Meet our 2024 Community Environment Award-Winners!

By Environment Victoria

At this year’s Community Environment Awards, we were thrilled to recognise six outstanding community groups and campaigns.

From protecting threatened grasslands and wetlands, to stopping new fossil fuel developments and bringing communities together in new and innovative ways, these individuals and groups are truly inspiring.

Find out more about each award winner below, including how you can support their work.

Moonee Valley Sustainability Group — Grassroots power building
Friends of Nyah Vinifera Park — Grassroots power building
OCEAN (Otway Coastal Environment Action Network) & friends — Campaign Impact
Little River Action Group & Grassy Plains Network — Campaign Impact
Asian Australians for Climate Solutions — Innovation Award
Josie Hess & Steph Sabrinskas — Special Award

Header image: Representatives from Moonee Valley Sustainability with Environment Victoria CEO Jono La Nauze

Moonee Valley Sustainability Group — Grassroots power building

Moonee Valley Sustainability, a volunteer run community group in Melbourne’s North-west, have proven to be an extremely effective and impressive local group providing strategic and practical support for their local community who want to address the impacts of climate change, pollution and extreme heat.

They have built community networks and started transforming their Ascot Vale headquarters into a cool safe space to help protect locals from health impacts during extreme heat. They regularly organise community clean ups to care for waterways and run monthly events to reduce waste going to landfill, repair goods and educate people about recycling.

LEARN MORE: https://mvsustainability.org.au/

Friends of Nyah Vinifera Park — Grassroots power building

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

OCEAN (Otway Coastal Environment Action Network) & friends — Campaign Impact

OCEAN (Otway Coastal Environment Action Network) is a grassroots community group based along the South-west Victorian coastline with a focus on stopping seismic blasting and new gas development in the Otway Basin. The group was central to the recent campaign win that saw energy data company TGS withdraw its application to conduct seismic blasting in search of gas across a 7.7 million hectare area in the Southern Ocean.

OCEAN was formed by members of the community who share an intrinsic connection to the coastal and marine environment, starting from Ocean Grove and extending along the coast to Portland. 

OCEAN campaigns against seismic blasting as the first step in new offshore gas development, which is both highly damaging to the marine environment, in the search for a fossil fuel which is exacerbating the climate crisis. OCEAN’s strategy is to both raise awareness of the destructive practices of seismic blasting and gas development through community engagement and information nights, as well as mobilising communities to oppose these practices through rallies, marches, paddle outs and voicing their concerns to local representatives.

LEARN MORE: https://www.ocean.org.au/

Little River Action Group & Grassy Plains Network — Campaign Impact

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/

Asian Australians for Climate Solutions — Innovation Award

Dr. Corinne Ang founded Asian Australians for Climate Solutions in 2022, alongside a few like-minded friends from Asian backgrounds. The group’s mission is to empower the Asian Australian community to take meaningful action against climate change.

Recognizing the unique cultural perspectives and challenges faced by Asian Australians, AAFCS works to raise awareness, promote sustainable practices, and encourage greater involvement in climate initiatives. Through culturally relevant engagement and leadership development, the organization amplifies the voices of Asian Australians within the broader climate movement.

The group has adopted innovative approaches to electrification campaigning, and supported and nurtured leadership from Asian Australian communities, which now make up 20% of Australia’s population. The groups campaigning and advocacy efforts have included induction cooking demonstrations at Whitehorse Council and community outreach stalls around Melbourne.

LEARN MORE: https://aafcs.au/

Josie Hess & Steph Sabrinskas — Special Award

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.