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Diane Evers visit

Last Friday our President and Vice President met with the Hon. Diane Evers MLC for South West to show her over the site where 30,000 tuart seedlings will be planted next year. She was very interested in our plans and the work we are doing. These seedlings are presently being nurtured at the Boyanup Botanical Nursery and will be ready for planting out mid 2019.  Photo of our Vice President Des Donnelly with the Hon. Diane Evers MLC Member for South West....

Busy, Busy bee

It was terrific to see so may members at Ludlow on Saturday. The main task was to clean up around the mill buildings to reduce the fire risk. We loaded building materials, rubbish and scrap metal onto trailers and relocated it to a central point on site for collection at a later date. At mid-morning, we gathered at the greenhouse for morning tea (with scones, cream and jam of course!). Just look at the happy faces....

Ludlow water supply

We are holding a busy bee this Saturday, 1 December commencing at 8am. The focus will be on fire prevention and a general clean up around the mill buildings. If you can spare the morning, or just a couple of hours, come to Ludlow. You'll be amongst friends, meet new people and contribute to the first stages of our restoration project.Yesterday, we tested the Ludlow water bore and were able to pump water to the settlement and mill around one kilometre away. Unfortunately, someone has stolen the p...

Some good news!

Boyanup Botanical Nursery have been contracted to provide our group with 30,000 tuart seedlings for our first planting in the Ludlow Lockhart block in 2019. Here is a recent photo of some seedlings. We'll bring you further updates in the next few weeks....

Vandals hit Ludlow

Vandals and thieves are a major problem at the Ludlow settlement. Our Vice President, Des Donnelly was interviewed by the media this week. See the West Australian article Vandals hit Ludlow village...

Stolen hand press

This hand arbor press was taken from the Ludlow mill workshop recently. The photo was taken in late July by photographer, Laurie Davies and the disappearance discovered late September. If anyone has information about it's current location, please call Bill on 0419 944 251. Obviously its important to retain all the items of equipment within the mill compound and settlement so that we can display the true character of Ludlow for future generations. We will be stepping up security however everyone ...

Great news!

We have had reports that some tuart seeds from the planting day have germinated. If you have had success, let us know about your experience by completing the form on our website. Tuart Tree Progress Report...

Seed planting day

What a beautiful day it was for our Seed Planting Day today at Ludlow. About 150 children enjoyed planting their Tuart seeds and took them home to nurture into seedlings to be planted out next year. Approximately 500 people attended over the day, and much fun was had by all. The bee hotels were popular, also the games, treasure hunts and the guided walks through the forest. Many thanks to the Lions Club for attending with their delicious grilled food, Two Fat Cows ice cream van and Coffee Combi....

Where ready!

Last Sunday, our volunteers prepared Ludlow for next weekends seed planting day. We mowed grass, picked sticks, swept paths, made new paths and cleaned the greenhouse. Most importantly, we enjoyed a morning tea of sausage rolls, cream donuts and some really healthy oranges. Yes, they were popular too!...

Tuart seeds delivered

Mr Mick Murray, Member for Collie-Preston attended the Boyanup Botanical nursery today to take part in a presentation of tuart seed. The seed was generously donated by Cristal Mining and will allow 30,000 seedlings to be grown using funds made available by the recent Federal grant for planting in 2019....

Grant Presentation

Nola Marino, Federal Member for Forrest, met with members at the Ludlow Settlement to hand over a cheque for $50,000. This is a Federal grant which the group successfully applied for under the Australian Government National Landcare-Environment Grants Program.  The money will be directed towards the group's tuart forest restoration planting project, involving the preparation for and the planting of 75,000 tuart seedlings in a degraded area of the Ludlow St...

Ludlow photography

We thank Laurie Davies from Travel Australia Tourist Directory for providing us free of charge with a wonderful selection of photographs of the Ludlow Mill Settlement which we can use to promote our efforts to restore this wonderful heritage site.Laurie is working his way around Australia recording the rural decline. He was excited to find Ludlow, and spent 5 hours photographing all the working buildings inside and out, and the outside of the houses. He also sent up a drone and took pictures fro...

Ballarat engine

The "Ballarat" engine was shipped to W.A. in crates and accompanied by Mr William Timmings who reassembled it at the "Ballarat" Mill at Wonnerup. It hauled timber from Yoganup to the Ballarat mill at the Vasse inlet on Wonnerup beach, a distance of 12 miles(18 kms).It generated 16 horsepower and weighed 8 tonnes and was able to tow 3 logs at a time. The engine commenced working in June 1871 and operated for the life of the mill. As a fuel it used timber and was responsible for many fires along t...

Forestry cottages in line for restoration

Almost two years after evicting long-term tenants of heritage-listed settlement houses in Ludlow, the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions has confirmed it is in talks with a community group which has expressed interest in leasing the cottages and mill site.A DBCA spokeswoman last week told the Times a private contractor was removing asbestos from the forestry settlement site, which she said was a necessary step in the ongoing consideration for the management of the...

Political enthusiasm

Mick Murray and Stephen Dawson MLC, Labor Member for Mining & Pastoral met at Ludlow Settlement with committee members Evelyn Taylor and Des Donnelly. After a tour of the settlement and the Tuart Forest, both were enthusiastic about the change needed in the area, and they support the group in its aims.We appreciate the Ministers' support....

Local group fights for tuart forest recovery

A community group formed to advocate for the protection of the Ludlow Tuart Forest says more needs to be done to protect the forest to ensure the biodiversity of the area is not further degraded.The Ludlow Tuart Forest Restoration Group was formed last year after the announcement of a Federal Government assessment into listing 11 ecological communities as critically endangered, including tuart woodlands and forests which consists of patches of tuart woodlands and forests throughout the Swan Coas...

Restoration Group aim to regenerate the tuarts

A group of like-minded community members have joined forces to form a working group that will help restore Tuart Forest and would like more people to join them. The forest is the only one in the world which grows this particular variety of tuart trees (eucalyptus gomphocephal) and has been in decline since foresting ceased in the 1980’s. The Ludlow Tuart Forest Restoration Group president Evelyn Taylor said the forest was huge in its day and responsible for the colony being so successful....