Transcript of 27 March 2026 Partnerships Against Pests webinar

Partnerships Against Pests grant program – Round 5 webinar

27 March 2026: 11 am to 12 pm

And DEECA, so the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action, is committed to generally partnering with Victorian traditional owners and Victoria's community to progress their aspirations.

All right, thank you all. I'm now going to hand over to Nicole Garfi, who is going to run through the agenda with you and then provide you with a bit of an overview of the Partnerships Against Pests Program grants.

Over to you, Nicole.

[On-screen text – Slide 3: Housekeeping]

Nicole Garfi: Thank you, Malinda. Hello, everyone. As Malinda said, my name is Nicole and I'll be running you through the next part of the webinar. Before we get started, just a few housekeeping points.

Firstly, the recording, transcript and the slides will be made available on the AgVic website after the session is finished. To help things run smoothly, cameras, microphones and the chat function will be turned off for participants.

Please, if you have any questions during the webinar, you can use the Q&A function at the top of your screen. All questions today will be moderated. That's just to ensure that we can get through as many questions as possible. But, if we do run out of time, or unable to get to your question, we'll do our best to answer those offline after the webinar is finished. And then we'll leave some time at the end for our Q&A. So, if you have a question, you can use that function at the top, as I said, or you can use the raise your hand function and we'll unmute you so you can ask your question. With that covered, I'll now move into the agenda slide.

Next slide, please, Kirsten.

[On-screen text – Slide 4: Agenda]

Nicole Garfi: Thank you. So, for the agenda, I'll start by walking you through this first section, which provides an overview of the Partnerships Against Pests program, and then we'll look at the PAP grants, what the PAP grants have delivered through the first 4 rounds. I'll then invite Lachie McIntyre from Project Platypus to share his experience in delivering a PAP funded project.

And then Alex Pattinson will step us through the specifics of Round 5, and Kirsten Morrison will then take us through the application process.

And then we'll wrap up with that Q&A session and direct you to some further resources and support.

Thanks, Kirsten. Next slide.

[On-screen text – Slide 5: Partnerships Against Pests Program]

Nicole Garfi: Lovely. So, as I said, I'll start with a brief overview of the Partnerships Against Pests Program and the PAP grants and hopefully it will set the context before we move into the details of Round 5.

So, apologies if you've been on one of these webinars before and you've heard this overview, but I'll just, go through that again because I think it's important that everyone understands the goals of it. The PAP program began in 2023 with the main goal of the program to improve and strengthened the management of established invasive species in Victoria. And the program has 4 main components.

So, the first component is the grants program, which is why you're all here today, which aims to support communities, to build skills and capacity and partnerships needed to better manage established invasive species in Victoria. The grants hope to ensure that the most affected by the problem are central to shaping priorities and co-creating practical community-led solutions.

The second component is the establishment of the Viper Board or the Victorian Invasive Pests Advisory Board, and they provide strategic advice to AgVic on the established invasive species program.

The third component is the funding of Ag Vic's 3 engagement officers who provide local support to community groups and can provide support to your community groups in preparing for your Round 5 PAP grant also.

On the screen, you can see the map of Victoria, and that has David Scott there in the southeast, Al Campbell in the northern region, and Doug May in the southwest. And their details are available in the funding guidelines if you need to reach out to them.

And the 4th component is the funding to Victoria's 4 statewide community pest management groups or CPMGs they'll be referred to. And they are the Victorian Blackberry Taskforce, the Victorian Gorse Taskforce, the Victorian Rabbit Action Network and the Victorian Serrated Tussock Working Party.

If you're looking for any more information on the broader PAP program, you can go to the AgVic website and there's further details there.

Next slide, please, Kirsten.

[On-screen text – Slide 7: Grants Recipients]

Nicole Garfi: Thank you. So, this slide is really just to give you a picture of what's been delivered so far through the program. Now we're heading into Round 5. Hopefully this gives you a bit of a sense of how the program has grown over time. We started with Round One, which was very much a pilot program, and it was targeted to just a select number of Landcare groups and networks, as well as the 4 CPMG groups.

And on the map, you can see that things really did expand after that. And some groups have been successful in securing funding for 2, 3 and even in one instance, all 4 PAP rounds, which is great. And it really does show that projects are building strong momentum out there and continuing to deliver over time. And it is also interesting to see where the projects are happening geographically. There are a few gaps in that map, so we would love to see some projects come out of those areas in Round 5.

Thanks, Kirsten. Next slide.

[On-screen text – Slide 8: Outputs Overview]

Nicole Garfi: Great. So, this slide gives you a bit of a snapshot of the PAP program and what it's delivered across the first 4 rounds. Since 2023, the program's delivered 70 community-led projects, and they all focus on those building skills and knowledge and coordination around established invasive weeds and pest animals.

Across the projects, those communities have delivered more than 2,090 outputs and activities, and it demonstrates the scale and the reach of the program now. So, some of those include 115 field days, 65 training sessions, 165 workshops, 25 webinars, and 32 great videos. And so collectively, that's committed over $3.4 million to communities building capacity in Victoria.

The images on the slide are just a quick representation of the type of activities being supported, so from rabbit control demos to innovative approaches like drones for weed management. And I'll just wrap up this slide by saying that overall, we hope that this slide and the webinar today just reinforces that the grants program is not just funding projects, it's supporting lasting capability, building stronger networks and better coordinated action across communities.

Next slide. Thanks, Kirsten.

[On-screen text – Slide 9: Target Species Overview]

Nicole Garfi: Perfect. So, the graphs on this slide show the species that are most targeted through the first 4 rounds of the PAP grants. And just a reminder to everyone online, all funded projects must focus on a species declared under the Catchment and Land Protection Act 1994. This overview highlights what the species communities have really concentrated their efforts on so far.

