Farewell to a Landcare pioneer

Joan Kirner and Heather Mitchell, Victorian Farmers Federation, at Landcare's 10th anniversary celebrations at Winjallock, Victoria, in 1996. Photo Victorian Landcare Gateway

From Landcare Australia

Joan Kirner will undoubtedly be remembered as Victoria’s first female premier; however she will also be remembered in the heart of every Landcarer as an innovative politician, who recognised the value and importance of implementing Landcare as a policy – leading to its adoption as a national initiative years later

Minister for Conservation, Forests and Lands at the time, Joan Kirner worked together with Heather Mitchell, then president of the Victorian Farmers Federation to spearhead the initiative. Through this partnership, Joan learnt that there was a pressing need to develop a program that would reverse the degradation of farmland, public land and our waterways.

A story recounted in Andrew Campbell’s book, Landcare – Communities Shaping the Land and the Future, outlines how the name Landcare came about.

A group of staff tasked with drafting a proposal for a program based on neighbourhood groups, tossed around some names and proposed to Joan Kirner, the name ‘Total Land Care’. The story goes that Joan Kirner retorted that she did not want to be known as “The Minister for TLC”, so it became simply ‘LandCare.’

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More tributes

» Joan Kirner united farmers and conservationists to care for the land, The Conversation

» Kirner united farmers and conservationists, The Land

» Vale Joan Kirner, Victorian Landcare Gateway

» Joan Kirner: Compassionate woman who stood for change, Sydney Morning Herald.