It was a first time meeting for most of the volunteers, who clicked quickly and worked diligently together, planting around 70 trees, mulching and preparing the area for mowing.

The day was a follow up from a much larger community working bee last month, in which local girl guides, LLS staff, Rotarians and Community Gardens volunteers planted hundreds of trees and shrubs. Inverell East Rotary have spent seven years transforming the area from a patch of scrub to a family-friendly park.

“The whole emphasis is on the council supporting community people who help themselves, that’s the message. What we’ve discovered with Inverell East Rotary is if we are willing to put some money, some time, some work in, they’ll back us with whatever we do,” Rotarian Paul Alliston said.

He said Inverell East was grateful to the local council for supporting community groups, and events like this one were opportunities to link diverse people together.

“What we’re trying to do with the Danthonia kids and the Clontarf kids is to learn that message ‘you put something into your community, you get something back’. This is the beginning of hopefully a long association,” he said.

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