I should also point out that your applications can concentrate on just one declared species or multiple species if you've got multiple priorities in your community.

For pest animals, the rabbits are by far the most frequently targeted species for all rounds. So, I'd say it probably reflects the widespread impact that they're having, but also the strong role of the coordinated programs like the one that the Victorian Rabbit Action Network delivers to communities.

And on the weed side, we've got blackberries and gorse and thistles that have been the standout priorities across multiple rounds. And as I mentioned earlier, those species are the ones that are targeted through the community pest management groups in Victoria.

Next slide, please, Kirsten.

[On-screen text – Slide 10: Grants Feedback]

Nicole Garfi: Lovely. So, I'll just touch on feedback briefly. After each round, we'll send out a survey to all the funded project groups and there is an opportunity to provide feedback through final reporting. I won't read out all the quotes on the screen; however, they do give you a good sense of the kind of feedback that we are getting, about the impacts that these projects are having on ground. A lot of it does speak to communities building confidence and taking leadership roles and strengthening collaboration with land managers and project partners, which is great.

And it's really nice to be getting this feedback because it feeds into our evaluation work and that helps us demonstrate that the value of this program and supports the case to hopefully continue funding this program into the future beyond the current rounds.

Thanks, Kirsten. Next slide.

[On-screen text – Slide 11: Project Platypus – Guarding Gariwerd project]

Nicole Garfi: Lovely. So now I'll hand over to Lachlan McIntyre. Lachie is a field operations manager with Project Platypus, and he'll be talking through his PAP funded project. Thanks, Lachie. Over to you.

Lachlan McIntyre: Thanks, Nicole. Look, for those who don't know me, Lachlan McIntyre, I work out of Stawell, on the east side of the Grampians. We work with 10 to 12 Landcare groups in the Upper Wimmera [CMA area]. We crossover into the Upper Glenelg-Hopkins [CMA area] as well.

This project, Guarding Gariwerd, actually came out of discussion between a park ranger, Kailee Savoia, and Clive Carlisle, who's the Landcare president and the chair of our board. They were discussing a cross-tenure little project on one or 2 properties around foxes. And when this grant came up, we had some conversations with more landholders. It seemed that it wasn't just foxes, it was rabbits, other species came into the mix.

[On-screen text – Slide 12: Guarding Gariwerd – Partnerships Against Pests (project background)]

Lachlan McIntyre: So, looking at the grant that was available, we decided to look if we could link in with our neighbouring networks. So, we would link in with the Horsham District Landcare Network and Yarrilinks [Landcare Network], and then we eventually went across to the West Wimmera. So, quite a large area. It extended up to Minyip area in the Mallee, right across to Nhill, is our project area for this one, then came back down right across to Elmhurst. So, that's quite a large area there of the Grampians. We'll go to the next slide if I can.

Oh sorry, just quickly, I was looking between the Grampians [National Park] and the neighbouring reserves, so all that public land area, private land areas, the areas between those areas, those reserves and national and the national park.

We'll go to the next slide, please, Kirsten.

[On-screen text – Slide 13: Guarding Gariwerd – Partnerships Against Pests (project partners)]

Lachlan McIntyre: So, this is our partners, I guess, in the project. So, of course, money came out of AgVic. Our 3 Landcare networks there. We got a lot of support from the Centre of Invasive Species Solutions, our local governments, Parks Victoria, Trust for Nature, Wimmera CMA and Friends of Groups all got involved in the project.

Go to the next slide, please. Kirsten.

[On-screen text – Slide 14: Guarding Gariwerd – The importance of working in partnerships...]

Lachlan McIntyre: I guess this gives you a bit of an idea of the breakup of our area. So, in the Upper Wimmera, 84% of the land's managed by private landholders. So generally, private landholders have the potential to notice things first. Working in those areas, that alleviates budget and resource restraints for all.

Working in partnerships too, it's really important because the scale of work. And I think that that picture, [which] is showing one of our 4 field workers looking at a burst of watsonia after the Pomonal fires. And I think it shows that [you] quite often got one person with a field of invasives in front of them that, you know, doesn't know how to do it, it crosses the boundaries.

So, this idea of working in partnerships, and again, I'll reiterate that Project Platypus sees a really pivotal role that we have in working in cross-tenure. We have great relations with agencies, and then we have a great connection or great network of private landholders. We have a shared responsibility, so quite often that's something which we're always advocating for. And if we work together, we'll achieve a whole lot more.

So next slide, please, Kirsten.

[On-screen text – Slide 15: Guarding Gariwerd – What have we been up to?]

Lachlan McIntyre: So, with our 2 rounds of grants, and I get a bit mixed up with the numbers with the Serrated Tussock [Working Party] hat I have on as well, but I think we had grants awarded in Rounds 2 and 3. And this is a mix of all the different activities we did.

So, we launched the project at the Wimmera Biodiversity Seminar, which, freakishly, was also around partnerships around pests as well. We didn't know that until after the application was put in. So, perfect place to launch it; we would just be talking about what we're going to do with the project, but it also gave a bit of a snapshot on the way Project Platypus works. Talking about our Mount Cole project, which has been something of about 6 years that has clunked its way through being a cross-tenure project and has achieved quite a lot.

We had Landcare group priority plans. So, Elia, our local Landcare facilitator, went around with a resource from the VRO, Vic Resources Online. So, she went around and did a bit of a workshop on prioritising your pest species. And we found that a lot of our Landcare groups quite often have a huge number of pest species that they get a bit overwhelmed with. So, this gives them a bit of a strategic document, and I'll talk about this a little bit more, which allows them to refer back to the grant applications and things like that.

