Landcare in Lake Macquarie is a partnership between Lake Macquarie City Council, the Lake Macquarie Landcare Volunteer Network Incorporated and Landcare groups actively involved in natural area management. Because of this unique partnership, support for groups is available through a number of mechanisms:
1. The Landcare office, through support from Lake Macquarie City Council, can provide resources for Landcare groups upon receipt of a resource request and the approval of the Landcare Coordinator.
2. External grants can provide funding from a variety of Government and business programs. Each grant program is different with some only available to Incorporated community groups and/ or Local Government Authorities. For most of these situations, the Landcare group is the applicant and the Council is the sponsor/ administrator of the grant. This is the preferable arrangement for grants that involve works on Council land. Where grants are only open to Incorporated community groups the Lake Macquarie Landcare Volunteer Network can be the sponsoring organisation. The Landcare office supports these arrangements, providing assistance with applications, securing the permission of the landholder, and financial and project management.
Currently open grant programs are promoted through our news page.
Landcare groups in Lake Macquarie wishing to apply for funds should first contact the Landcare office on 4921 0392. The Grants Officer can then assist you in deciding which funding mechanism is most appropriate and let you know what grant opportunities are currently available or likely to open soon. It is useful if you have a good idea of what your proposed project will involve at this stage. Remember, there are a number of steps that you will need to go through when applying for a grant but that Lake Macquarie Landcare can assist you with these.
The steps are: