EcoNetwork’s Annual General Meeting 2024
Hosted by the Hunter Region Botanic Gardens, it was wonderful to have EcoNetwork’s Annual General Meeting embedded within their Celebrating Birds event. We would like particularly like to thank Jeannie Lawson for making us and the Hunter Bird Observers Club, Birdlife Australia and Raymond Terrace Rotary feel so welcome.
It was interesting to hear Birdlife Australia say that almost 1 in 6 Australian birds are threatened with extinction and our birds are facing growing threats like climate change, fire, habitat loss and predation by introduced species.
Our guest speaker Francesca Beddie, editor of Australian Garden History presented on the topic of ‘Historic Gardens and climate change: where do we start?’ Click here to access her presentation.
Our President Iain Watt also took the opportunity to take a long term view of the state of the environmental movement and articulate how EcoNetwork’s contribution fits within a historical movement. His speech can be found here.
We also acknowledged the incredible contribution that Nigel Dique made to the EcoNetwork committee over so many years and we wished him well on his upcoming journey through the Back Roads of Australia. Thanks again Nigel.
Finally, Iain Watt, Sue Olsson, Alison Rogers, Nigel Waters and Brian Tehan welcomed new committee members Josephine O’Brien, Kim Scott and Bob Creese onto the committee.