In November 2022, Central Coast Council partnered with the Minderoo Foundation to deliver three corporate volunteer workdays – these were for Insurance Australia Group (IAG) employees and Disaster Relief Australia volunteers. The days resulted in some amazing works being carried out at Shelly Beach, Killcare Beach and on Kincumba Mountain.

The Minderoo Foundation is a philanthropic organisation that helps with a range of social issues from health to education and the environment. Through Minderoo’s ‘Fire and Flood Resilience’ initiative, a partnership with Disaster Relief Australia was formed to reduce exposure to natural disasters nationwide. 

Disaster Relief Australia is a recently formed (2016) volunteer-based organisation, led by military veterans, that aims to improve the wellbeing of members through responding to disasters both in Australia and globally.

Council facilitated the corporate volunteering days through the Environmental Volunteering Program (EVP), with the program team finding suitable sites and activities for the events. Council staff from the EVP, Environmental Infrastructure and Biosecurity teams managed the WHS requirements before the events and provided on site education and engagement for the duration of the events.

The corporate volunteering was spread across three different sites over three different days with a focus on ‘resilience’. Two days were spent primarily removing Bitou Bush (Chrysanthemoides monilifera subsp. rotundata) at Shelly Beach and Killcare Beach. As dune vegetation is the first line of defence against coastal erosion these works helped to improve the ability of the dune systems to withstand storms and extreme weather through increased native vegetation cover. This in turn also helps to protect homes and other important infrastructure adjacent to these dune systems. The third workday was spent at Kincumba Mountain maintaining important access tracks (fire trails) which are vital in times of emergencies and for ongoing reserve management.

In total, 139 volunteers and 10 Council staff worked across the three days. Volunteers from the Shelly Beach Coastcare group also worked with the Minderoo volunteers on their site, as did members of the Putty Beach Dunecare group at Killcare Beach. There was a great appreciation from our program volunteers for the works that were carried out on their respective sites. 

Our team are now engaging professional bush regenerators to carry out follow up works at each of the beach sites, with plans for ongoing management including plantings throughout autumn and winter with native species that have been grown by volunteers working at Council’s Erina nursery. Ongoing management at Kincumba Mountain is being done by Council staff.  

These Minderoo volunteer days were the latest corporate volunteer events that have been hosted through the Environmental Volunteer Program. Other examples of corporate volunteer days and activities have included:

• Greater Bank sponsorship of plantings throughout the Central Coast with corporate staff planting days being held at Porters Creek and Umina Beach (2021)
• Soroptimist International Australia – Brisbane Waters Chapter who held a planting day at Porters Creek to celebrate their organisations 100-year anniversary (2021)
• Zenexus staff holding a team building, weeding and planting event in the dunes of Umina Beach (2021)
• there have also been other historic corporate events through our program by organisations including Husqvarna, Telstra and ING.

Carrying out some work in a natural setting, through weed control and/or planting events, is a great way organisations can build their team relationships, have their staff experience the physical and mental health benefits of ‘green-time’, whilst contributing to some amazing environmental initiatives. 

If you know of, or are part of, an organisation that would like to participate in corporate volunteering within the Environmental Volunteering Program please get in touch with us through environmentalvolunteering@centralcoast.nsw.gov.au 

The article was written by Ben Feltham, Council’s Environmental Volunteer Program Officer