We developed a little local app for ourselves, for our Landcare groups, to map all their activities, so not just dealing with invasive species, but their community events, their meetings, whatever that they'd get up to. And we find that's a great way for them to capture the amount of work they're actually putting in for their in-kind hours.

Okay, management field days. So, we just talked about, I guess, at these field days we ran in Minyip, Pomonal and Laharum. We tailored the workshop to be around the species that they'd identified as being problematic. And then we could tailor a workshop to their specific needs. We got the proper agency staff along for a ‘meet the agencies’ workshops as part of those.

And then, out of that, we developed some tailored IPA[1] 101 kits. So, a lot of the resources from AgVic, Centre of Invasive Species Solutions, WoNS[2] documents, things like that, we made sure they had the little kits go back to the locations [where] these workshops were ran.

Subsidised training accreditation. So we offered, I think, 50% subsidy for landholders that are involved in this project to go and get their AQF3, which I think people would know as an ACUP licence, so they can handle their, use their chemicals and have the right licences and accreditations, and also the 1080 and PAPP qualification or accreditation, as an extension to that. So, Landcare groups, after, I guess, learning about their problem species and getting a better understanding of the partners involved to tackle those species, they recruit with the right qualifications and accreditation so they can actually go out and buy the chemical and handle it all safely and use it in the field.

And then what we just finished, it was a bit clunky. We had a plan for October, had to put it off until March. We just last weekend, we ran out of VRAN bootcamp with about 17 attending and really good feedback coming in from that. We'll have also on our website; you'll see the Project Platypus website has a lot of our events and a lot of the activities we did is loaded up onto the website.

Next slide, please.

[On-screen text – Slide 16: Guarding Gariwerd – Wimmera Biodiversity Seminar project launch]

Lachlan McIntyre: So just some photos of the Wimmera Biodiversity Seminar.

There's myself and Elia in the top left and presenting. If you've ever been to the Wimmera Biodiversity Seminars, they have some amazing little cups they give out to people that attend.

Costa is at an event, so what more can you ask for? Costa is fantastic. And this is a good way for us to learn.

And as I said, the focus of the Wimmera Biodiversity Seminar, the theme was ‘Pests, Partnerships and People Power’. It fell really nicely for us to have our launch at that event.

Next slide, please.

[On-screen text – Slide 17: Guarding Gariwerd – Landcare Priority Plans/Weed Prioritisation]

Lachlan McIntyre: This is a bit of a breakup of the workshops we did around prioritising weed species. So, there's a bit of a spreadsheet here. So, we've got landholders or Landcare group members to talk about the weeds are important to them.

Sometimes the list of 20 for that Landcare group exploded to 50 and then we had these different ways of scoring the plants about ecological impacts, environmental impacts, impacts the farming. Was it prickly? Does it smell? Is it a nice flower? All these different things that people see valuable, or the reasons why they don't like these pest species. It spits out the bottom.

You can see there's ‘6 ways you can help Halls Gap’. So, the top 10 weed species for Halls Gap, it prints out a brochure, then we get some data out of, some information out of [the spreadsheet]. So, the 'Grow Me Instead', that resource. So, it gives people alternatives to plant for those species but also give them direction on how to go about treating those plants.

And then other Landcare groups, like the Black Range Land Management Group, have actually got a larger invasive plant and animal management plan, that is a strategic document they can use to inform their grant applications.

Next slide, please.

[On-screen text – Slide 18: Guarding Gariwerd – Fulcrum App development]

Lachlan McIntyre: The Fulcrum app development, so it's pretty much there now. So, you can see, I guess, the maps there show the Halls Gap area. So, there's 2 different ways of mapping. The groups go out now with apps on their own phones. They can go out and just share – how many people were along for that activity, their start times, end times, any of the activity costs, or what they sort of discovered along the way.

We've got really simple drop-down lists so that the Landcarers can map their weeds quite quickly. As someone that works with 10 to 12 Landcare groups, the reporting and the data that comes in [can be] quite clunky sometimes. So, this gives us a live mapping system that allows for, I guess, as the groups are walking around, we can see their little pins for that little group moving around. And, as they log things, we can see things live. Landcare groups have done activities and then given us a call at the end of the day, we can spit out a PDF report for them for their, whether it's grant reporting or to pass on data to working with agencies and stuff like that.

It's probably 90% there, but it's something which we're still working to develop on. And then this will be a central point for us to share that back to agencies in our area or whoever needs it where we can.

Next slide, please.

[On-screen text – Slide 19: Guarding Gariwerd – Field Demonstrations]

Lachlan McIntyre: The field demonstrations, so again, Minyip, Pomonal and Laharum, we held these demonstrations. You can see some of the activities there. After ‘Meet the Agencies’ and going through some of the classroom stuff around the pest species, we took them out to look at, like, fencing designs in the top right there. You can see people looking at deer fencing out at Wartook, at Laharum.

Tractors doing rabbit warren ripping, fumigation, canid pest ejectors. The bottom left corner there, is the Minyip Landcare Group [who] have a boxthorn puller, so it's a bit of a hydraulic thing.

So, a lot of people will move to areas, especially during the pandemic, they see they've got a rabbit problem, they just don't know about how to do it. They can see videos, but quite often, just being in the field, looking at the equipment you use and seeing demonstrations has allowed people to feel a bit more confident in delivering their own activities.

It's also allowed us to work out where these resources sit, because quite often, you know, Landcare groups have purchased the rabbit bait trailers or other ripping tines and things like that, but it just sits in people's sheds and gets lost. So, there's been a bit of a chance to do a bit of a stocktake on some of our resources in the area.

And that's also informed, by chance, the next round of grants coming up, I think is more about equipment, things like that to support groups.

