Clothing and toy swap (7 April)

Refresh your child's wardrobe and toys for FREE at the upcoming Children’s Clothing and Toy Swap event.  

Parents/guardians of children aged 3-8 years, simply need to bring up to 6 good-quality pre-washed items of clothing and/or 6 good-quality toys to the event.

These are then traded in for tokens to use as ‘currency’ for other clothes and toys. 

Date: Sunday 7 April
Time: 10am – 11:30am
Location: Beaconsfield Community Complex (8 O’Neil Rd, Beaconsfield)

Participants need to register for this event. To allow more children to attend the event, only one parent/guardian per family please.

Keep an eye on Council's website for more workshops. 
www.cardinia.vic.gov.au/wasteworkshops

Detox your home drop off (20 April)

Safely and easily dispose of your unwanted household chemicals without harming the environment with Detox Your Home. 

This includes most chemicals used in the bathroom, laundry, kitchen, shed, garage or garden.

Chemicals collected on the day are safely sorted and transported to a specialist waste treatment facility. Where possible, chemicals are recycled or used for other purposes such as energy recovery.  

Date: Sunday 20 April
Time: 9am – 2pm
Location: Council depot, 18 Purton Road, Pakenham

Detox your Home events are delivered in partnership with Sustainability Victoria.

DrumMuster drop off (20 April)

DrumMuster provides free recycling opportunities for eligible, cleaned agvet chemical containers.

Date: Sunday 20 April
Time: 9am – 12pm (midday)
Location: Council depot, 18 Purton Road, Pakenham
No registration required

DrumMuster is funded by Agsafe and supported by Council.

More drop off events: Waste drop-off days - Cardinia Shire Council

Australian Hertiage Festival at Emerald Museum

The National Trust of Australia’s Australian Heritage Festival is back for 2024, and it’s calling in at the Emerald Museum! Join us for a celebration of local history, culture, and community spirit with our free activities in May.

Public digitisation day (1 May)

Mark your calendars for Wednesday 1 May as we kick off with our public digitisation day. This is your opportunity to bring in one of your sentimental, three-dimensional treasures to be photographed by the museum team. Whether it’s a family heirloom, an antique, or a meaningful keepsake, we’ll transform it into archival-quality digital photo files for you to keep.

Bookings are essential!

Nobelius Hertiage Park guided walking tour (5 May)

There’s more! On Sunday 5 May, lace up your walking shoes and traverse centuries of horticultural history on our Nobelius Heritage Park Guided Walking Tour. We’ll also have free kids' activities, plus arts and crafts to keep the whole family entertained.

The museum’s doors will be open on both days, welcoming one and all to explore our displays and delve into the stories that have shaped Emerald and surrounding districts.

Emerald Museum
5 Crichton Road, Emerald, VIC 3782
Wednesday 1 May: 10am – 3pm
Sunday 5 May: 12 – 4pm

Keep an eye on the museum's what's on page on website for future events.

CEC Indigenous plant nursery open days

The Cardinia Environment Coalition Indigenous plant nursery is open every Friday 9am-12pm, plus the following Saturdays:

• Saturday 6 April
• Saturday 4 May
• Saturday 1 June

Do you have a Council Indigenous plant voucher? If so, head down, redeem your voucher for your autumn and winter planting.

CEC Indigenous plant nursery
Deep Creek Reserve
End of Cameron Way, Pakenham
Open: Fridays 9am – 12pm (midday)
CEC Nursery – Cardinia Environment Coalition

Can anyone find me some-bat-y to love?

International Bat Appreciation Day is 17 April, a day to celebrate these wondrous creatures and learn more about the vital role bats play in nature.

Cardinia Shire is home to 9 different species of bats, predominately microbats. Microbats feed on insects and can eat around 40% of their body weight every night. Nature’s best pest controllers!

Go batty and support bat conservation
Living in the shire you might be lucky enough to spot the vulnerable grey-headed flying fox, but their numbers are in decline because of habitat clearing. These bats are pollinators and disperse seeds of many tree species, keeping our forest ecosystems healthy.

What can YOU do to help?

