By Callum Ludwig
The Friends of Wanderslore are inviting the community to join them in celebrating a significant milestone later this month.
On Sunday 27 October, the Friends of Wanderslore alongside Trust for Nature will be holding a Wanderslore Sanctuary Open Day to mark 30 years of the Friends group.
Gwyn Davies of the Friends of Wanderslore said they have had the honour and privilege of working to look after Wanderslore Sanctuary for over 30 years.
“We are especially proud of founding ‘Friend’, Geoff Durham OAM, it is thanks to Geoff that Constance Coleman found a way of permanently securing this magnificent property for posterity, by gifting it to the Victorian Conservation Trust, now Trust for Nature, in 1987,” she said.
“Since then, Geoff has guided the Friends in their care of the property, contributing his wealth of bushcare knowledge, and documenting the changes that have occurred over time.”
The event will feature an exhibition of the artwork of Wanderslore’s original owner Constance ‘Connie’ Coleman which has just had a significance assessment completed as well as a discussion of Trust for Nature’s work at Wanderslore and the ecological significance the sanctuary and its surrounds in the Yering Gorge to Yarra Junction catchment hold. There will also be opportunities to enjoy guided and self-guided walks, a BBQ, tea and coffee, live music and a raffle.
Ms Davies said the just-completed significance assessment project involved the examination of the heritage values of the collection of artworks and historical items left at Wanderslore or gifted back by Constance’s family after her death
“This project has been of great benefit to all parties: the Friends group, Trust for Nature, and the community, significance assessor Melinda Mockridge has found that these items support Victorian significance at a local and a regional level, and some material relating to her father William Coleman, scenic painter for JC Williamson, has national significance,” she said.
“We are delighted to be able to showcase some of Constance’s beautiful, expressive oil and watercolour paintings in an exhibition in her original studio at Wanderslore on Open Day.”
The event is entry by gold donation, with attendees encouraged to wear suitable clothing and closed footwear for walking in the bush in the Sanctuary as most tracks are sloping or stepped and can be slippery.
Ms Davies said the arrival of the significance assessment report has provided the Trust with a great opportunity to showcase their work in the Yarra Valley, and to encourage more landholders to place covenants on their bushland properties, to ensure they are never cleared, or developed.
“The Friends are very happy to share the offerings of the day with the Trust for Nature whose staff have taken much of the weight of organising from the shoulders of the small group of Friends,” she said.
“The Trust, recognising that cultural heritage and natural heritage go hand in hand, has been very supportive in our endeavours to help bring Constance and her conservation work and art work into the public eye, and to ensure that this Constance Coleman Collection of artworks, artefacts and archives will be preserved, accessible, and enjoyed by many into the future,”
“Constance is well-remembered with affection and respect by a few senior folk in the local
Community, we’d like to think that she will now never be forgotten, and will continue to inspire
people to appreciate and care for bushland, helping to maintain its diversity of plant and animal
communities through care, conservation and covenanting.”
Wanderslore Snactuary is located at 2180 Warburton Highway, Launching Place. To park, yurn off Warburton Highway between the Home Hotel car park and the old General Store and park behind the old General Store, then walk up by following the signs to the reserve entrance (five minute walk uphill).
Trust for Nature’s South Central Area Manager Ben Cullen said the event is a great chance to open up this reserve to the public.
“The Friends have done so much in getting the reserve to such a state that it’s in fantastic ecological condition and it’s one of those rare opportunities for people to just come out, enjoy the bush, hear from some experts out on-site and learn more about the nature that occurs probably in your backyard,” he said.
“It’s been a great space for us to be able to try and demonstrate best practice of conservation, nature conservation, this site’s involved in a lot of weeding, a lot of monitoring and a lot of efforts to sort of encourage threatened and rare species to utilise the site,”
“This site’s really valuable in the context of creating a greater buffer to the Yarra, it’s not too far from some sites like Haining Farm and other areas that are being seen as really important conduits for allowing wildlife to move through the landscape, develop genetic diversity and make safe spaces where plants and animals can occur and we know that they’ll be protected forever.”