Next slide, please, Kirsten.

[On-screen text – Slide 20: Guarding Gariwerd – Locally tailored IPA kits]

Lachlan McIntyre: So, this is to give you an idea of what was in our locally tailored IPA kits. So, we shared information from Weeds Australia and Pests Smart, links to the different, sorry, the different apps you can get. So, we send people back to those FeralScan, RabbitScan apps.

The ‘Grow Me Instead’ resource, I love it. I hand it out to a lot of Landcare groups and a lot of landholders when they're buying agapanthus. And say, ‘what about a lomandra or other species that are a bit less invasive in your area?’

Of course, the CPMG material was at each Landcare groups, or sorry, each workshop. Again, we probably have more of a problem with rabbits across our area, and blackberry and gorse. Serrated tussock, we've got a few sites that have popped up recently. So, something which you want to work more preventative for in that area.

And then the glove box guides, and we haven't probably got some of the weed specific guides there, but that's sort of what we left with Landcare groups. They had emails sent out to everyone that attended with the PDF links to those but also printed versions for Landcare groups, for some of those members that aren't online, or that use the internet that much. We still have a small cohort that wants the printed resources, so we shared these around.

Next slide, please.

[On-screen text – Slide 21: Guarding Gariwerd – Meet the agencies]

Lachlan McIntyre: Meet the agencies. This has been a real positive one. It's sometimes hard for agency staff to commit to come to these workshops, but then, you know, a bit of a conversation about who's going to be there, Landcare groups. And I guess they saw it as an opportunity to come and meet the community members they'll be doing projects, you know, with shared boundaries.

The taxidermied fox and rabbit is always a good one. Or is it a bandicoot? It's always a good one to have on the table, that sort of attracted a bit of attention.

Quite often, we see there's a bit of a disconnect between what agency staff are up to and how a lot of people see them as not doing much. There's a bit of, [community] can be a bit critical towards them. It gave them a chance to talk about, you know, there are quite understaffed areas.

You know, you have 2 guys running the Grampians Ark project with help from some rangers. We have, you know, a few biosecurity officers in the area that just have huge swathes of land they have got to get around. Also, [we] talk about budget restraints, because a lot of people don't realise, a lot of private landholders think, that there's just endless budgets for agencies to go and do this work, but there isn't.

So, we talked about an example of that, the roadside weed pest plant programs for the shires. They get about, I think, $60,000 a year. Both of the shires we work in have about 2500 kilometres of roadside. So, sharing those ideas when people want to you know, treat their little outbreak of some weed that isn't a regionally restricted, or controlled, or prohibited, and they don't get the go ahead. There's sometimes that animosity comes back towards the agencies or the local governments or authorities. So, just sharing, I think, the workload and that these people are locally based people that are really trying their hardest to achieve good things. I think it broke down some of those thoughts towards the agency staff members.

And vice versa. It allowed the agencies to actually meet some of the Landcare groups and realise they are doing very similar work. You know, some of our agency staff weren't aware or hadn't done much work with the Good Neighbour [Program] money and things like that. So, we're looking at different ways we can sort of share those issues along shared boundaries.

Next slide, please.

[On-screen text – Slide 22: Guarding Gariwerd – Chemcert AQF3 (ACUP) + 1080/PAPP endorsement]

Lachlan McIntyre: That's just, yeah, quick, like our AQF3 courses and our 1080. So, we ran them, I think about 27 people have been accredited all up, which is really good to see.

At our VRAN workshop, with 17 people there, the activity we had last weekend, there were only 2 people in the room that didn't have their ACUP or 1080 endorsement. So, really encouraging that those people can walk straight out with the confidence from the VRAN bootcamp and just get straight into their works.

So, next slide, please.

[On-screen text - Slide 23: Guarding Gariwerd – VRAN - Bootcamp/Leadership course (2026)]

Lachlan McIntyre: And of course, the VRAN bootcamp, I've just used some stock images there. But look, if anyone's been a part of them, great 2 day, we did it in 2 days. Great activity really well received. We had a great field demo site that allowed all the different control techniques to be set up and to sort of run side by side.

So, we had implosions and side cuts, to look at like the profile of the warren. Big areas, open areas, they could do a lot of discussion around, you know, other harbour, so, piles of logs and sticks. There was an old farmhouse nearby and a shed. So, still getting some feedback
from that, but it was really well received. Yeah, I think it went really well.

Next slide, please.

[On-screen text – Slide 24: Guarding Gariwerd – Challenges in delivery...]

Lachlan McIntyre: So, challenges in delivery. We seem to go into a bit of an annual fire event for our little patch. So, we had Pomonal fires at the start of 2024. Ten months later, we had the Grampians fires, that was a bit more sustained for our communities around the Grampians. We had the Bayindeen fire around the same time as Dadswells Bridge, and then we've had the Natimuk fire recently. So that's sort of allowed, sorry, that [explains] some of that start/stopping with engagement with certain areas. And I think sometimes it takes people longer to get over those events.

We've had, you know, sadly, loss of a few critical sort of community members that have passed on in that last couple of years. And then, sometimes you don’t realise how much of a role they had in their communities. So, waiting for new people to take that sort of leadership mantle and stuff has been a little bit of a delay at times.

Working with absentee land holders, it's just the nature of the beast. We have a lot of our sort of bush blocks and things like that. are absentee land holders or some of the bigger farms that have, you know, been consolidated into larger sort of land management or larger businesses. We sort of find it hard to sort of work with all those landholders. So, it's been a bit of a tricky one.

The Silver’s review. So of course, everyone, I think, we know there's around 1000 people taken out of Parks, Vic and AgVic and DEECA at the end of last year. And then with that, it's just really hard to keep up with your contact and your close relations with certain agencies.

