Friends of the Colo Incorporated
Friends of the Colo Inc is an organisation of conservation volunteers in New South Wales. First established as an association of national park volunteers on 5 June 2000, it incorporated under the NSW Associations Incorporation Act 1984 on 28 November 2001.[1][2][3]
Objectives
[edit]Friends of the Colo aims to protect the natural values of the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area and other natural areas in NSW by controlling invasive weeds in remote areas. The primary focus is the catchment of the Colo River, within the BlueMountains and Wollemi National Parks and Wollemi Wilderness. The Colo River, together with its major tributaries the Capertee, Wolgan and Wollangambe Rivers, and Wollemi Creek, is a declared Wild River[4] under the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Act.[5]
Description
[edit]Friends of the Colo may be Australia’s first self-managing volunteer group specialising in remote-area conservation. Members are experienced bushwalkers, kayakers or rafters, and combine adventure with bushcare. In doing so they undertake conservation work that is beyond the normal resources of the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) and other agencies. Their activity is described as “adventure conservation”.[6]
History
[edit]The organisation was first established to eradicate thousands of invasive black willow (Salix nigra), a Weed of National Significance, from the sixty-kilometre wild gorge of the Colo River. This activity was known as “Willows out of Wollemi” or “WOW”. The members operated as volunteers for the NPWS, which facilitated the organisation’s formation. They travelled down the river on rafts, having accessed the gorge by helicopter or challenging bushwalks.[7][8]
The willows were successfully eradicated after several years of intensive activities funded by grants from the NSW Environmental Trust, and further supported by the Penrith Whitewater Stadium, Paddle Sports Australia[9] and others. Additional funds were raised by a plant nursery which Friends of the Colo operated for six years, growing long-stem tube stock plants of local provenance.[3]
In 2003 the success of the program prompted the organisation to affiliate with Landcare NSW. This enabled it, if invited, to work on private and public lands outside national parks. Community awareness strategies were employed to educate landholders about the seriousness of black willow. By 2006 the group had controlled the black willows in the entire Colo catchment and has an ongoing monitoring program.
In 2005 some Friends of the Colo members established a sister organisation, Willow Warriors, to take the skills and equipment acquired in the WOW program to map and control invasive willows on other NSW rivers with a focus on protecting National Park Estate.[10] In 2007 other members established Wildcare SPRATS, a successful volunteer program in Tasmania.[11]
In the course of the work in the Wollemi National Park, Friends of the Colo became aware that a number of other serious weed species were invading the wilderness. These included tree of heaven (Ailanthus altissima), cape ivy (Delairea odorata), honey locust (Gleditsia triacanthos), lantana (Lantana camara), tobacco tree (Solanum mauritianum) and moth vine (Araujia sericifera). With the willows removed, strategic attention was turned to those other weeds. In 2009 a biannual week-long walk named the Colo Colossus was introduced, targeting weeds along the Wolgan and Capertee Rivers as well as the Colo River.[3]
Friends of the Colo ceased to be a Landcare group in 2023. However, its work continued in national parks under the auspices of NPWS. Each year about ten activities are conducted on the Colo River and its tributaries, with durations of two days to a week. Most activities involve remote-area bushwalking, while some also involve packrafts.
In addition, packraft-based remote weeding activities are conducted on other rivers, including the Shoalhaven River within Morton National Park. Other weed work is carried out in Capertee National Park.
Achievements and awards
[edit]By its twentieth anniversary in 2020, Friends of the Colo had contributed some 7500 volunteer person-days to the environment, and had engaged about 200 individual volunteers. Considerable success had been achieved in the removal of the target weed species from the Wollemi Wilderness, though the work was ongoing.[3]
The organisation’s efforts had been recognised by several awards, most notably the NSW Heritage Volunteer Award in 2008.2 In 2015 it was a finalist in the NSW/ACT Regional Achievement and Community Awards.[12]
References
[edit]- ^ "View - NSW legislation". legislation.nsw.gov.au. Retrieved 2025-06-11.
- ^ Incorporation Number INC9876957
- ^ a b c d "Twenty years of adventure conservation 2000-2020". Trove. Retrieved 2025-06-11.
- ^ "Wild rivers | Protected areas". Environment and Heritage. 2023-11-01. Retrieved 2025-06-11.
- ^ "View - NSW legislation". legislation.nsw.gov.au. Retrieved 2025-06-11.
- ^ roslawrence (2021-09-05). "Conservation Kayaking and Community Partnerships". PaddleNSW. Retrieved 2025-06-11.
- ^ "Killers stalking stranglers in Colo's deep canyons". The Sydney Morning Herald. 2003-04-29. Retrieved 2025-06-11.
- ^ Torr, Geordie, "Killing Willow" Australian Geographic, April-June 2003, pp100-107.
- ^ "Paddlesports Australia – Rafting & River Equipment for Sales & Hire in Melbourne". Paddlesports Australia - Canoes Kayaks Rafting Gear - Melbourne Australia. Retrieved 2025-06-11.
- ^ ActivismHub (2025-03-15). "Willow Warriors". The Environmental Movement. Retrieved 2025-06-11.
- ^ "WILDCARE SPRATS - Wildcare". wildcaretas.org.au. Retrieved 2025-06-11.
- ^ "Previous Finalists | Awards Australia". awardsaustralia.com. Retrieved 2025-06-11.
External links
[edit]https://sites.google.com/view/friendsofthecolo/home Friends of the Colo