07 Mar 2018 Border Mail, Albury-Wodonga (General News) ANNE Stelling hopes to see platypus and native bird species return to neglected areas of House and Castle creeks through a project restoring habitat linkages in Wodonga. The citys Urban Landcare Network is among 10 North East groups that shared in almost $370,000 allocated in state government grants last year. The Restoring Habitat Linkages in Wodonga project received $50,000. Friends of David Winterbottom Park and Friends of Felltimber Creek will help to restore their patches, and the network will also focus on Clyde Cameron Reserve. Ms Stelling said willows and other weeds had already been removed from sections of House Creek, which leads into the Castle Creek Conservation Reserve, a significant habitat. We did a bit of planting off Huon Creek Road last year with a group of local residents, and we found interest from others to do further planting, so we went for this grant, she said. Since weve got the funding weve gone into partnership with council and theyre working to remove the weeds, which is great for us, otherwise we would have had to pay for it. Well be restoring native vegetation and holding community planting days. Ms Stelling said extra hands would be needed to continue working on the section of House Creek running off Huon Creek Road. That particular section is the only place we dont have a stewardship group, so were hoping local people will be interested; well put details of the days on our Facebook page, she said. In the last 10 years nothing big has happened there its been covered in willows and theres no habitat for native birds and animals we want them back. Northern Victoria MLC Jaclyn Symes said there was another $2 million for biodiversity projects through the 2018 Community and Volunteer Action Grants, including to support crowdfunding initiatives. There is significant work being done in Northern Victoria by local landcare, environmental, and community groups as we saw with more than 20 projects approved under last years funding round, she said. I expect there to be significant interest again in this latest funding round and encourage groups to apply. Caption Text: REBUILDING: Anne Stelling and the Wodonga Urban Landcare Network are working to remove weeds from House Creek. Picture: MARK JESSERLicensed by Copyright Agency. You may only copy or communicate this work with a licence.