On Wednesday 3 September 2025, Greater Sydney Landcare partnered with Hawkesbury Riding Club (HRD) once again to host a community tree planting at the Sheep Dog Trialing Club, which is within the HRC grounds. This is the fourth planting weโve supported at the HRC, as part of our Creating Canopies project to plant 300,000 native trees and shrubs across Greater Sydney (2020-2025) to reduce urban heat.
The event brought together 15 volunteersโfrom locals to visitors from the inner cityโto help transform the site. Together, with guidance from the Greater Sydney Landcare team, the group planted 264 native trees and shrubs, mulched, guarded and watered them in. Their work laid strong foundations for a thriving, cooler, and more wildlife-friendly environment.
Working Together for Lasting Change
Creating Canopies is more than just tree planting in Sydney. Greater Sydney Landcare coordinated the event, bringing tools, expertise, and extra hands to support the Riding Clubโs vision for a greener, healthier site. The club will continue to care for the young trees, ensuring long-term benefits for people, horses, and native wildlife.
The planting included canopy trees for future shade, as well as mid-storey shrubs that provide essential habitat for small birds. Guards were installed to protect the young plants from browsing animals, helping them get established in their new home.
Native Plants for Wildlife and People
The volunteers planted a rich variety of species, including gum trees, paperbarks, teatrees, kurrajong, banksias, wattles, bottlebrush, Australian indigo, Hop bush and Rice flower. Larger canopy trees were placed around the sheep dog trial paddock to create much-needed shade, while flowering shrubs will attract birds, pollinators, and other native fauna.
This patch of land already supports Red-bellied Black Snakes, Blue-tongue Lizards, Willy Wagtails, and the Nankeen Kestrelโone of Australiaโs smallest falcons. As the plants mature, they will increase biodiversity in Greater Sydney and provide more food and shelter for these species.
Volunteers Making a Difference
For the volunteers, the day was a chance to connect, learn, and contribute, as well as give back to nature. Feedback from participants highlighted how rewarding it was to gain new knowledge about native species, biodiversity, and tree care while working alongside others. Many described the event as productive, relaxing and social.
Shared moments, including lunch together after the planting, fostered a sense of community and connection to the land.
A Visionary Leading the Way
Much of the transformation at the Riding Club is thanks to long-time member and environmental advocate Marguerite McKeown. Over the past seven years, Marguerite has driven the clubโs greening journeyโorganising over a thousand trees to be planted, advocating tirelessly with committees, and even watering young trees through hot summers to ensure their survival.
Her efforts have already attracted new birdlife to the grounds and made the once windswept site more comfortable for riders and animals alike. In recognition of her work, she was named a joint winner of the Greater Sydney Region Individual Landcarer Award in 2025.
Growing Canopies, Growing Communities
The success at Hawkesbury Riding Club shows whatโs possible when community vision meets Landcare support. By coordinating resources, expertise, and volunteers, Greater Sydney Landcare helps local groups achieve lasting environmental change. The benefits extend beyond the grounds themselvesโcooler spaces, richer biodiversity, and stronger community connections. As the trees grow, they will provide shade, habitat, and beauty for years to come, a living legacy of collaboration and care.
These kinds of Landcare projects in Sydney deliver lasting benefitsโthey build resilience, reduce urban heat in Sydney, and support the work of local environmental groups across the region.
Stronger Together
Thank you to Hawkesbury Riding Club for volunteering their property for increased canopy cover, and thank you to the awesome volunteers who joined us to plant.
Volunteer for Bushcare in the Hawkesbury
If youโd like to contribute to environmental efforts in the Hawkesbury LGA, you can become a Bushcare volunteer and regenerate bushland. No experience is necessary as training is provided.
Get Involved in Creating Canopies
If youโd like to find out how to get free trees planted on your land, visit our Register Your Site for Trees page.
Come along and plant trees with Creating Canopies. Find out what events we have coming up on Greater Sydney Landcareโs Eventbrite page.
Find out more about Corporate Volunteering with Greater Sydney Landcare here. Be sure to download our Corporate Volunteering Info Pack.
About Creating Canopies
Landcare NSW and Greater Sydney Landcare are planting 200,000 trees as part of the Greening our City program to help reduce urban heat in Greater Sydney. Proudly funded by the NSW Government.
