In November, Indonesian ocean-climate advocate Brigitta Gunawan and British filmmaker Josh Clarke joined the Great Eastern Ranges as part of the DARWIN200 leadership programme and attended the Glideways project area in Kanangra-Boyd to Wyangala.
The two-year iconic DARWIN200 conservation mission aboard the historic Dutch tall ship Oosterschelde is retracing Charles Darwin’s voyage of the Beagle. While in Sydney, nine young conservationists took part in the DARWIN200 programme, joining conservation projects as Darwin Leaders. The aim is to inspire the next generation of environmental leaders with the message that there is still time to change the world and that conservation is about what we still have, not what we have lost.
Brigitta and Josh engaged in project work in areas across the K2W Link and learned about the partnerships involved in caring for the environment and working with the community to connect and protect landscapes. They commenced their journey through the K2W corridor, setting off from the path once travelled by Charles Darwin through the Blue Mountains. Along the way, they met with Traditional Custodians. Their journey continued toward Wombeyan Karst Conservation Reserve, where they met with ecologists trialing thermal drones to survey for gliding possums, and other arboreal mammals, as well as helping and installing nest boxes.
To wrap up the trip, the Darwin Leaders joined twenty-five local high school students who study agriculture and their teachers in planting native trees and shrubs at Garry Kadwell’s property. Garry has dedicated 40% of his agricultural property to conservation efforts while maintaining a highly productive agricultural business. The volunteers planted a range of species, including Eucalyptus, Acacia, Leprospermum and Callistemon, to restore and connect habitat for forest-dependant wildlife.
