The Bob Hawke Landcare Award finalists have been selected. The Advisory Committee had a difficult time selecting the top three as the submissions this year were all of a very high calibre.
The Bob Hawke Landcare Award acknowledges an individual who has; demonstrated a remarkable commitment to caring for the land, champions better practices, and gives their time to share knowledge with others so that they too can prosper.
The winner of the Bob Hawke Landcare Award will be announced at the 2018 National Landcare Awards gala dinner to be held on Thursday, 11 October, at the Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre, and the recipient will be presented with a prize package to the value of $50,000 for further development of their knowledge and skills in sustainable land management and Landcare.
The Bob Hawke Landcare Award is administered by Landcare Australia through support from the Australian Government’s National Landcare Program.
The Finalists
Charlie Arnott, NSW
Charlie is a biodynamic farmer and grazier, who practices; regenerative farming, organic, biodynamic and holistic grazing principles on his 5000 acre mixed farming property, Hanaminno, at Boorowa, NSW. Charlie has won several agricultural industry awards for leadership, resource management and conservation. He has been an active Landcarer since the inception of the Landcare movement in 1989, with previous roles in all levels of Landcare, from district groups to the Sustainable Farming ambassador for Landcare Australia. He is passionate about growing clean healthy meat, which he sells direct to customers and butchers under his brand Charlie Arnott Natural Grass Fed Meat.
Simon Falkiner, VIC
Simon’s 600-acre mixed-enterprise family farm at Freshwater Creek produces meat merinos, cereals and oilseed crops, while prioritising farming techniques that preserve the land’s biodiversity.
Simon’s focus on maintaining soil health and his integrated pest and grazing management has made him a leading advocate for best-practice Landcare. His farm has hosted long-term trials, testing everything from soil acidification and biology, to pasture cover and cropping. He’s also undertaken extensive riparian restoration along Thompsons Creek to protect remnant vegetation, and assisted in monitoring the threatened Yarra pygmy perch and growling grass frog.
Dr Graeme Stevenson, TAS
Dr Graeme Stevenson, from Somerset Tasmania has 55 years of agricultural experience running his family farm as a farm labourer and manager, through his tertiary agricultural education, dairy extension and research, as an agricultural consultant and rural journalist. He has worked with Tasmanian dung beetles and agricultural earthworms in soil management since 1988. Graeme is a volunteer with the Elliott and Wynyard Landcare groups since 1993, as well as Somerset and Camdale Coastcare, Burnie Farmers Market and Tasmanian Organic groups. He has initiated and managed 27 Landcare/organic farming projects attracting $1.4m in grants majoring in on-ground works. Under the pseudonym of Dr Spluttergrunt, Graeme has acted out his 'soil care' presentation to over 60 schools. He has 20 years of applied research into organic and biological agriculture as sustainable farming.
