| Dear HEN Members and Supporters, We hope you are all still managing to stay safe, happy and busy during COVID19 and all the trials that a pandemic brings! Hawkesbury Environment Network will be celebrating our 10th anniversary Saturday 24th October. We would love all current and past members and volunteers to join us. We hope to hold our AGM and Anniversary event at Earthcare Centre, UWS Richmond on that day with the theme “Self-Sufficiency in Isolation”. COVID rules state that sixteen people are permitted to be in the building for a meeting, so we hope to be able to have a webcast running as well. This should give our members the opportunity to join in without being present in person. Council is allowing people back to do volunteer work in the Hawkesbury as of last week, so some HEN members and others have attended the COVID and general WHS reminder training in person or via Zoom. If you would like to know more about this training, contact Patricia.SUNDIN@hawkesbury.nsw.gov.au Our watering stations for wildlife project is on hold at the moment and the components are stored at the Community Nursery. We should be able to get on with construction of these soon, I hope. Volunteers will be welcome to help. Don’t forget HEN now has an easy-to-see donate button on our website where you can make a contribution to all our work. HEN has been able to resume work recently at Pughs Lagoon on our Commonwealth Government grant from the Communities Environment Program. The project is “Valuing Our Wetlands – Smith Park Pughs Lagoon”. HEN is working in collaboration with Hawkesbury City Council, Ecotune (a small local bush regeneration company) and the Wetlands Working Group to achieve the outcomes for this grant. Please contact me at hen.org.au if you would like to be a volunteer on this project – weeding and planting new trees and grasses. HEN is continuing to support Koalas in 2020, working to raise awareness of the vital need for habitat protection of this iconic species which has been so devastated by fires this summer all across Australia. HEN continues to monitor progress on the Richmond Bridge duplication, the proposed raising of the Warragamba Dam wall, sand mining in and around the river, and PFAS contamination. Please visit our website (below) and look at HEN Facebook where many events show up. Keep in touch and encourage your friends to join up and be part of our campaigns! Remember to renew your membership each year and please attend our AGM either in person or via the webcast. Email me if you would like to attend – we will need your details to zoom you in. |
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HEN Newsletter April 2020
| Dear HEN Members and Supporters, We hope you are managing life under the new coronavirus lifestyle we have all needed to adopt over the last couple of months. Thank you to any members who are working in frontline jobs such medical and emergency services and all the other activities that keep our community going. Thank you especially to teachers and supermarket workers! There are many others we want to thank too. If you have children at home and are working with them on their education, we hope you are managing OK. Try to enjoy it and teach them some new skills too like crafts, gardening and cooking…. Check out our Facebook page and the Remakery hawkesburyremakery.com.au for crafty ideas for yourselves and the kids. If you live alone try to keep in touch with family and friends by phone, email, skype, etc. It can get lonely.. We now have all the materials needed to for the wildlife watering stations but construction is on hold until lock-down is over.. HEN’s Communities Environment grant – “Valuing Our Wetlands – Smith Park Pughs Lagoon” update: While we progressed with some initial planning in February we have had to put this work on hold until after the social distancing restrictions are lifted. Once things return to normal we will invite our members to be involved in weed removal and planting suitable wetland species. Our project also involves the production of some interpretive signage which seeks to tell the story of Pugh’s lagoon from environmental, cultural and historical perspectives. We are calling for participation from members who can contribute to this endeavour. HEN will again be supporting Koalas in 2020, working in collaboration with Cattai Hills Environment Network CHEN to hold an event to raise awareness of the vital need for habitat protection of this iconic species which has been so devastated by fires this summer all across Australia. Please visit our website (below) and look at HEN Facebook where many events show up. Keep in touch and encourage your friends to join up and be part of our campaigns! Remember to renew your membership each year! If any of you are having difficulties connected with the “lockdown” at this time or just want to make contact, please send us an email. Social/physical distancing means no face-to-face meetings for a while but we would like to keep in touch with all our members. Kind Regards, Courtney Jocelyn Christine Sharon |
HEN Newsletter June 2019
| Hello HEN Members and Supporters, A lot has been happening in the last two months. The HEN Committee is busy campaigning and working for the preservation of our precious Hawkesbury Environment. Two recent elections (State and Federal) have given HEN an opportunity to attend candidates forums in Richmond and Springwood to put the difficult questions about environmental protection to candidates in the State seat of Hawkesbury and the Federal seat of Macquarie. Both forums were well attended and HEN was able to attract some new members via our information stalls. After lots of behind-the scenes work from committee and community members and Hawkesbury City Council, the Reuse & Repair Online Directory has been launched. If you can you fix, mend, sew, or are you just an all-around handy person, you now have the opportunity to register with our brand new Reuse & Repair Online Directory created in partnership with our very own Hawkesbury City Council. It’s free for you to join and we will promote your repair services to local Hawkesbury residents. So if you are a local resident, business or organisation and you are good at fixing things please do register using the link provided. Our goal is to connect you to local residents, give broken items a second life and reduce waste going to our landfill. https://www.hawkesbury.nsw.gov.au/media/forms/hawkesbury-reuse-and-repair-directory The inaugural Hawkesbury “Green Drinks” was held at the end of May at the Macquarie Arms, Windsor. This is a social get-together for people who are interested in environmental protection and related community issues. The first Green Drinks hosted Carolyn Williams from the Blue Mountains Conservation Society who spoke about a very useful Blue Mountains tool kit for reporting and writing submissions about environmental changes that residents might want to encourage. The event was attended by over 30 interested people. HEN’s Submission to Hawkesbury Council regarding the proposed sandmine at Freeman’s Reach has been sent and we still await further news on this matter. After sending off a request for information and action regarding the health of Bushell’s Lagoon, HEN is still waiting for a response from government. Planning for KoalaFest 2019 is in the works and will go ahead again in early September in Governor Phillip Park, Windsor. Last year the very popular KoalaFest 2018 was held in Kurrajong Park. Any members or supporters of HEN who would like to help out with this year’s event or hold a stall, please contact info@hen.org.au We need all the help we can get! HEN is doing a call-out to members first. We need sustainable stalls as we wish to hold a zero-waste event. HEN is sorry to hear from Jim Watson that he will be leaving the Committee at the end of this financial year. Jim has been our treasurer for the last five years and has been a member of HEN for seven years. He has moved to the Blue Mountains and it’s a long way to come to meetings in Windsor! However, we all want to wish Jim all the best and thank him for his years of dedicated service to HEN and the Hawkesbury environment. As a not-for -profit organisation we depend on membership and donations to fund our on-going operating expenses. Funds are needed to maintain the website, our PO Box and other minor admin costs such as printing flyers for events. You are receiving this newsletter because at some time you have joined HEN or shown your support. We are most appreciative of those members who renew their membership annually (it’s easy via the website). Please visit our website (below) and look at HEN Facebook is where many events show up: The latest event which you can book via the FB page is the film 2040 which will show at Penrith Hoyts 1st July. Keep in touch and encourage your friends to join up and be part of our campaigns! We are really keen to attract new paying members to HEN. Our next Committee meeting will be held on Monday 17th June in the Windsor Library Rozzoli Room at 6.30 pm. Paid-up members of HEN are welcome to come along as observers to hear about upcoming events for 2019. Please let us know if you plan to come via info@hen.org.au |
| Kind Regards, Jocelyn Howden Vice Chair |
