Advocacy in Action: Parks Victoria Volunteer Manual Behind the scenes, VEFN committee members have been working on your behalf to address key issues in the Parks Victoria Volunteer Manual which was released in April 2021. Many Friend groups raised concerns about the additional administrative burden placed on volunteers with the requirement to [...]
Parks Victoria (Parks) has now released its Volunteer Manual 2021 (available here). This document attempts to provide a framework for volunteer groups working on public land managed by Parks for the community. Although the document presents a list of groups with whom Parks had meetings about the manual, including the VEFN, we have never had [...]
Celebrating 30 years of the Best Friend Award This year we celebrated the 30th Anniversary of the Best Friend Award and congratulated our Best Friend Award winner for 2021, Nina Earl from Friends of Bradshaw Bushland Reserve, who exemplifies the attributes of our Best Friends with a long term and sustained commitment to environmental volunteering. [...]
Here is a great little movie introduction to Edwards Point Reserve on the Bellarine Peninsula - Friends of Edwards Point are members of VEFN - which gives a great introduction to one of our "hidden gems". https://youtu.be/UGvJ4Q--fGo
Over 60 people attended the first ever internet presentation of the Best Friends Award (BFA) on October 3rd 2020. It was the 29th year of the Award, which celebrates the many individuals who contribute substantial effort over many decades, to making Victoria’s special places even more so. Ninety five Best Friends Awards have been made [...]
Back Row L-R Secretary – Margaret Hunter (Friends of Braeside Park/Edithvale Seaford Wetlands (FESWI); Laura Mumaw (Gardens for Wildlife (Victoria); Judith Baldacchino (Friends of Edwards Point); Nadine Gaskell (Gardens for Wildlife (Victoria); Lap Chieu (First Friends of Dandenong Creek); Andrew Lucas (Friends of Yarra Valley); Chanaka Ruwandeniya (First Friends of Dandenong Creek/Effect the Change) Front Row [...]
A good crowd of 22 people attended the 2019 Annual General meeting and elected a new and enlarged committee. In opening the meeting Convenor Paul Strickland joked “in a Trumpian manner” that it was one of the best attended such meetings VEFN has ever had. The meeting adopted the Committee’s Activity report which outlined a very [...]
We were on the steps of Victorian Parliament with Shane Howard and some 40 other groups to call on the Government to provide greater support for the Sate's special places. VEFN Convenor said (among other things) that "too often volunteers are picking up the slack when Governments fall short."
Join the VNPA, VEFN and other environment groups on Thursday 28 November in Melbourne to demand real action for nature! It is very clear from the current state of Victoria’s environment that bold action is needed by the Andrews Government to protect the places and wildlife we love – our National Parks, forests, rivers, beaches, oceans, native [...]
Parks Victoria is developing a state-wide Land Management Strategy "to guide and inform future planning and decision-making across the parks estate.” VEFN’s submission noted that while the document is described as mainly for internal use, it is proposed to underpin decision-making. It should therefore be applied transparently, that is, it must be accessible to the community so [...]