An inspiring Landcare story - Bruce McInnes

For more than 30 years, Bruce McInnes has quietly helped shape Landcare in the Wimmera, bringing people together to care for the landscape, restore habitat and strengthen their community.

Bruce’s Landcare journey began in 1994 as an inaugural member of the Laharum Landcare Group, on the western side of Grampians/Gariwerd National Park. Since then, he has served in every executive committee role within the group and remains an enthusiastic contributor to Landcare activities across the region.

A love of the environment runs deep in Bruce’s family. His mother, Susan McInnes, was Laharum Landcare Group’s first secretary and his family embraced whole-farm planning early on. For Bruce, Landcare offered something particularly powerful: the opportunity for people with shared values to work together to solve local environmental challenges.

Over the decades, that philosophy has translated into an extraordinary range of practical achievements.

In the early years, Bruce helped tackle dryland salinity through groundwater monitoring and revegetation. Red gums planted across affected slopes became part of a much larger legacy of revegetation that can still be seen along waterways and across the district today.

He has also played an important role in tackling invasive weeds and pests. In 2012, Bruce managed a $135,000 sallow wattle control program, working directly with landholders to coordinate action across the landscape.

More recently, Bruce has turned his attention to one of the challenges facing native wildlife: the shortage of natural tree hollows.

After researching and trialling nest box designs, Bruce developed a practical flat-pack system that allows people with little or no construction experience to get involved. He now prepares materials and leads workshops for Landcare groups, families and young people. Nest boxes have been installed locally and donated to areas recovering from bushfires in the Little Desert and Natimuk regions. Monitoring has already recorded residents including Sugar Gliders and Owlet-nightjars.

But perhaps Bruce’s greatest contribution cannot be measured simply by the number of trees planted, weeds controlled or nest boxes built. It is the people he has encouraged along the way.

From wildlife activities and school engagement to produce swaps and hands-on workshops, Bruce understands that successful Landcare is as much about building community as caring for country. By sharing skills, mentoring others and finding welcoming ways for people of all ages to participate, he has helped make Landcare accessible and meaningful.

Bruce McInnes has been nominated for an Individual Landcarer Award in the 2026 Victorian Landcare Awards.

After more than three decades of volunteering, Bruce continues to demonstrate what grassroots Landcare is all about: people working together, sharing knowledge and leaving their local environment better for the next generation.