Liveable Landscapes

Keeping Uralla Summers Cool

Working with the Landscape Foundation of Australia, ZNET and Uralla Shire community members are working together to help lessen the impact of heat waves in summer.

Uralla has had an increasing number of ‘hot days’ with temperatures above 30 degrees Celsius over the past 30 years, and increased occurrence of 10 or more consecutive ‘hot days’. The town’s wide roadways with limited shade trees can create uncomfortably hot conditions during summer for people in the town’s public spaces and along footpaths.

The Keeping Uralla Summers Cool project runs from September 2022 – February 2023.

Over three workshops, we are:

Expanding our understanding of the impacts of increasing temperatures
and extreme heat events on human health
Explore options to manage our homes, streetscapes and general environment to mitigate these effects

LFA and ZNET will work with community members to co-design a strategy to mitigate urban heat in Uralla to identify actions that will help keep Uralla summers cool, healthy and liveable for all.

Greening Uralla

As we face increasing temperatures, loss and degradation of habitat, it is critical we continue to plant shrubs and trees that will provide shade for heat mitigation, food and shelter for our biodiversity.

Greening Uralla was launched with the help of the Uralla Grants program, coordinated by ACEN and the New England Solar Farm. To date, Greening Uralla has coordinated three projects:

April Tree Giveaway
Adopt a Street Tree Program
Nooks and Crannies Project

Adopt a Street Tree Progam

The program was launched in late October 2021.

Through it, we delivered more trees to the streets of the town and the public areas of Uralla Shire’s villages, with the help of a number of committed volunteers.

Nooks and Crannies

For our next step in Autumn 2022, we identified areas and consulted with nearby residents for a small number of areas to be planted as part of our ‘Nooks and Crannies’ strategy.

Nooks and Crannies encouraged residents to be involved by identifying areas that could support tree plantings, and being involved in their care and upkeep.

Tree Giveaway

The ZNET Greening Uralla team dispersed 1200 free native tree seedlings to Uralla Shire residents over the weekend of 24-25 April 2021.

Greening Uralla team members set up at the Uralla Co-op yard for a weekend and offered residents the choice of four tree varieties – Eucalyptus gregsoniana, Hakea salicifolia, Leptospermum brevipes and Malaleuca ericifolia. All four varieties are good options for domestic plantings to shade homes from the western sun.

Planting volunteers

We are looking for more people who enjoy planting trees and would be willing to be on a volunteer list so we could contact them at various planting times.

Interested people can contact phone Carol on 0408 080455.

Activities

Annual Community Tree Planting Day
Supporting residents with suitable plantings on the western side of their homes
Verge gardens for Bee support and beauty
Shade trees on the main road approaches to Uralla
‘Adopt a Tree’- Households committing to nurturing a tree in front of their house
Identification of bare areas for ‘greening’
Supporting Uralla Rivercare with creek revegetation
Planting of nut trees as part of a town ‘Edible Landscape’