Jena Carr
Friends of the Bluff (FoB) is celebrating 30 years of environmental management and doesn’t plan to stop anytime soon.
FoB is an environmental group that provides support, education, awareness and publicity for the physical regeneration of the Barwon Heads Bluff area’s natural vegetation and habitat.
Founding member and president Jon Duthie said FoB started as a group of friends who wanted to help revegetate the Bluff.
“The FoB was actually formed by a remarkable yet crazy woman called Bev Wood around 1994,” he said.
“We started working with bees, removing weeds, monitoring, taking photographs, counting plants, and working out what plants were here. Then, it progressed to become an education and interpretation group.
“Now, sitting up on the Bluff and seeing how much revegetation has come back and the signage and the pathways and everything that we’ve worked really hard for, it’s very pleasing and satisfying.”
Mr Duthie said he loved meeting and learning from many “extraordinary people” over the years and looked forward to working on future projects.
“I’ve got to hang out with some fantastic people. There’s regular volunteers, marine biologists, horticulturalists, bird watchers, plant people and scientists,” he said.
“We’re working on our second Barwon Heads Nature Festival, which will happen in late September. We started that last year, and we’re going to try to make it bigger and better this year.
“We’re constantly trying to get information out to people and teach people about the importance and significance of our local environment.”
Visit barwonbluff.com.au for more information about FoB.
