WOW Project: Landcare Walk & Talk with Louise Shepherd

🌟 Landcare Walk & Talk 🌟

Louise Shepherd is a 65-year-old guide and Natimuk resident in Australia. She has lived in the area throughout her climbing life and co-ordinates Friends of Arapiles activities, a local environmental initiative that aims to restore the environment. Louise began climbing in 1978 and still climbs to this day – even through radiation and chemotherapy for a sarcoma cancer in her arm. Louise’s resume includes being the strongest female climber in the world in the early 1980’s, the first female ascent of Separate Reality in Yosemite, and establishing string of hard, often on gear, first ascents in South Eastern Australia. Louise has been a leading figure in the Australian climbing scene and still climbs and guides at her local crag, Mount Arapiles.

Join us for a landcare walk and talk guided by Lou Shepherd. This is a casual, beginner-friendly stroll around Dyuritte, looking at some landcare projects with a view over the broader landscape.

🌞 Equipment: Bring a water bottle, comfortable shoes and sun protection.

⚡️ Meeting point: Meet at the bottom of the Pines campground, near the communal sink.

🌟 Accessibility: All abilities welcome, beginner friendly activity involving walking along a bush trail.

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⛰ WOW Project (Women's Outdoor Wellness Project) is an event for local women to connect with the outdoors and each other, across Natimuk & Dyuritte.

It includes a multi-day program for you to try a range of activities, which you can book free of charge or opt to donate an amount of your choosing to Friends of Arapiles.

All donations will be made to Friends of Arapiles, a non-profit group run by volunteers who raise money to care for the mountain and are passionate about landcare education.

⚡️ Instagram: @wowproject2024
⚡️ Website: www.climbingqts.com/wow-project-2024

🖤 We acknowledge the Wotjobaluk, Jaadwa, Jadawadjali, Wergaia and Jupagulk Peoples (collectively Wotjobaluk) of Dyuritte, who are the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we will gather. As Indigenous and non-Indigenous people together we have a sense of the importance of the country upon which we are standing, where exploration has taken place over many thousands of years. Let us sense the land where we will meet, learn and play, acknowledge to whom it belongs and pay our respects to their Elders and all Elders, past and present.

💚 WOW Project is proudly funded by the Victorian Department of Families, Fairness and Housing, West Wimmera Health Service and The North Face. It is auspiced by ACT Natimuk and will be delivered by ClimbingQTs in partnership alongside Melbourne Climbing School/The Climbing Company.