Forty Years of Landcare: A Founding Member Remembers

By Sarah Stegley, founding member of the Howqua Valley Landcare Group Written from somewhere between Angola and Congo

Long before "Landcare" was even a word, the seeds of the Howqua Valley Landcare Group were being planted in Melbourne lounge rooms.

In the late 1970s, a group of Howqua Valley landowners — concerned about the establishment of an SDA camp in the valley — began gathering at homes in Melbourne. Sarah recalls Marieke Brugman, David and Audrey Penington, Bev and Colin Chesterton, Pat and Gregor Sutherland, David and Jean Atkins, and Blair Fry among those in attendance. Blair, she notes with precision, was wearing a brown velvet suit. His father may have been there too.

What they discovered was that the SDA had a building permit — and were already well into their build — but crucially, did not have a use permit. That became the group's first engagement with the Australasian Conference Association, and it also planted a seed: that the valley's landowners needed to form a proper, identifiable group.

A name was duly proposed: the Howqua Valley PTA.

P for Permanents. T for Temporaries. A for Association.

It didn't get up. As Sarah explains, Jeannie Riley's Harper Valley PTA — with its rather too-vivid references to drunks and promiscuity — made the name a liability. The group worried it might put the Mansfield Shire Councillors offside. Or, as Sarah puts it with characteristic dryness, "remind them too much of themselves."

The Howqua Valley Landcare Group has come a long way since those Melbourne lounge rooms. As the group marks its 40th anniversary this year, Sarah's memories are a wonderful reminder that conservation work is rarely just about the land — it's about the people who show up, speak up, and occasionally arrive in brown velvet suits.

Landcare celebrates its 40th anniversary in 2026. If you have memories or stories from the early days, we'd love to hear them.