And you can relive the magic with this short video too.
What Got Done (and will grow into Big Things)
The Sacred Forest Project planted 295 plants and pretty much ran out of space to plant due to their tremendous team effort. Melody and Don, team leaders of the project and pilots of the Conservatree pod, were over the moon with what their group accomplished.
Lake Lovers cleared taro from the top wetland, weeded and mulched the entire eastern bank, and planted a little grove of banksias, dianella and melaleucas. This crew also planted various lomandras along the eastern bank. It’s looking wonderful!
The Bushfoods Project cleared most of the side of the hill behind the triptych sign near the Grande and have started backfilling with bushfood plants. They planted two trays of food-bearing plants, including native raspberries and some more fruit trees, and spread four front-loader buckets of mulch. It’ll be exciting to see what the Cookaburras concoct when these plants start to produce fruit.
The Grande Project continued their rehabilitation and beautification efforts with plenty of weeding, mulching and planting both at the bottom of the Grande (adjacent to the Bushfoods group) and along the top beds. This area is sure to provide an incredible backdrop for all the amazing shows on the stage.
The Nursery Project “The level of cooperation, teamwork and enthusiasm is giving me hope for the world,” said Greg, who headed up this project. “It’s totally inspiring to see the teenage boys working together to solve problems.” This group shifted succulents, propagated and repotted rootbound plants, and weeded many of the stage plants while having whole lot of fun. You can see photos in the Sisterhood of the Travelling Plants story here.
The Cloudland Project put a massive dent in the lantana, clearing the top terrace and most of the middle terrace. They then planted out the newly cleared area with nice shady plants to inhibit lantana regrowth. Wait till the Build Crew sees all this new planting!
The Sleepy Hollow Project cleared and planted two large areas on the slope above the hollow. They weeded and opened up previously planted areas and filled in with new ground–covering plants. They planted more than 230 trees, shrubs and ground-covering plants, with a focus on creating greater diversity. They also planted a lovely Moreton Bay fig on the ridge that will hold the bank and be an incredible presence watching over Sleepy Hollow. From Kimberley and Elise, “We’ve been lucky to have a fabulous set of folk with us each day and have achieved more than we could have hoped for!”
The Five Ways Dry Gully Project was super industrious, never giving up and continuing to plant into Monday afternoon. They put close to 300 plants in ground! This team also did extensive work along the watercourse to stabilise the banks and improve flow. They created gardens around existing mature trees for screening and to beautify the camping areas. All was finished off with a load of mulch to help protect against weeds and drought.
The super enthusiastic Weedos donned their lab coats and furthered their research efforts into the best possible weed management strategies. They also pulled out a huge pile of disco weeds (aka Dyschoriste depressa or butterfly heaven) and planted about 50 plants and 10 trays of live mulch. To find out more, join the Weedos pod at our monthly Conservatree Weekends.
The Library and Lettering House Project pleased Postmistress Margie with their planting efforts. The gang replaced an area of grass with lomandra and dianella edging, some flowering shrubs, and mulch along the edge of the drainage line. Existing canopy trees offer a nice shady reading spot, and the planting will make this area look more enticing and friendly. They also sent a few tree ferns to seek wetter feet around the sedge pond. This will no doubt be a wonderful place to relax with a book at the Woodford Folk Festival.
The Friendship Forest had an incredibly productive Saturday morning, working together to plant all their allocated trees and shrubs in one session! They had the benefit of some pre-Planting prep and weeding which made the ground easy to dig and opened the space for planting. Thanks go to Troy and Jess who then jumped into the kitchen to help feed the people. Their energy was very much appreciated by all.
The Barcoo Project planted approximately 250 plants, spread one truckload of mulch and removed a full truckload of weeds, which is an incredible accomplishment for this team way out there in the Barcoo!
The Forest of Wonder got planted out, and then the team did some thickening of the Forest of Learning. They couldn’t add any more plants because they had reached maximum density—how glorious it will be! According to team leader David, “Beautiful people each session, families. Just leaves you with an inner glow. The kids just jumping in and planting with such love.❤️”
The Orchids Project, graced by the local experts Wayne and Shelley who shared their knowledge of orchids, attached 25 native orchids to trees in three different sites: the office waterfall gardens, the Library/Lettering House area, and along the edge of the Sacred Forest. They may even have recruited a few more people to join their monthly Conservatree pod.
And finally, the Plant Watering Crew channelled the latest technological advances in AI: Atmospheric Inundation. It seemed to work out pretty well. They had two teams running around after the planters, making sure these new babies have the best chance for survival.
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