Despite the move to a mid-spring working bee weekend (first weekend in October) Francis Cincotta, our wonderful propagator of seedlings, had two big trays of tube stock for our hill.

John H and Sid L took to the hill top and with a little help from Malachi, planted 50-odd trees. Dean planted 20-odd ironbarks on the lower slopes. Two dogs fought around the fire pit, and kids played mud fights round a very full dam. Three Wedge-tailed Eagles flew in spectacular arcs overhead, perhaps two males courting the same female. Two rabbits were out in the mid-day sun making baby rabbits, and Mal rued the missed chance to get two with one bullet.

Spring was in the air – the sweet-rank honey smell of Acacia blossom quite apparent.
The canola patches stood out on the quilt of the 180-degree vista. We still have another 60-odd plants left. We’ll call another impromptu Clayton’s planting in the next few weeks.

Watch this space.

Sid Larwill

We wish to clear up a couple of possible misconceptions about our group ReSource RICA.

While up on the hill one time someone once remarked, “The locals must think we are some strange cult that meets on the hill during an obscure planetary alignment to perform arcane pagan rituals”. Well no, as fun as that may sound I am happy to inform that we are really nothing more than a relatively normal and urbane group of people with an interest in developing and experimenting in a new and different kind of relationship with the land.

Another area of misunderstanding is sometimes to do with our name. Occasionally we’ve had people asking what does Resource RICA mean and we’ve even had people saying that with a name like ReSource Rica they thought we were a mining company. So I thought that we’d give an explanation for the sake of locals and newcomers and even to refresh the memories of older members how the name came about and the thinking behind it.

First of all it is obviously a play on the word resource and perhaps why some have initially thought we are mining company, yet mining and timber companies don’t own the word resource and we, like many others would like to add nature to the list of things considered a valuable primary resource.

The capitalisation of the ‘S’ in resource we hope encourages one to view the word with its intended double meaning. First as seeing the land in its natural and diverse state as a valuable natural and cultural resource in itself, important for the well-being of all of us. And secondly when read as “re-source” an intended meaning of “a return to the source”, “back to the beginning”, A restoration if you like, back to before the environmental degradation that much of the land in Australia has experienced.

The RICA is in fact an acronym for Rehabilitation of landscape, Indigenous custodians and recognition, Community and Access. (to find out more about these aspirations see our Statement of Purpose page) Rica as a word has the added meaning of rich or abundant in Spanish, a language that a lot of our founding members have familiarity with, many having worked in Central America on community projects as volunteers abroad.

And ok, ok, we do participate in an occasional bacchanalian ritual around the campfire during weekends at the hill, but that’s all we’re willing to admit to.

PhilM