Changing roles is another thing. Of course, with that Silver’s review, people have to shuffle around a little bit and secondments always impacts some of those engagements with local agencies, but it's pretty good though. I think, we generally, we have good relationships. Quite often, the idea of working with Project Platypus is passed on to the next agency member that takes on the role. So that's been really good.

Keeping stakeholders engaged. So just for the volume of work that, you know, then the challenges in the workforce and aligning priorities. The Partnerships Against Pests program has allowed us to sort of tease out some of those conversations and to sort of make better partnerships, but it's something which we always have to be working on.

Next slide, please.

[On-screen text – Slide 25: Guarding Gariwerd – Positive outcomes...]

Lachlan McIntyre: Positive outcomes. So, I mentioned a couple of these through the presentation, but stronger relations with land carers, groups and networks. That's probably in amongst Landcarers themselves, through going to different workshops. Some of our Landcarers around the Grampians went up to the Minyip workshop, just because it was a better time for them to go and see it. So, they got to see maybe a different parcel of land or a different makeup of a Landcare group.

Around the Grampians, we have a lot of smaller groups that are more hobby farms and lifestyle blocks. When you get up to the north, there's larger property owners. So, it's been interesting with, I guess, sharing the different makeup of groups.

Stronger relations between agency staff and closer links to community groups. So again, I guess, they understand who's in those Landcare groups or Friends of groups, they can work with. Post fires, some of the work that came out of that, not around necessarily pest species, working on them exactly, it was more about. So, the Halls Gap [Landcare] group linked in with the local Parks to build their little pods and to help with chopping up some of the carrots for feeding for the rock wallabies and stuff. So, in other ways, [groups] have been involved and now that's developed into more looking across, looking at fox and rabbit work and other pest species.

Better understanding of the CaLP Act. I think there's still a lot to work on the CaLP Act. It's not really functioning for us. I guess, we see at this stage, but it helps people understand that there are a set of rules, and this is the legislation that we work under, and there's your responsibilities. So, just getting that out to landholders has been really important.

Better understanding of the focus species. Focus species and how to manage and control them. So, that comes back to those prioritising tools that we did in the workshops to sort of have a priority thing there. What else have we got there?

Landholders are trained with qualifications. That's been a really good outcome. I guess, you know, that they've now got the skills and their qualifications to go and do their work.

Greater understanding of the CPMGs and other peak bodies and groups, involvement in the PPA IPA[3] committee. So, we run an interagency committee. We convene here quarterly. And that's had a really good buy-in, with about 6 different agency members regularly turning up to those meetings.

Better understanding of funding, as I said before, there's limited funding to tackle all these issues.

Sharing of data resources, we see that as getting better into the future and it's already working well with our local agencies.

And stronger partnerships between agencies and private land managers is definitely a positive outcome for the project.

My last slide, I think, is next.

[On-screen text – Slide 26: Guarding Gariwerd – Where to from here?]

Lachlan McIntyre: So, from here, as I mentioned, we've got another grant to apply for. I think that now closes in May.

Further integration of the mapping app and into the Landcare network and then sharing that data back out. We've actually got meetings next week around that with some of our local agency members. A few more weed prioritisation sessions to run. So, some of those are just delayed because of the fires and some other things that have happened around the area.

More locally, tailor-made resources and publications for Landcare groups. That's something which we're always sort of adapting and changing so that it's relevant to the Landcare groups.

And better cross-tenure engagement and collaboration. So, with those relationships that have sort of strengthened as part of these 2 different rounds of grants and the activities we've delivered. We see there's a good opportunity to align the Vic Landcare grant activities with what the Parks managers and the reserve managers are up to, but also looking to, like, Good Neighbour programs and other sort of possibilities we can get some funding to get some cross-tenure projects underway.

Went a little bit longer than I thought. Thanks for listening to that. I'll hand over to Alex.

[On-screen text – Slide 27: Partnerships Against Pests Round 5 Grants]

Alex Pattinson: Brilliant. Thank you so much, Lachie.

That was really insightful and it was great to get a really good overview of the work that you guys have been doing at Project Platypus. So, thanks so much for coming along and presenting. You covered some really excellent material there.

We have had a really good opportunity to look back and now we're going to look forward to the fifth round, fifth and final round of the grants program. So, the aim of this section is just to give you a bit of a clearer picture of what we're looking for in Round 5.

We'll jump forward into the next slide.

[On-screen text – Slide 28: Round 5 Funding]

Alex Pattinson: So, just around funding and the main purpose of the round, so the primary goals of the grants program are to boost community participation and improve the capacity of land managers.

In previous rounds, we've had stream 1B and stream 2. These streams have been combined for Round 5. And so, it's now open to our regional and local level organisations. And we've also included the 4 recognised Community Pest Management Groups or CPMGs, are also eligible for this round.

We've got $600,000 available in funding and projects can be between $10,000 and $50,000.

We're looking at projects to be delivered over a 12-month period for this round as well. This level of funding is designed to support meaningful and well-planned projects, to build skills, strengthen partnerships and deliver practical outcomes for communities that are dealing with established invasive species issues.

Jumping forward, thanks Kirsten.

[On-screen text – Slide 29: Grants Program Objectives]

Alex Pattinson: So, this slide is really going to go through the objectives of the grants program and hopefully give a little bit of real-world inspiration for how groups have successfully addressed them in previous rounds.

At a higher level, the projects need to align with one or more of the objectives that we've got listed within our guidelines. They sort of fall across 6 broad themes.

So, running through a couple of them, looking at capacity building, it's a really strong focus for this program. So, this includes training communities to use tools and technology like your FeralScan, WeedScan, drones, [like] we saw a photo of earlier, or building skills in best practise management.

