May 26th, 2025Volunteers bringing Cornish Hill back to life

“I didn't know a single person in Daylesford or anywhere near so I joined because it gives you an opportunity to be with people without the pressure of social engagement. You’re out doing something really positive, you're in nature, and get a shared activity that everyone's quite keen on.”

Cornish Hill, named after its miners, was almost lost in 1994, when the then Victorian Department of Conservation and Natural Resources proposed selling the 47.5-hectare parcel of Crown Land for housing development.

Luckily a group of concerned residents formed an action plan in order to save it as a historic precinct and for the establishment of flora and fauna of the Central Highlands.

Today, the management of Cornish Hill, bordered by Grenville, Patterson and Orford streets with Smiths Creek fed by the East Street Spring, is looked after by the Friends of Cornish Hill. Volunteers work hard to search for relevant grants to fund works on the Hill for anything from tube stock and tree guards to weed contractors.

Grant applications take quite a lot of work to put together and sometimes FoCH is successful, sometimes not. The Friends’ volunteer engagement officer Kath Anderson joined the group three years ago after moving to the area from Sydney.

“I didn’t know a single person in Daylesford or anywhere near so I joined because it gives you an opportunity to be with people without the pressure of social engagement. You’re out doing something really positive, you’re in nature, and get a shared activity that everyone’s quite keen on.”

Kath said the group was always looking for more volunteers to take part in monthly Sunday working bees, on the second Sunday, which only last two hours, and are followed by a decent morning tea. “

At the moment, volunteer numbers are pretty good, but not really consistent. But we still get things done and during winter we try to find a sunny spot to work and enjoy a hot cuppa afterwards.

But with more people it’s more fun and more ideas, and just more energy in the groupAnd that doesn’t have to necessarily mean physical energy. We do quite a bit of physical work, but we also do planting, we do planning, we do have little walk-throughs and just figure out things and enjoy the reserve.

“And we partner with local growers and seed collectors, and try to replant the indigenous bushland plants. A lot of our work over the past two years has been weed control and trying to mitigate fire risk. It’s been a great project to be involved in and it’s fun, satisfying and the more people the merrier so please feel free to join in.