About Our Group
The Blackwood Valley Small
Landholders Group Inc has now been in operation for about three and a half
years. Its membership covers about 170 properties and comprises about
50:50 full time residents and visiting owners, with properties in all of
the Shires of Bridgetown-Greenbushes, Boyup Brook, Donnybrook-Balingup,
Manjimup and Nannup and even as far as Dardanup.
Its main activities are
seminars, workshops and field days, and a highly regarded Newsletter
published each season of the year. With the addition of this web site we
will start building up a knowledge base from past Newsletters and other
sources.
The Group is highly responsive
to the needs of its members, who determine the content of the proposed
yearly program of events.
Probably the best way to
understand how the Group came about is to read parts of the Editorial from
the first Newsletter in Autumn 2000, which follows:
My Own Land
It started as an idea.
There are many small
landholders around here, ranging from less than an acre to mini-farms of
over a hundred hectares. Some come from generations of farmers, some are
novices (like me, your editor) who felt the need for a new lifestyle. Some
want to make their plot into a wildlife sanctuary, some look at it as a
commercial enterprise.
What we all have in common is
that we all own our own piece of earth and we don't fit into the
traditional farming pattern of large farms. We need to band together to
form our own group that is made up of small landholders to help people
like ourselves.
Last year (1999) such a group
began.
The first meeting was in
September when the founders from the York Small-Land group explained what
they had done and the ups and downs of running their organisation. It can
best be summarised as rewarding, productive and a lot of hard work.
The meeting then divided into
smaller groups to talk about their special areas of interest. It lead to
vigorous and enthusiastic discussions that covered a diversity of subjects
from starting co-operatives for niche growers to the best way of returning
your land to nature. The one thing that everyone agreed on was the need
for our own small landholders' group.
So we began.
Where do we go from here? That
is up to you. We have great plans but we need your support. The most
important thing you can do is to fill in the membership form and join our
group. We also need to know what you want from us
We hope to form a group to
learn from each other. Everybody has something of value to contribute. We
all have knowledge, experience and enthusiasm that we can share with each
other - by talking, writing an article or hosting a field day. To further
our knowledge we will have workshops. We can help you get the best out of
your piece of land. We can meet socially or bring people together who want
to form cooperative ventures. We can do almost anything, but we need your
help.
Join Now.
Marta Sandberg, Newsletter
Editor 2000