It can also involve training community leaders or key staff in leadership and facilitation, risk management, so that we have the continued momentum and knowledge within a community beyond the life of the project.

Looking at strategic planning. This can include activities like developing a pest or weed management strategy, community action plans, and prioritisation frameworks, similar to what Lachie was talking about in an earlier slide. That helps landholders focus efforts and identify the priority species in their area so they can target what will have the greatest impact for their community.

Partnerships, it’s in the name, are central to all of this. So, we're looking at projects that genuinely bring people together, landholders, community groups, agencies, CPMGs. We want to collaborate on shared pest management challenges to really, and also really clearly define the roles of each of those partners within an application.

We want to raise awareness, and that's about improving the understanding and visibility of pest and weed issues. Successful projects in the past have done this through case study videos, we've had a communication campaign, and then also just sharing practical examples and case studies that really resonate within your community.

Finally, this is a new one. We've included agricultural values as an objective for this fifth and final round. We're wanting projects to be able to demonstrate how they're protecting and enhancing agricultural values that matter most to their community, whether it's sitting in productivity, resilience, or that long-term land stewardship.

The key takeaway from this slide is that there's no single, right type of project. Strong applications will link their activities back to these objectives, however many you choose to, and show how your project delivers the lasting benefits for land managers and communities.

[On-screen text – Slide 30: Assessment Criteria and Weighting]

Alex Pattinson: Jumping forward into assessment criteria and weighting, which is really important because it shows you where the assessors are focusing their attention when they're assessing a project.

There's 2 main parts to the assessment. Firstly, there's a yes/no eligibility check. So, applications need to meet the group eligibility requirements, which I'll run through in a moment.

They need to target species that are declared under the Catchment and Land Protection Act 1994 and also include all of the required supporting documentation that Kirsten will talk about in the application process in a little bit.

If your application doesn't meet these requirements, we can't progress it any further, regardless of how strong the project is. So, it's really important that you review the eligibility and make sure you're ticking off each of those things in your application. Once your application passes that check, it's then scored against 4 criteria that are weighted.

The largest weighting is at 50%, which is ‘aligning to and achieving program objectives’. So, projects should align with at least one of the objectives. As I said before, you can find these in the grant guidelines document, which is listed, I think it's in Section 6 and Section 7 of the guidelines, if you'd like to have further review of exactly what those objectives are stating.

The next criterion is ‘value for money’, which is weighted at 30%. So, the assessors are looking at whether your budget is reasonable, well justified, transparent, and includes how your grant funding, your in-kind contribution, partner support and how it all comes together
to deliver really strong outcomes. The value for money is assessed by looking at whether the project is transparent and has realistic costings and that each budget item is justified.

Our third criterion is ‘innovation’, which makes up 10% of the weighted score. We're not necessarily saying that projects need to be really high tech or completely new, but we wanted, they should demonstrate a thoughtful or a novel approach to build community capacity or improve establish invasive species management.

Finally, the final 10% is ‘organisational capability and capacity to deliver’. So, in that assessment, the grant assessment panel is looking at whether the organisation can deliver best practise management, has really clearly defined partnerships, adequately resourced, is able to manage any risks that are identified and can deliver outcomes that are sustainable and, as we keep saying, have that really long-term impact.

I guess the sort of way to summarise the assessment criteria is that a strong application will link their project activities, your budget and your partnerships all to back to the program objectives, whilst demonstrating that good value for money and an ability to be able to deliver your program successfully.

[On-screen text – Slide 31: Group Eligibility]

Alex Pattinson: Jumping forward, this slide is just quickly talking about group eligibility. It's a really important one for applicants to check early. To be eligible, you need to be a legally recognised organisation. So, you need to fit in one of the 3 top boxes there. You also need to hold appropriate insurance, which is that final box there.

So, if you've got sort of questions about whether you're eligible or not, our project team is more than happy to have a discussion with you, but you can also review this eligibility table within the guidelines as well.

If your group doesn't meet the requirements on your own, you can still apply under an auspice agreement. So, that's using another organisation that does meet the eligibility requirements. If you are going to auspice, you'll need to complete an auspice agreement form with the application just confirming the arrangement.

Jump forward to the next slide. Thanks, Kirsten.

[On-screen text – Slide 32: Key Information for Round 5]

Alex Pattinson: So, some key information around Round 5. We've got a couple of things that we've carried over from Round 4.

Firstly, it's for any group that's seeking support from a Community Pest Management Group. So, if you're focusing on serrated tussock, rabbits, blackberries or gorse, you'll need to complete an online expression of interest form; this is a separate step from your grant application.

So, you'll need to submit your online expression of interest form to the CPMG by the 1st of May 2026, and it just helps the CPMG understand your project and assess how they will be involved in it.

There are 3 levels of CPMG support you can request:

• It could be a collaborative, co-designed project.
• There's an opportunity for in-delivery support, which can involve a fee for service delivery, with presenters or subject matter experts.
• And then there's in-principle support, which still demonstrates that alignment to the work that the CPMGs are doing but doesn't have any sort of ground activity-based work.

I've already referred to the auspicing agreement, but, just a reminder, if you don't meet the eligibility requirements, you can complete that auspice form, getting confirmation from a group that does, to act as your auspice.

In terms of capital item funding. Last round, we increased our capital item funding from $3,000 to a $10,000 cap for any group that can demonstrate community-led action or engagement for 2 plus years. So, just quickly noting that, if you are applying for this capital item funding, you will need to link your capital items to the best practise management of your target species.