• Encourage flying foxes to come into your backyard by planting lillypillies, small flowering gums and banksias or install a ‘bat box’ (nest box) in your garden.
• Then give yourself a 'bat' on the back!

For more information about bats, tree species and nest boxes check out Council's website www.cardinia.vic.gov.au/gardensforwildlife

Are you a budding scientist?

Calling all budding scientists and nature lovers! All you need is a smartphone and an app such as iNaturalist and you can become a citizen scientist.

What is citizen science? It is getting outdoors, gathering data about wildlife and nature around you and sharing it. No matter who you are or where you live.

Not sure where to start?

• Check out Cardinia Outdoors to find one of our many unique natural reserves
• Find out how to download and use inaturalist

All observations help Council and the community to better understand our environment and support the valuable work of our Friends groups. 

Council’s Bioink plan has a list of ‘indicator’ species to survey to help Council better understand the health of our natural environment (see page 15 of the plan).

Citizen science is a powerful tool to better understand our natural world, check out this article for more information The Conversation.

Congratulations to Western Port Biosphere

Western Port's recognition as a site of international environmental significance was once again confirmed following recertification as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve.

The Western Port Biosphere Reserve is one of only five biosphere regions in Australia and plays an important role in balancing the environmental, recreational and agricultural values of the surround and developing communities.

For more information check out the Western Port Biosphere’s website.

Deep Creek Reserve - new educational material

Thanks to funding from the Australian Government’s Local Roads and Community Infrastructure program, Council has been able to install new entry signs, maps and way finding signage.

The new interpretation elements include:

• Is it a bird? Is it a plane? NO! It is an eco-building – this interactive element allows visitors to discover many of the sustainable initiatives that have been used in the construction and operation of the building.
• What is in a name? – located in front of the tadpole artwork, at the front of the building, includes the significance of the reserves to the Bunurong people and where the ‘Deep Creek Reserve’ name came from.
• Café signage – what Council is doing and what you can do to help our environment.

The site maps and wayfinding signage will help visitors easily navigate around the reserve and to ‘choose their own adventure’.

A big thank you to Heather Kennedy, a Bunurong artist, who painted a picture for the project, and you will find elements of the image on the entry sign and ‘what’s in a name’ sign.

Deep Creek Reserve | Pakenham – Cardinia Outdoors

Have your say on Council's Environmentally Sustainable Development (ESD) local policy

Council is proposing to introduce an Environmentally Sustainable Development (ESD) local policy into the Cardinia Shire Planning Scheme, known as Amendment C278card.

The Cardinia Planning Scheme will be amended to ensure that new developments achieve best practice in environmental sustainability from their design stage through to construction and operation.

Through this proposed Planning Scheme Amendment, Cardinia Shire joins over 20 other councils across Victoria that have implemented a local ESD Policy to protect our environment, secure today’s living standards and future-proof our communities against rising energy, water and waste disposal costs.

Anyone with an interest in Cardinia Planning Scheme amendment C278card can find more information and make a submission on the planning scheme amendment at Council’s website at www.cardinia.vic.gov.au/haveyoursay 

Submissions on the planning scheme amendment must be received at Council by 5pm on Monday 8 April 2024.

Heritage grant case study: St John’s Church of England

The Cardinia Shire Heritage Grant will open on Monday 8 April for new applications for 2024!  The grant can be used for both private and public heritage places that have a Heritage Overlay in the Cardinia Shire Planning Scheme.

A diversity of applications were successful in receiving funding last year including St John’s Church of England in Nar Nar Goon.

The project involved the replacement of the existing chain mesh fence and two gates at the front of St Johns Church, which were showing signs of decay and in poor condition making the fence unsafe. The proposal was to design and build a new fence and gates in a suitable heritage style.

The Church is deemed significant and protected by a Heritage Overlay due to its connection to the early European settlement of the Nar Nar Goon area, some of the first families who settled in the area built and attended St Johns. St Johns was, and remains, an integral part of the Nar Nar Goon locality.

With funding from Council’s Heritage Grant program, the Parish has been able to help maintain the heritage appearance of the church and its surrounds.

Soft plastics update

The Soft Plastics Taskforce have launched a soft plastics recycling trial at 12 Melbourne supermarkets.

