Green honour

By Russell Bennett
MACCLESFIELD woman Irene Pearey’s work on rabbit control, ragwort eradication and protecting the helmeted honeyeater population has earned her the prized 2012 Yarra Ranges Council Environmental Achiever of the Year award.
Ms Pearey, however, refuses to be singled-out from the hard-working team of her beloved Macclesfield Landcare Group.
She was presented her award at the shire’s Australia Day awards ceremony at Burrinja in Upwey, but said: “There were several other people equally as worthy”.
Ms Pearey said speeches from the ceremony’s other award winners, including Young Environmental Achiever of the Year, Sassafras teen Jordan Crook, would inspire people to bigger and greater things.
“I’m just really proud to be an environmental volunteer, helping to protect the future of this place,” she said.
“It’s a wonderful place to be.”
Ms Pearey is a past president and secretary, and the current treasurer of the Macclesfield Landcare Group.
She has led the way on the local rabbit control program.
“Our initial aim in 2010 was to educate local people on the problem,” she said.
“Around 100 people filled the Macclesfield hall for a community meeting on it.
Hills rabbits are not the fluffy and cuddly animals in nursery rhymes. Ms Pearey said if locals did not get on top of the situation, the pests would continue to harm local pasture and undermine structures including water tanks.
Ms Pearey has started recruiting for a local rabbit action croup to work on clusters of properties at a time, but said the difficulty in attracting funding for rabbit control programs was a constant bugbear.
“A lot of it is short-term,” she said.
“We need to keep finding ways of keeping it going because it must be ongoing.”
Ms Pearey, now 64, became involved with Macclesfield Landcare with her late husband in 1997 after reading a community leaflet.
The former computer consultant had always been environmentally-focused and had professional experience in project management that she thought would prove valuable to the group.
She has been involved with local revegetation work since 1997, and in 2003 became a volunteer with the Yellingbo-based Friends of the Helmeted Honeyeater.
She said all the environmental work she was involved in was a true community effort, “environment groups combining and tackling issues together”.
And Macclesfield Landcare is looking outside the square to bring new members into its fold.
Ms Pearey said the group would hold a Landcare for Singles event – a way of combining matchmaking and caring for the environment.
“We have planting days at Birdsland Reserve , with the 18 to 30-year-olds and the 40-plus year olds all attending,” she said.
“There will be more to come on Valentine’s Day.”