In addition to a couple highlighted things from Round 4, we've also got one new objective for Round 5. I referred to it before; it's the Agriculture Land Values objective and we've also got a new budget process. So, Kirsten will go into a little bit more detail about that in a couple of slides time.

Jumping forward again.

[On-screen text – Slide 33: Eligible Activities]

Alex Pattinson: So, we've got our eligible activities. Just a brief overview of what can be funded under Round 5. And the key principle here is that funding can only be used for items that are directly related to the delivery of the project.

I won't go through each of the list here but just know that this list here is not exhaustive but know every cost that you have must be clearly justified and, as I said, connected to delivering the outcomes of the project.

A full list of your eligible and ineligible activities is in the grant guidelines.

The rationale for this slide is really to ensure that when assessors are looking at your budget and they're checking for what's reasonable and relevant and directly supports the outcomes and the objectives of the program but also of your own project.

[On-screen text – Slide 34: Potential Outputs]

Alex Pattinson: Jumping forward again, I'll just quickly touch on outputs.

So, as part of your application, you'll be asked to nominate outputs that will feed into the delivery of your project over time. So, groups will need to clearly identify the number and the type of outputs that they intend to deliver through their project. And that just helps the assessors understand what activities will be delivered on ground and how that translate into tangible outcomes.

If your activity doesn't fit into one of these neat little ones that we've got on the slide here, that can also be seen on the Agriculture Victoria website, there is an ‘other’ option in the application form, where you can describe your own innovative idea in more detail.

The key takeaway from this is just that your outputs should be specific and realistic and linked to your project activities.

And with that, I will hand over to Kirsten to summarise a little bit around preparing your application.

[On-screen text – Slide 35: Partnerships Against Pests Application and Examples]

Kirsten Morrison: Lovely. Thanks, Alex. I will probably whip through this a bit faster than intended, but we will get there. Helps if I go in the right direction.

[On-screen text – Slide 36: Preparing a Strong Application]

Kirsten Morrison: This slide is just a quick summary of the key sections in the application form. Alex and Nicole have gone through a fair bit of this already.

Assessment criteria. Make sure your responses are directly addressing one or more of the criteria and sorry, make sure your responses address the criteria and clearly explain how your projects aligning with the PAP program objectives and outcomes. Providing a clear line of sight between what you're proposing and what the program is designed to achieve will really strengthen your application.

Secondly, Partnerships. It’s in the name; we're looking for genuine collaboration. Provide a list of your partners, you'll be asked to provide a list of your partners and collaborators, and to describe the nature of each partnership.

Alongside that, we ask that you include letters of support from your key project partners. These should confirm the type of support and level of involvement, whether that's co-delivery, expertise, in-kind contribution, or something else, just so it's clear that the partnership is real and committed. While a letter from your local MP expressing support for your project is nice, we're more interested in, and more focused on, letters from groups that you're collaborating with.

I'll talk about budget on the next slide, but basically provide enough detail, and break it down enough that you're clearly demonstrating the value for money and the feasibility of your project to the assessors.

Alex took you through the basics of the capital item funding earlier. If you're requesting the between $3 and $10,000 level of funding, you'll need to answer a few extra questions in the form. And you'll also need to provide a quote or costings for the equipment you want to buy as a supporting document.

Target species, as we've said, it needs to be one or more pest animal or weed under the CaLP act. On average, over the last few rounds, each application has targeted 4 CaLP weeds or pests. And sorry, no, deer can't be one of them. They're not a CaLP declared species.

Alex also mentioned outputs and eligible activities. Broadly, the application form has a section where you'll need to detail what activities you want to deliver as part of your project and how many of each you want to do.

Best practise management, this one needs to sort of thread through your entire project. Your project should be delivering management information that is considered by AgVic as the best practise for your target species.

Overall, if you've clearly addressed each of these elements, you'll make it much easier for the assessment panel to understand your proposal, assess it against the criteria, and see how it will deliver strong outcomes.

You'll also need to attach your supporting documents into the online form, and that they must include the budget template and the auspice form if you're being auspiced. Other supporting documents that are highly recommended include the quotes, and I've already discussed the letters of support.

[On-screen text – Slide 37: Budget Template]

Kirsten Morrison: This is the new budget form that we've created. The aim is to make it a little bit clearer for applicants and assessors. We're asking that you submit a reasonably detailed, itemised budget, either on our template, that's available on the Round 5 webpage or on your own spreadsheet, provided it's giving a similar level of detail.

So, the example on the slide is, kind of, the gold standard example we'd like, with the amount of detail, just so the assessment panel can really clearly see what you're seeking funding for and how to determine if your project is good value for money.

A couple of notes, any training or courses you want to do should ideally be subsidized, not fully funded by the grants. So, co-contribution from the participant or your group is preferable. And any capital items that you want to purchase needs to be within the total budget cost, maxing out at $50,000. And with both of these, as I said, you'll need to provide a quote as a supporting document.

[On-screen text – Slide 38: Budget Form]

Kirsten Morrison: This slide takes you from the [budget] template that we've created, to the online form version. And, as you can see, the figures map on pretty closely or pretty easily.
You'll need to provide that breakdown, and the total project value will automatically calculate from these 3 boxes and it should match up [with the bottom right cell], if you're using our form with the total figure in that one.

[On-screen text – Slide 39: Lessons from Successful Applicants]

Kirsten Morrison: Next slide, these are some lessons from previous applicants. As Nic mentioned, we ask for feedback after each round and also in each report that you complete. We compile it, and these are just some examples. One that is new from the most recent lot [of feedback] is that, where possible, plan for face-to-face activities. We've got evidence that says in-person events are achieving a stronger participation and provide more meaningful engagement than virtual delivery alone.

The rest are fairly self-explanatory and given that we're running tight on time, I'm going to move forward.

