Mikla Lewis OAM was awarded the Wattle Day Award 2024 for her conservation work over the last 40 years.
The Golden Wattle Award is awarded annually by the Wattle Day Association to an individual who stands out in the community, either by actions or excellence, and has brought honour and inspiration to their fellow Australians.
Mikla Lewis said the award was a big surprise and was delighted to receive the recognition.
Ms Lewis said she would also like to thank the Wattle Dy Association for the award and for the wonderful job they do promoting wattles.
The award was presented at the Arboretum in Canberra by Dr Suzette Searle, President of the Wattle Day Association on August 31.
Latest Stories
Ms Lewis said she feels by accepting these awards she can inspire and educate other people, which is what she’s strived to do.
“Mikla’s support with workshops, surveys and field days is a real asset to Weddin Landcare. It’s great to see her work acknowledged with such an appropriate award,” Claire Diprose, Local Landcare Coordinator said.
“We are honoured to be part of the annual wattle walks Mikla initiated 13 years ago and to see her passion for wattles and conservation continue to be shared with so many.” Ms Diprose said.
“We had a great turn out at the Wattle Day event this year, with 30 attendees and next year is shaping up to be even better,” she added.
Ms Lewis said her interest in nature began when she was growing up near bushland in Sydney and going on bushwalks with her father and brother.
While she trained as a teacher, Ms Lewis said she spent most of her working life - and after - working with plants, animals and fungi whether that was through setting up various originations, working with organisations, working at botanic gardens and herbariums.
After moving to Grenfell, Ms Lewis said she always wanted to set up a nursery, initially on their property at Rosemont, but they didn’t have the water out there.
Ms Lewis was working for the Lachlan Catchment Management Authority at the time, and finally found the site for the nursery and helped get it up and running in 2010 - which has turned into the Weddin Community Native Nursery.
Ms Lewis said there was no real inspiration which initially got her into wattles, but when she and her husband moved to their property in 2002, they started planting it as it was originally a cropping and sheep farm.
“We just started planting and when you plant local natives it’s usually wattles and eucalypts, that’s what you can purchase,” she said.
They mostly planted wattles and eucalypts along with a few other natives.
Around the time, Ms Lewis said w learned a lot from Rainer Rehwinkel, a well known ecologist, and he helped to run the first two wattle days at Rosemont in 2010.
Over the last 20 years since beginning planting wattles and other native plants on the property, Ms Lewis said she has recorded over 141 species of birds visiting the area along with 11 species of frogs, 14 species of mammals, 24 species of reptiles and 26 species of butterflies.
The members of the Wattle Day Association are planning to come to Grenfell to celebrate Wattle Day next year.
This will include the launch of the Wattles of Weddin guidebook that Mikla is currently working on with Weddin Landcare.
The guidebook will detail the common Wattles found in Weddin and include flowering times, plus a map with the best places to see wattles in the region.
Weddin Landcare’s next event is Bird Bingo with Birding NSW at Company Dam on Sunday September 29.
Meeting at the carpark at 8:30am, attendees will play a round of bingo with the bird experts and first to mark off all their birds win a prize.
The winner will receive a birding identification book and bird attracting plant from the Weddin Community Native Nursery.
Let Claire know if you would like to attend at weddinlandcare1@outlook.com or 0421 716 170.
0 comment
JOIN THE CONVERSATION
Read and post comments with a
digital subscription.