On Saturday 27th April 2024, Greater Sydney Landcare teamed up with Wollondilly Shire Council to hold a community planting event along Stonequarry Creek in Picton.
Around 20 volunteers joined us to help put 500 plants into the ground to restore riverine habitat and catchment land—a number which quickly increased to 700 thanks to the volunteers’ fantastic efforts.
Restoring Catchment & Community Resilience in the Wollondilly
This event was held as part of a new catchment restoration project supported through a partnership between the Great Eastern Ranges and Amazon Web Services.
The two-year project, ‘Restoring Catchment & Community Resilience’, aims to restore catchment land in key locations in the Wollondilly Shire to improve water yield and quality, boost biodiversity and enhance the resilience of local communities to the impacts of climate change.
As part of the project, Greater Sydney Landcare is engaging local landholders, community groups and local government to improve, expand and reconnect habitats for local wildlife and manage key threats that suppress natural regeneration and reduce water quality and output.
Adding native groundcovers will help stabilise the area around Stonequarry Creek and improve its resilience against future flooding events. Photo: Judy Hannan, MP. 
Adding native groundcovers will help stabilise the area around Stonequarry Creek and improve its resilience against future flooding events. Photo: Judy Hannan, MP. 
Adding native groundcovers will help stabilise the area around Stonequarry Creek and improve its resilience against future flooding events. Photo: Judy Hannan, MP.
Increasing the Resilience of Stonequarry Creek
The Stonequarry Creek site was impacted by recurring floods over six months in 2022, with floodwaters eroding streambanks and increasing sedimentation.
This planting is part of work to improve and maintain the critical wetland habitat through weed control, infill plantings with flood-tolerant ground covers and re-mulching.
Ultimately this work will support creek bank soil stability and increase resilience to mitigate flooding impacts further downstream.
The volunteers did such a fantastic job that more plants were brought from the Nursery for them to install than was originally planned. Photo: Judy Hannan, MP. 
The volunteers did such a fantastic job that more plants were brought from the Nursery for them to install than was originally planned. Photo: Judy Hannan, MP. 
The volunteers did such a fantastic job that more plants were brought from the Nursery for them to install than was originally planned. Photo: Judy Hannan, MP.
Stronger Together
Judy Hannan, MP, the Member for Wollondilly, attended and planted with us on the day.
Mrs Hannan said, “When this area floods, we need native ground covers near the creek system. What the native grasses do is they hold it together and they don’t break when they bend in the wind and wet conditions, if the water does come over, whereas all those exotic grasses and shrubs die.”
“These plants should be more resilient in a flood situation and will regenerate and grow back very quickly. The soil and the drainage will be better and we all know the more flood mitigation we can do, the better the regeneration. Already 500 plants have gone in by 10 am this morning and the team have headed back to the Nursery to get more trays of natives making it 700 for this planting session.”
Thank you to all who made this day possible and to all our fantastic volunteers who planted on the day.
