By VICTORIA STONE-MEADOWS
A COUPLE from Monbulk who have roughly 40 years of environmental volunteering between them are encouraging more people to get involved in local groups.
Bill and Jan Incoll have worked over many years to improve their local environments and say they would love to see more people get out and lend a hand.
The Incolls said that the groups they have worked in have seen a declined in members over the years they have been volunteering.
“There are many volunteer groups around the Dandenong Ranges who all have the same problem,” Mr Incoll said.
Bill Incoll started his work as an environmental volunteer in 1993 as a founding member of the Friends of Ferny Creek.
Since then he has been involved in many more groups that have made vast improvements in restoring the native vegetation of the Dandenong Ranges.
Jan Incoll has been a member of the 58-year-old Sherbrooke Lyrebird Study Group, the oldest continuous friends group in Victoria, for 17 years.
Both Bill and Jan said there are many benefits to volunteering that go beyond helping to improve the environment for the native wildlife.
They say the social and learning aspects of volunteering are just as important as the work that gets done.
“We need committed people and people who are happy to lean, and you will learn a lot,” Mrs Incoll said.
“There are three streams of volunteering – work, education and social.
“It’s not just working for five hours and that’s it, there is a balance of those three streams,” she said.
Bill Incoll likened the friends groups he has worked with to that of “an outdoor men’s shed”.
“Most people enjoy the social contact and that’s the major benefit you get,” he said.
“You are in a group working together to achieve a thing you all think is useful and when you work all afternoon and look back at what you have done you feel a great sense of achievement.”
The Incolls said the environmental volunteer groups in the Dandenong Ranges need more people to get involved to maintain the great results they have achieved.
“We want to keep people involved and give them something they would like to do so they keep coming back because they like it and because they are involved,” Mr Incoll said.
To find out how to get involved with Bill and Jan Incoll and their work, email bincoll@melbpc.oeg.au or find more volunteer groups by visiting parkweb.vic.gov.au/get-involved.
