Revisiting the Walker Swamp 2023 community celebration in pictures

On Saturday the 7th of October, NGT’s 6-day long Grand Tour of Ecological Restoration came to a fitting conclusion, with a major community event at Walker Swamp. It was here that we were joined by over 100 members of the community to celebrate a major collective achievement – the successful expansion of the Walker Swamp Restoration Reserve a few months ago.

The day began with a fantastic Welcome to Country by Lee Morgan, on behalf of local First Nations people, and a few words from the Chair of NGT’s Board, Ann McGregor OAM.

I then provided a rundown of the now decade-long story of the creation of the Walker Swamp Restoration Reserve, before attendees split up into four groups and were hosted around five different stops at the northern end of Walker Swamp, where NGT ecologists provided insights into different aspects of the ecology of the site and its restoration journey. The images below were taken by Virginia Bear, of Little Gecko Media.

The various themes we covered during the site tour are briefly summarised in the handout provided to participants on the day, which can be downloaded here as a pdf, or viewed below.

After a fantastic lunch, prepared by NGT’s Toni Haywood and cooked up by volunteers from the Lions Club of Dunkeld & District, most attendees joined us for a hike around the 200 acres of bush that makes up about half of the new area of land added to the Reserve.

All in all, it was a fantastic day out with a wonderful group of people, who are helping in various ways with the ongoing restoration journey of this special place.

If you would like to contribute to the project at Walker Swamp, you can either donate to by following this link, or to volunteer please register your interest with Lisa McIntyre, our Southern Grampians Community Coordinator, by calling her on 0428 749 235, or emailing .