In 2025, national organisation Intrepid Landcare celebrates ten wonderful years of environmental activity across Australia. Born out of seeing a need to reach out to a broader network of 18 – 35year olds across the nation and those who had not yet found their way into landcare, it took two innovative leaders within that age group, to be the ones to say:
“Okay – let’s do this – let’s empower others like us to act and lead with landcare in their communities”.
Megan Lee and Naomi Edwards, were participating with landcare in their communities and observed there was a missing age cohort of participants. They came together to run a ‘leadership retreat for students’ to inspire the students whilst also finding out how they wished to engage with landcare. Megan and Naomi’s enthusiasm and openness to listening to how younger adults wanted to participate, provided them with a wide insight as to how others wished to engage with landcare. With landcare as the central platform, there was a clear message – many wanted to take part in a different way, a way that had other benefits to match connecting interests.
From this, a new wave of enthusiasts was created. This wasn’t just going to be any ordinary landcare group – this new engagement would come with a reset to connect and empower younger people to do the ‘stuff that mattered to them’.
By offering adventure, skills development which could lead to employment, social connections, and the opportunity to feel inspired, this new model of engagement was an ideal fit and turned out to be very effective and over the 10 years has attracted and inspired thousands of young adults from right across Australia.
Led by young adults for young adults, Intrepid Landcare has supported younger people to develop confidence and networks within the landcare community and beyond, helping to ease feelings of isolation, eco-anxiety, and the challenge of finding opportunities to get involved. By fostering a supportive and inclusive space, it has empowered young adults to take meaningful environmental action, gain employment, make life-long friends and rediscover their innate passion to care for our country. All of this while connecting with and learning from the existing knowledgebase in communities to help bridge the generational gap in landcare.
As the years rolled on, Megan and Naomi’s start-up took off and Intrepid Landcare was being explored and joined by many individuals and collectives across Australia.
Over the last decade, the group has assisted over 80 different Landcare, Bushcare and other conservation organisations. Adventures have been shared learning about the environment, conservation, Indigenous knowledge, and culture.
Intrepid Landcare’s refreshed environmental-people approach was an idea of its time and through support and award-winning recognition, is one of the major showcases of landcare action being enjoyed across the nation. Additionally, the founders themselves went on to additional avenues of endeavour while remaining very active with landcare. They ensured that they passed on the baton to new community leaders within Intrepid Landcare.
Current Chair Annette Cavanagh and others in the leadership team are keen to see where the Intrepid Landcare journey travels to over the next 10 years – finding new participants who wish to engage and be part of something very special, being of paramount importance.
In the spirit of the founders, Annette says in her way of ‘Okay Let’s do this’, that ‘if others have something they want to share on Intrepid Landcare socials, with environmental activities’ – then “just give us a holler”.
Find out more about Intrepid Landcare by visiting the website: https://intrepidlandcare.org/.
Keep an eye on the Intrepid Landcare Facebook, Instagram and X pages to find opportunities to lend a hand and spend a fun weekend.