This trial is an important first step in testing the emerging soft plastic recycling industry since the collapse of REDcycle in 2022 to ensure the model works on a small scale before working towards a national industry-wide solution.

For more information please visit: https://wastemanagementreview.com.au/soft-plastics-recycling-trial-starts-in-12-melbourne-suburbs/

Amazing community effort at Clean Up Australia Day!

Australia’s largest volunteer-based environmental clean-up event saw over 10,000 clean-ups taking place across the nation. In Cardinia Shire, 41 registered clean-up events were organised with over 200 volunteers cleaning up their local community and the environment. Some clean-up events were attended by our Councillors who contributed to the success of the Clean Up event.

Out of 41 registered sites, 23 school groups, 2 business groups, and 16 community groups organised events and Council helped 17 groups dispose of collected waste.

Soft plastic pieces, cigarette butts, vapes and single-use plastic beverage bottles were amongst the commonly reported items collected by volunteers. Other bulky items such as tyres, bikes, a lawn mower, green waste, timber etc. were also collected and removed from the local environment.

Council would like to thank all participants for their outstanding effort cleaning up our parks and natural areas.

Don’t wait until next year to get involved, register a clean-up event any time of year at www.cleanup.org.au and contact Council to help with rubbish removal!

Raingardens at Deep Creek Reserve

Along with the new interpretation and wayfinding signage at Deep Creek Reserve, Council has funded and installed 2 new raingardens next to the building that demonstrate a small-scale example of how a wetland works to naturally filter stormwater.

An interpretation sign has also been installed next to the raingarden closest to the main entry door to explain how a raingarden works.

A raingarden is a great project that you could install at home to improve water quality going into the storm water system and provide habitat, attracting wildlife to your garden.

How a raingarden works

Water tanks for Beaconsfield Community Complex.

Two 5,000 liter rainwater tanks have been installed at the Beaconsfield Community Complex, along with a more water efficient urinal flushing system. The rainwater will be used for toilet flushing and irrigation.

It is estimated the rainwater harvesting system will save approximately 140,000 litres of potable water per year. The system will also improve stormwater quality, acting as a filter before any overflow is discharged to stormwater.

2024 Cardinia Community Leadership Program

Applications for the 2024 Cardinia Community Leadership Program are now open and will close midnight, Sunday 7 April 2024. The Cardinia Community Leadership Program is fully funded by Cardinia Shire Council.

Up to 22 participants will be accepted into the program in 2024. Eligible applicants are:

• aged 18 years and over
• living in Cardinia Shire
• already be involved in the local community in some way
• expected to be able to attend all program sessions, which run from May to October at various locations across Cardinia Shire.

The program, now in its seventh year, is designed to build and strengthen the community leadership capacities and skills of existing and emerging community leaders.

The program has a unique curriculum that enables participants to learn more about themselves, others, and their community in their pursuit to lead more effectively. 

The communities in which program graduates live and lead benefit from having stronger, more connected, and effective leaders who help to build a vibrant and thriving place to live, work, and play.

Applicants should review the information available on Council’s website, including the FAQs, to ensure they are eligible and able to commit to the program requirements.

Grow art exhibition: entries now open

Help design the future of food through art and be in the running to win a share of $800 in prizes.

School students across Cardinia Shire are invited to participate in the 2024 Grow exhibition at Cardinia Cultural Centre. Entries are now open!

Special interest groups, classes and teams are being challenged to create artworks aligning to the theme ‘Creating a sustainable, cutting-edge farming and food sector’. The theme incorporates the growing need for advancements in technology and creative solutions to feed our future generations amidst climate change and population growth.

How schools can participate:

• Create visual artworks aligned to the theme of ‘Creating a sustainable, cutting-edge farming and food sector’ (sculptures are preferred, paintings and collage also accepted)
• Up to 5 artworks can be submitted per school.
• Submit artworks at Cardinia Cultural Centre (40 Lakeside Blvd, Pakenham) on Monday, 15 July or Tuesday, 16 July 2024 between 9:00am and 4:30pm.

People's Choice Winners will be awarded across four categories on 23 August 2024 at the Exhibition Event.