At the creek edge with Bega Valley's Citizen of the Year Philippa Street

She has spent the last 20 years working to rehabilitate the Candelo Creek, not only helping to rid the creek of invasive willows, planting new trees, encouraging others and dodging the odd snake, but applying for multiple grants and liaising with council, Landcare and the community.

Rightfully she has been recognised as Bega Valley's Citizen of the Year.

Philippa's arrival in the Bega Valley in 2000 was a happy confluence of circumstances, especially for the future state of the Candelo Creek.

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Working with the Inner West Council, Marrickville and Woollahra Council, Philippa had been involved with rewilding the Cooks River, the re-generation of harbourside projects and parks projects.

"We had a team of landscape artists, it was fabulous," she said of the Marrickville projects.

With friends locally, Philippa and her husband had looked at the area and fallen in love with Kameruka, subsequently buying a block.

"We thought it would be a great idea to go to the country, build a house and have a tree change," she said.

She had hoped for a job with council but it wasn't to be; however her horticultural talents were soon in demand. Philippa started teached landscaping, conservation and horticulture at TAFE and was the gardener at the Kameruka homestead, advising Frank and Odile Foster for four years before they sold the property to Barry and Michelle Moffitt.

This included helping with the coach tours and running a garden history tour.

"I used to bring TAFE students out to get them to look at the tree spacing and show them how older trees look and spread their branches. One woman encouraged me to come along to a Landcare meeting where the first project was some planting near the (Candelo) bridge," Philippa said.

It was to be the start of a 20 dedicated relationship with Candelo Creek.

"If I knew it was going to be 20 years, I might not have committed to it but we had great technical support from the government and support from the community. I also want to acknowledge David Barton who was the first chair of Candelo Landcare."

In essence the problem was one of getting rid of the invasive willows which until the 1990s were sterile but then started seeding.

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The Healthy Rivers Commission NSW produced an independent inquiry into the Bega River System which became the guiding document for Landcare.

"We called a public meeting asking how we could deal with the problem. David (Barton) was in the RFS and enlisted volunteers help to chainsaw, chop and set fire to the piles of willow."

The concept was to let nature do the work. It's a slow process and after the trees went, the reeds started growing and access to the creek was limited. But with subsequent flooding and heavy rain events, the creek started washing through leaving clean sandy beaches and waterholes.

Philippa said the problems of the Bega Valley river system started back in the late 1800s when people left the goldfields and started land clearing, inevitably causing erosion.

"Bega Valley was choked with sediment," Philippa said.

The guidelines were to gradually move the sediment through the system, get fish passage and improve water quality.

At various times Candelo Public School students have been involved and in the process Candelo has a bridge and a track to its swimming pool.

Last year they had a reed cutting and basket making workshop with a local Aboriginal woman.

The school has also been involved in the planting of 15 new trees for local volunteers - there is a tree for Daphne Sweeney, Bega Valley's Senior Citizen of the Year.

The planting day was etched in Philippa's mind for how it evolved.

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It was a grant to recognise Queen Elizabeth's Platinum Jubilee as part of the Queen's Green Canopy tree planting initiative.

They had hoped to have the older volunteers who were having a tree planted in their name attend, but the chilly weather on June 1, 2022 resulted in many of the older volunteers not attending.

The cakes and lemonade that were destined for afternoon tea were readily consumed by the students producing "a huge sugar rush of energy" Philippa said, as students enthusiastically tackled the tree planting.

Philippa has thought it would be nice to also plant trees for the new babies born in 2022.

She had initially planned for three trees but was told there had been something of a baby boom in the village with 10 newborns.

The trees will be planted in the park in a groove and Philippa said they would take out the pivet.

They have about six active members and could do with more, especially for working bees. However there is a keen group who love to pull out weeds.

They tend to start in mid/late February and go through to November.

"At other times it can become a bit snakey," Philippa said.

The long-term future of volunteerism poses a questionmark for Philippa because the next generation doesn't have as much time. But she believes one way could be to set individual one-off projects rather than seeking long-term commitment.

She is also trying to orchestrate her replacement as she wants to spend some time travelling.

In regard to the Citizen of the Year award Philippa said she didn't really like being in the spotlight but saw it as a chance to promote Landcare and the job they had done.

"It's a real honour and I'm pleased council recognised the environmental work. It's also nice to see the focus swing off the big towns," Philippa said.

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