[On-screen text – Slide 40: Application Process]

Kirsten Morrison: This is our sort of suggested application process. If you haven't already looked at the guidelines, please do. They're available on the Round 5 web page on our AgVic website.

Main one is probably that if once you've got to the point of having a draft project proposal, contact your local AgVic engagement officer and you can discuss it and get some feedback. They can also provide support and resources that might be able to connect you with other groups.

Just a reminder, if you're wanting CPMG support, you need to submit that by Friday, 1st of May.

If you've already got a DEECA Grants Online account, log back into that one. If not, create an account. The links for getting into the Grants Online page are available on our [Round 5] web page as well.

You don't have to complete the whole application in one go. It does have a ‘save a draft’ option.

Yeah, make sure you've finalised your application, uploaded all of your supporting documents, and actually pressed submit by 11.59 on Monday the 11th of May, as we can't accept any late submissions.

[On-screen text – Slide 41:Funding Distribution]

Kirsten Morrison: Jumping ahead a little bit, but this is how the funding will be distributed this round, as everyone will be doing a 12-month project.

So, you'll get 90% of the funding in once your grant agreement's been executed.

Six months in, you'll do a mid-project report, which will give you the final 10%.

And then there's a final report that's due about a month after your project finishes. If you fail to submit your final report, that will render you ineligible for any further funding.

And I'll now hand back to Alex for questions.

[On-screen text – Slide 42:Wrap up]

Alex Pattinson: Lovely. Thank you, Kirsten.

We'll jump through a couple of slides. So, we'll wrap up today's webinar. As Kirsten said, we'll move on to a Q&A.

[On-screen text – Slide 43: Questions and Resources]

Alex Pattinson: And I'll also point you to a couple of key resources available to you. Just a reminder, the recording, transcript and slides from today's session will also be made available on the AgVic website. We'll also email a link out to everybody who has registered today. So, if you do need to duck off knowing that we've just got a couple of minutes left, you'll still be able to get the full recording available and sent to you via email.

So, our AgVic website has got more detail on the Partnerships Against Pests program that Nicole spoke about earlier. We've run through a lot of content on the grants program, but if you are looking to refer back to some of the things that we spoke about today, or look into anything else in particular, that is all available on our web page and also within the guidelines.

However, if you are just looking to ask a couple of questions or [have] an in-person conversation, you can definitely call up our engagement officers.

We've also got our grants team and our project support team. And there's also the grants online support available as well if you're having issues getting into your portal.

With that, I think I might see what questions we've got in the chat. Now is a really good time to pop anything in, if you do have any burning questions.

I do see we've got one from Gavin who is asking about gorse. After working with gorse for a number of years and seeing an increasing amount of gorse. So yeah, Gavin, absolutely know where you're coming from there. Gorse has a persistent seed bank that can last a long time, and last within the soil for, I think, is it like 20-25 years. Please don't quote me on that. I'm not a scientific expert, but I know that it's a really long period. So, gorse is really persistent and it stays in the soil for a period of time and [can] then grow after disturbance. Lachie spoke about bushfires in the Stawell and Halls Gap area over the last few years. Things like bushfires and fire can disturb soil and have gorse growth. As can movement of soil, if you're having the movement of soil for building or fencing projects and that sort of thing. So, definitely know where you're coming from there.

I see that you've also sort of referred to lifestyle properties having gorse and I know that a lot of our projects have focused in on the different land use from landholders across the state and I know that it's been a focus of many projects is trying to engage those new landholders
to be able to really effectively manage their property and the established invasive species that they're finding on their property. So yeah, if you're engaged in a community group, definitely support and encourage the idea of creating a project where you're looking to support those people within your community that may not yet have the capability or the knowledge to be able to manage particularly gorse on their properties.

I hope that answers your question.

I've also got another question for wondering about the inclusion of salaries for project officers. Is there any different for casual positions?

So, a salary for project officer can absolutely be included within your budget. It is, essentially, for the project officers to deliver the components of the Partnerships Against Pests project. You can include the salary for that project officer for those components. If they're doing other work, external, that needs to be supported by another funding source. But for any work that they're doing within the PAP project can definitely be paid for within the budget. There's no difference for a casual position. It's just the time spent for that officer; however their recruitment may look, is able to be supported by the Partnerships Against Pests funding within your budget. I hope that answers your question, Elle.

I'll just give it another minute to see if any other questions come through the chat, but
whilst I do, I would just really like to thank everyone for taking the time to join us today and for your interest or your continued interest in the Partnerships Against Pests grant program. We really appreciate the work that community groups are doing across Victoria to manage establishing invasive species and to engage their communities and we're really looking forward to seeing what projects come forward for this final round.

As I said before, if you've got questions after the session, don't hesitate to get in touch with Agriculture Victoria. You can have a look onto the website to get our contact details. Yeah, thank you very much for joining us today.

A huge thank you to Nicole and Kirsten for their work in putting this webinar together and all of the slides. It's been fantastic.

Very much appreciate Lachlan McIntyre from Project Platypus for coming on and presenting as well for us. It's been invaluable to have a to have a presentation from someone within community, so that we have community learning from community. So, it's really appreciated you giving up your time to create a presentation as well, Lachie.

We wish you all the best with your applications, but we'll switch off for now and thanks very much.

Lachlan McIntyre: Just quickly, Alex, if anyone has any questions about what we got up to, I'm happy for you to share my email around.

Alex S Pattinson: Yeah. Brilliant. Thanks, Lachlan.

Lachlan McIntyre: Happy to answer questions if people want to give me a call. Thanks.

Alex Pattinson: Cheers. Thank you. Thanks all.

Nicole Garfi: Thanks, everyone.