Meet our 2024 Community Environment Award-Winners!

Nyah Vinifera Park is a Red Gum and Black Box floodplain forest and woodlands located 20 minutes north of Swan Hill near Nyah. It’s also a living cultural landscape that remains intrinsically important to Traditional Owners and other First Nations people of the region. Since 1996, Friends of Nyah Vinifera Park has worked with Traditional Owners and First Nations people to protect the environmental values and cultural heritage of these special places.

They’ve fought to protect the forests from logging and cattle grazing, lobbied for studies which recommended a new level of protection, helped create river red gum parks, generated media, protested at parliament and much more.

In recent years, Friends of Nyah Vinifera Park have advocated for strong Murray-Darling Basin Plan that delivers a healthy river system. Central to that is providing enough water to river and floodplain ecoystems. Friends members have done the important and ongoing work of explaining complex water policy and politics to the local community through meetings and workshops. They have held two biannual ‘River Peoples Forums’, the most recent one focusing on First Peoples Water Justice.  

Earlier this year FONVP had a win when the Burra Creek project, one of the nine Victorian Government dodgy wetland engineering projects, was rejected. Similar projects at Nyah and Vinifera have been approved, but Friends of Nyah Vinfera Park has just launched a legal challenge and they’re currently fundraising to pay for going to court.

LEARN MORE: https://chuffed.org/project/murray-floodplains-case

The Little River Action Group and Grassy Plains Network have both been instrumental in stopping freighting giant Pacific National from building a giant freight terminal on 550 hectares of grasslands on the edge of Melbourne’s west. The terminal would have severely impacted their town and threatened the livelihood of grasslands that are home to native plant and animal species.

The Little River Action Group formed to protect the Green Wedge Zone (Western Plains South) and surrounding area of Little River, Victoria, from inappropriate development and to maintain and enhance its native flora and fauna. The Grassy Plains Network advocates for the protection of grasslands across Victoria, including flowering meadows and the plants and creatures that call them home.

Together, the groups successfully challenged the project that would have destroyed the ambience of their town by having freight and heavy machinery activities round the clock, and after ongoing community pressure, media events and a well organised campaign, Pacific National eventually backed down from continuing with their plans.

LEARN MORE: https://grassyplains.net.au/

For the past five years, Josie Hess and Steph Sabrinskas have documented the energy transition taking place on Gunaikurnai Land in Gippsland as independent filmmakers and activists. 

Their award-winning projects – spanning media, film, art, and impact work – focus on activism, climate action, environmental issues, and mine rehabilitation. They have collaborated with nonprofits, government organizations, industry, and businesses on corporate content, event coverage, and speaking engagements.

This award is to commend Josie Hess & Steph Sabrinskas for their excellent work on the Life After Coal Impact Campaign, leading the 10-Years-On: Community Day in Morwell and film making of Ashes to Aftermath: Ten Years on From the Hazelwood Mine Fire and After the Smoke, films that tell the story of the mine fire and brings community together to commemorate, reflect and plan for the future of the local community beyond coal.

LEARN MORE: https://lifeaftercoal.com/